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This research compares fire severity in protected and non-protected areas during the 2025 megafires in Spain, aiming to understand how protection status impacts ecological outcomes during extreme wildfires.

June 4, 2026Fire Ecology1 citationsOpen Access

Protected and non-protected areas burned at a similar fire severity within the 2025 megafires in Spain

NQNatalia QuinteroUniversity of Castilla-La Mancha OVOlga ViedmaUniversity of Castilla-La Mancha JMJosé M. MorenoReal Academia Española

Key Points

This research compares fire severity in protected and non-protected areas during the 2025 megafires in Spain, aiming to understand how protection status impacts ecological outcomes during extreme wildfires.
Analyzed megafire data from 2025 in northern Spain affecting 336,000 ha, including 72.5% classified as megafires.
Used satellite-derived data to quantify fire severity via the Relativized Burn Ratio and intersected with land cover and protected area maps.
Applied generalized additive models to evaluate the relationship between fire severity, fire size, and land use.
Fire severity was consistently high to very high across protected and non-protected areas, with no significant prefire differences in vegetation or terrain.
Natura 2000 sites made up 44% of the burned area, affecting 14 endangered and 51 vulnerable species.
Mean fire severity increased with fire size, showing significant variation among land use-land cover types, but protection status did not affect fire severity.

Abstract

Abstract Background Extreme wildfires are becoming increasingly common worldwide, raising concerns about the ability of protected areas to maintain their ecological role under a changing climate. Protected areas are often assumed to burn at higher fire severity due to greater fuel continuity, steeper terrain, and lower land-use intensity, among others. However, broad-scale comparisons between protected and non-protected areas frequently fail to control for vegetation composition, fire-relevant site characteristics, or fire size. In addition, protected and non-protected sectors within the same wildfire share identical fire conditions and therefore cannot be treated as statistically independent. Results The 2025 extreme wildfire event in northern Spain offered a natural experiment involving multiple large fires to address these issues. During this episode, the Fire Weather Index and short-term drought conditions were extreme, while long-term drought remained near normal. A total of 336,000 ha burned, 72.5% of which was consumed by megafires (>10,000 ha), setting a new national record. We intersected wildfire perimeters with land cover layer, protected areas network, and regional maps of threatened (endangered and vulnerable) species in Castilla y León. Fire severity was quantified using satellite-derived perimeters and the Relativized Burn Ratio. Natura 2000 sites accounted for 44% of the burned area, and habitats belonging to 14 endangered and 51 vulnerable species were affected. Paired comparisons between protected and non-protected areas within each fire revealed no consistent prefire differences in vegetation or terrain, except steeper slopes in protected areas. Fire severity was uniformly high to very high across all categories, irrespective of protection or conservation status. Generalized additive models further showed that mean fire severity increased with fire size and varied significantly among land use-land cover types, whereas neither protection nor conservation status had a significant effect. These findings indicate that under extreme wildfire conditions, protection status may not affect fire-severity patterns.

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