{"id":304543,"date":"2026-01-26T15:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/304543\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T15:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:31:08","slug":"europes-forests-where-are-they-growing-fastest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/304543\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe’s forests: Where are they growing fastest?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By&nbspAlessio Dell’Anna<\/a>&nbsp&&nbspBaptiste Goudier<\/b><\/p>\n

\n Published on
\n 26\/01\/2026 – 12:02 GMT+1\n <\/p>\n

The EU’s woodland is marginally growing, with a reported 0.1% year-on-year increase<\/strong><\/a>, according to Eurostat.<\/p>\n

Taking into account both forest expansion and losses, whether from logging or natural events like fires, droughts and pests, Ireland leads, way above the EU average, with a net 1.2% annual growth in wooded area.<\/p>\n

Next are Estonia (+0.33%), Bulgaria (+0.26%) and France (+0.25%). Only a few countries reported (minimal) drops \u2014 all between -0.06% and -0.01% \u2014 namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and Poland.<\/p>\n

What’s the controversy behind Portugal’s forest growth?<\/p>\n

Woodland losses aside, however, Portugal’s growth rate is unmatched anywhere in Europe.<\/p>\n

In just a year, its wooded area rose by an impressive 11%, according to Eurostat<\/strong><\/a>, but why is this the case?<\/p>\n

The country’s boom comes after years of reforestation efforts, but it is also owed to its forests’ relatively young age and especially the widespread use of eucalyptus.<\/p>\n

This exceptionally fast-growing tree, native to Oceania, has made Portugal one of Europe’s leading paper producers, but has also brought with it massive environmental threats.<\/p>\n

Its leaves, rich in highly flammable oils, have multiplied wildfire risks exponentially. On top of that, eucalyptus requires enormous amounts of water, drying up the soil beneath.<\/p>\n

How is Portugal trying to change its green areas for good?<\/p>\n

In 2025 alone, the country lost 263,000 hectares to fires<\/strong><\/a>, the highest share in the EU relative to its size, roughly eight times the size of Malta, according to Copernicus.<\/p>\n

Now the country is trying to turn the tide by improving forest mapping and \u2014 crucially \u2014 incentivising the planting of native species like holm and cork oak.<\/p>\n

In November, Portugal’s nature conservation institute ICNF distributed more than 100,000 trees and shrubs across the country, including maritime pines, ash trees and rosemary.<\/p>\n

Urban and regional parks can also join the project by submitting their applications to the Floresta Comun Project<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the EU, as well as Portugal’s national organisation, like the Foundation for Science and Technology, have been rolling out hundreds of thousands of euros in schemes<\/strong> <\/a>aimed at oak protection and regeneration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By&nbspAlessio Dell’Anna&nbsp&&nbspBaptiste Goudier Published on 26\/01\/2026 – 12:02 GMT+1 The EU’s woodland is marginally growing, with a reported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[2594,18,440,24500,19,17,6642,37754,133,4239],"class_list":{"0":"post-304543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-data","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-forests","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-portugal","15":"tag-portugal-wildfires","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-wildfires"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115962123705309694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}