Joan Santana is head of the Balearics Forestry Service. He says that the forested area of the islands has doubled over the past fifty years but that what should be good news comes with an increased risk.
"We have more forest, but at the same time we have an increasingly vulnerable forest because we are suffering from a serious problem of rural abandonment, leaving the forest to its fate. As there is more forested land, the effects of fires are more extensive and their intensity also increases because of the accumulated biomass. And this dangerous cocktail is multiplied by the effects of climate change."
Some figures - The Balearic Islands have 500,000 hectares of land, of which 223,000 are forested, equivalent to 44% of the total surface area. The rest is agricultural land or productive land, housing, roads, etc. Only seven per cent of the forested area is in the hands of public authorities - the government, the island councils or the town halls.
The level of private ownership is problematic both in terms of fire risk and of forest and public health, such as with the spread of pests like the processionary caterpillar.
There is a Strategic Management Forest Risk Prevention Plan for the Balearics. This has identified strategic areas for particular intervention. These areas are both public and private.
Santana explains: "The owners of land in these vulnerable areas rarely deny access to the teams that create fire protection strips. The vast majority are aware and do not object, although there may be some new owners from other European countries who have not internalised this risk culture." It is in fact something of an anomaly that owners of rural properties in the Balearics are not obliged to create firebreaks; they are in other Spanish regions.
He insists that private owners must be involved in managing their forests - for safety and conservation reasons. There is nothing more removed from conservation than abandonment, and he points to an "urban" mentality that doesn't understand the forest. This mentality is that not a single tree should be cut down. The reality is different.
"Sometimes it is necessary to do so in order to save millions of trees. The key is to generate a bio-economy linked to the forest so that the landscape of the future is as resistant and resilient to forest fires as possible."
But is there really a bio-economy in the Balearics? "Companies making a business from the forest can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It is a marginal and residual sector that barely invests in innovation and training. Many are stuck in the past, in the use of forests for firewood and pallets. The future is in biomass boilers." And Santana believes that every home in the Balearics could have a biomass boiler.