WWF calls for eucalyptus plantation reform in Andalusia

WWF España has called for an urgent reform of forest management and eucalyptus plantation models in Andalusia following the Niebla fire in Huelva, which destroyed 33,000 hectares. Diana Colomina, WWF Spain's forest program manager, stated that the disaster is the result of decades of accumulated vegetation fuel, lack of preventive management, and the abandonment of rural areas.

Approximately 40% of the affected forest area consisted of eucalyptus plantations. While the President of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, acknowledged the need to address abandoned plantations and announced a plan to reduce these masses, WWF argues that the issue is structural. The organization is calling for strict limits on eucalyptus expansion, a ban on new plantations in protected or native forest areas, and the restoration of economically unproductive plots.