Key messages
- Nearly 70,000 hectares burned across the region in the first half of 2025.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia experienced the most severe fire conditions to date.
- 90% of fires human-caused; weak early-warning systems persist.
- Urgent need to shift from emergency suppression to prevention and regional coordination.
Executive summary
The 2025 landscape fire season in the Western Balkans has already evolved into one of the most serious in recent memory. Driven by prolonged drought, record temperatures, and widespread human-caused ignitions, the first half of the year has seen almost 70,000 hectares of land burned across the region. Every country has been affected. Bosnia and Herzegovina has recorded the largest area burned so far, while Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo are each reporting escalating losses and mounting pressure on local authorities and communities.
This mid-year analysis examines the scale, drivers, and impacts of the 2025 fire season and outlines the strategic policy implications for governments and regional partners seeking to strengthen fire resilience.
Situation overview
By mid-July 2025, landscape fires had become a defining environmental and social challenge for the Western Balkans. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 20,600 hectares had been burned, with large incidents reported near Trebinje, Gacko, and Rogatica. Serbia is also experiencing one of its most severe fire seasons in recent memory. Nearly 16,500 hectares have been lost to flames, and authorities recorded over 4,100 fire incidents in just ten days, 628 of which occurred in a two-day period. The Toplica District was forced to declare a state of emergency covering the municipalities of Žitorađa, Kuršumlija, and Prokuplje.
Montenegro and North Macedonia each faced around 10,000 hectares scorched in the first half of the year, with several fires threatening major urban areas. In Montenegro, a large fire broke out near Podgorica, with further incidents near Cetinje, Nikšić, and Tuzi. North Macedonia faced similar challenges, including intense fire activity near Skopje and large-scale outbreaks in Makedonski Brod, Dojran, Prilep, and Staro Nagoričane.
Albania, meanwhile, has lost an estimated 7,540 hectares of land, much of it in the central and southern regions where orchards and olive groves—critical to the rural economy—were damaged. Kosovo has faced an alarming surge of outbreaks, with 300 fires recorded in five days and 66 reported on a single day, 7 July. By mid-year, about 4,643 hectares had been burned in Kosovo, including the destruction of wheat crops in the village of Kovrage (Istog).
Drivers and impacts
The data highlight that fires in the Western Balkans are no longer isolated, seasonal disruptions. Nearly 90 percent are caused by human activity – agricultural and pasture burning, unmanaged waste, or sparks from outdated infrastructure – yet these ignitions occur against a backdrop of record heat, dry vegetation, and high winds. This combination turns local incidents into large-scale disasters.
The effects now extend well beyond forests. Hundreds of homes, farm buildings, and agricultural assets have been damaged or destroyed. The fires expose and exacerbate long-term vulnerabilities linked to climate change, poor land-use planning, and low public awareness. Rural communities in particular face significant risks to livelihoods and health.
Policy implications
As fire seasons start earlier and last longer, governments in the Western Balkans are increasingly recognising that emergency suppression alone is insufficient. The need to transition to proactive fire management is urgent. Through the Landscape Fire Management in the Western Balkans (LFMWB) Programme, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), countries have begun shifting toward prevention, community engagement, and cross-border coordination. The Programme promotes a holistic, landscape fire management (LFM) approach that addresses the resilience of forests and landscapes while benefiting the communities that depend on them.
National authorities, local communities, scientific institutions, and practitioners are collaborating on context-specific reports, gap analyses, and strategies to guide LFM and adaptive landscape management. Capacity-building initiatives and community-based projects have already empowered local actors to take an active role in prevention and preparedness, reducing fire risk while advancing broader goals of sustainable land management and climate adaptation.
Existing early warning systems require regular updates and more effective. Fires are becoming a structural feature of the region’s changing climate and an indicator of both land-use fragility and social vulnerability.
Recommendations
In light of the above analysis, several priorities emerge for policymakers and partners across the Western Balkans. First, there is an urgent need to invest in modern, interoperable early warning and monitoring systems, allowing authorities to anticipate and respond to outbreaks more effectively. Second, governments should scale up preventive measures – improved waste management, and vegetation control near critical infrastructure, mapping fire-prone areas, silvicultural measures, firebreaks, fuel reduction, planting more resilient and resistant tree species – to address the human factors behind most ignitions.
Third, cross-border coordination must be strengthened. Fires frequently spread across administrative and national boundaries, and mutual assistance mechanisms, joint training exercises, and harmonised response protocols can greatly improve effectiveness. Fourth, community engagement should be deepened. Public information campaigns, volunteer fire brigades, and participatory land management schemes can help shift local behaviour and build resilience at the ground level.
Finally, LFM should be embedded within broader climate adaptation and land-use planning frameworks. Integrating forestry, agriculture, infrastructure, and rural development policies will help ensure that landscapes are managed to reduce flammability, protect livelihoods, and safeguard biodiversity. These measures, taken together, can move the region from a reactive posture to a preventive and adaptive fire management model, reducing future losses and building a more resilient Western Balkans.