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Starting on July 28, forest fires broke out in Turkey, Greece and other countries. Later, as the heat wave shifted westward, more than 10 countries including Italy, Algeria, Morocco, Spain, France, etc. have experienced forest fires one after another. In Greece alone, the fire destroyed more than 100,000 hectares of forest and farmland, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called this the country’s “largest ecological disaster in decades”.

Since July, wildfire disasters have occurred in many parts of Italy. In late July, wildfires in Sardinia, Italy, continued to burn for several days, causing at least 1,500 residents to evacuate and about 20,000 hectares of land burned. The local government immediately declared a state of emergency.

The severe situation continued until early August. From Sicily in the south, Abruzzo in the central region to Emilia-Romagna in the north, wildfires have been encountered in many places. Southern Sicily was the worst hit, and the regional government declared a state of emergency.

Since August this year, about 600 wildfires have occurred in Greece. According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System, in less than two weeks, nearly 100,000 hectares of forest and farmland in Greece were burned. The speed and the area affected by the disaster exceeded the levels of previous years. At least two people were killed and dozens of people were injured. According to data from the National Astronomical Observatory of Athens, the most serious wildfire recently occurred on Evia, the second largest island in Greece, covering an area of approximately 46,000 hectares.

A wildfire broke out in the Var province in southern France on the 16th, killing 2 people and injuring dozens of others. According to the fire report in the Var province, the fire that lasted for several days destroyed more than 7,000 hectares of land in the Var province. Among them, half of the 5,300 hectares of Mor Plains Nature Reserve was burned.

The supply of timber has been blocked one after another under the influence of continuous forest fires. What makes the situation worse is that under the blessing of these factors, many European timber exporting countries have begun to advocate the protection of the ecological environment and vigorously support the development of the domestic timber processing industry. The timber export business has begun to be controlled or even stopped. It's more severe.

In addition, in July this year, the European Commission passed the "2030 EU Forest Strategy". The strategy promises to strictly protect virgin forests and primary forests, restore degraded forests, and ensure the sustainable management of them by protecting the important ecosystem services that forests provide and society depends on. This strategy will control timber resources more strictly, and continuous forestry development will also reduce the amount of timber felled, and the supply of logs may be reduced for a period of time.

European forest fires and forest development strategies will have a considerable impact on domestic log importers. In this environment, businesses need to expand their import sources in a timely manner and be prepared to respond to changes.