Spain's Devastating Wildfire Summer: An Economic and Environmental Toll

Thu Sep 18 2025 12:05:23 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

This summer, wildfires ravaged the north-west of Spain, burning thousands of hectares and threatening local livelihoods. Farmers, honey producers, and the tourism sector are grappling with the aftermath of this unprecedented disaster.

The summer of 2025 was marked by unprecedented wildfires across Spain, particularly affecting the north-western regions. Over 20,000 hectares were scorched, leading to mass evacuations and devastating losses for farmers and local businesses. The impact on honey production and livestock is severe, while the tourism sector faces significant economic losses as regions reliant on rural tourism suffer from a drastic decline in visitors due to smoke and fire damage.

José Antonio Bruña, a honey producer, is standing on a hillside where he keeps his beehives near the small Spanish village of Porto de Sanabria.

He points to the exact spot, a few hundred metres away on the mountain opposite, where lightning struck a few weeks earlier, igniting a wildfire that had disastrous consequences.

This August has been a nightmare for me personally, but also for the local farmers and everyone here in the village, he says. I'm 47 and I've never seen a fire that fierce.

It ended up burning more than 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) of land and causing thousands of people to be evacuated from villages in this farming-heavy corner of north-western Spain, near the Portuguese border.

But it was just one of several vast blazes which have devastated Spain this summer, burning 0.8% of the country's surface area.

The most heavily affected zones were here in the north-west, including the regions of Castilla y León and Galicia, plus the western region of Extremadura.

Honey production, which is an important industry in rural north-west Spain, was one of the main casualties of the summer. Mr Bruña knows people who have lost up to 400 beehives in the fires.

Fortunately, his own 1,500 hives are intact, because the fire stopped just metres away from the fields where he keeps them. But the damage caused to nearby flora will have serious repercussions for his business.

I calculate that this year I'm going to lose 50% of my honey production, at the very least, because of the fires, and the following year the same, or even worse, Mr Bruña says. This is because of the time it will take for the flowers that bees need to grow back again in surrounding fields.

Many livestock farmers have also been forced to move their animals in recent weeks, both to avoid fires and to ensure they can access unburned pasture.

Fernando García, a cow farmer from Castromil, shared his plight, detailing losses of around 30 cattle this summer, and the psychological toll the fires have taken on farmers who live in constant fear of their animals and property.

Things couldn't have been worse for farmers [this summer], it was one fire after another, says García.

The COAG farmers' association estimated that the summer's wildfires have caused damages worth at least €600 million. The biggest costs have been burned fields and properties, alongside the economic impact on the tourism industry.

As wildfires swept through areas popular for rural tourism, such as the Sanabria Lake region, local businesses faced catastrophic declines in revenue, with one restaurant owner claiming to have lost €80,000 due to a forced shutdown.

This situation has heightened the divide between urban and rural Spain, where residents have long complained about insufficient support and infrastructure as they face the devastating effects of climate change.