Europe has better wildfire technology but too few people to manage its forests
When wildfires break out, technology can provide an increasingly detailed picture of what is happening. Satellites can detect heat from space, artificial intelligence can help identify thermal anomalies, and advanced models can estimate how flames might behave as wind and terrain change.
An earlier MTN article examined how companies including Germany’s OroraTech and UK start-up Pinepeak are using deeptech to address Europe’s worsening wildfire problem. OroraTech combines its own thermal infrared satellite data with information from other Earth observation sources to detect and monitor fires. Its sensors can detect heat during the day, at night and through smoke.
Pinepeak is developing physics-based, AI-enhanced software to assess and forecast wildfire risk. Its approach combines jet engine inspired modelling with Earth observation, climate data and advanced computing.
These technologies could give emergency services earlier warnings and more useful information. But technology addresses only part of wildfire prevention. Long before a satellite detects a fire, someone needs to manage the vegetation that could feed it, monitor forest health and keep access routes open for firefighters.
Europe may be acquiring better wildfire technology while losing some of the people needed to act on what it reveals.
Europe’s forestry workforce is shrinking
The evidence does not point to one uniform forestry labour crisis across Europe. Conditions differ considerably between countries and regions, while inconsistent workforce data makes direct comparisons difficult. Nevertheless, the broader direction is troubling.
According to Eurostat, overall EU employment increased by 8.4% between 2012 and 2022. Employment in forestry and logging moved the other way, falling by 10.1%. In 2022, the sector had approximately 446,000 employees and 94,000 self-employed workers.
A broader study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Economic Commission for Europe found that European forest-sector employment fell by 18% between 2008 and 2016. The structure of the workforce also changed. Since 2000, public-sector forest employment in Europe has declined by around 60%, while private-sector employment has almost tripled.
More recent research suggests that recruitment is not keeping pace with the sector’s changing responsibilities. A 2026 Forest Europe policy brief identifies an ageing workforce, approaching retirements, falling enrolment in higher forestry education and persistent shortages in important operational and technical roles. Low pay, seasonal employment, precarious self-employment and difficult working conditions make attracting younger workers harder.
“The clearest evidence is the combination of shrinking forestry employment, weak recruitment and rising demand for skilled forest work,” Marc Jessel, Managing Director and Chief Engagement Officer at the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), told MTN.
Some countries already face particularly visible recruitment pressures. A 2025 report by Finnish forestry consultancy Tapio estimated that Finland’s sector needs to recruit up to 1,000 new workers annually to compensate for retirements and other losses from the skilled workforce. The report called for increased international recruitment. However, the available evidence is not sufficiently consistent to declare any one European country the worst affected.
Why forestry workers are essential to wildfire prevention
A smaller workforce does not simply mean fewer trees being harvested. Modern forestry includes protecting biodiversity, restoring damaged land, managing water and soil, monitoring pests and disease, and helping forests withstand a changing climate.
For wildfire prevention, some of the most important activities are also among the most labour-intensive.
“The most constrained activities are the practical, on-the-ground tasks that require trained individuals: thinning and fuel-load reduction, monitoring forest health, restoring degraded areas, planning regeneration, and carrying out prevention work in response to identified risks,” Jessel said.
“These are not tasks that can be postponed indefinitely; delays can allow risks to build up across landscapes.”
Responsible forest management cannot make a forest fireproof. Under hotter, drier and windier conditions, even well-managed forests can burn. It can, however, influence the amount and arrangement of combustible vegetation, the ability of emergency teams to reach an affected area and the intensity with which a fire moves through parts of the landscape.
Wildfire prevention measures may include managing excessive accumulations of dry vegetation, maintaining tracks and emergency access routes, monitoring drought stress and disease, controlling visitor activity during periods of extreme risk, and removing waste that could provide an ignition source.
What works in one forest may be damaging in another. A dense Mediterranean plantation, a mixed Central European woodland and a northern boreal forest do not carry the same risks or require the same interventions.
Reducing wildfire risk without damaging biodiversity
Calls to remove vegetation can provoke understandable concern. Dead wood, shrubs and undergrowth can provide habitats, return nutrients to the soil and form part of a healthy forest ecosystem. Clear too much and an attempt to reduce fire risk can damage biodiversity, increase erosion or make the forest less resilient.
“The aim should not be to clear vegetation indiscriminately, but to manage fuel in a targeted and ecologically informed way,” Jessel explained.
That could mean removing excessive dry material or invasive plants while protecting native species and encouraging natural regeneration. The objective is to reduce the potential intensity of a fire without turning a complex ecosystem into a cleared or heavily simplified landscape.
Portugal demonstrates why this can be difficult. According to FSC, forests in the north and centre of the country are often divided into small private holdings, many situated on steep slopes that are hard to reach. Limited economic returns can discourage owners from managing their land, allowing invasive species and combustible vegetation to accumulate.
FSC Portugal is working with WWF Portugal on the Common Forest Agenda, an initiative promoting land management intended to reduce wildfire risk. FSC has also highlighted examples of forest restoration and invasive-species control in areas threatened by fire.
FSC has an institutional interest here: its certification system sets environmental and social requirements for participating forest managers. Its standards require managers to assess threats to forests, including wildfire, and take appropriate action. The organisation stresses that those responses must be tailored to national and local ecosystems rather than imposed as a single European formula.
Forest managers need ecological and digital skills
The image of forestry as a largely manual occupation centred on planting and harvesting is increasingly outdated. Forest managers are now expected to understand fire behaviour, drought stress, pest outbreaks, biodiversity, hydrology and community safety. They must also weigh objectives that do not always fit comfortably together, including conservation, carbon storage, recreation and timber production.
Digital capabilities are becoming part of that mix. Satellite imagery, drones, geographic information systems, connected sensors and AI-assisted analysis can help identify stressed vegetation, map risks and direct limited teams towards areas that may need closer inspection.
“Digital tools have the power to help improve monitoring, map risks and support better planning—but these tools do not replace human judgement,” Jessel said.
A risk map cannot determine by itself which vegetation should be removed without damaging a particular habitat. A satellite cannot negotiate with fragmented groups of landowners, incorporate knowledge held by local communities or carry out physical work on a steep hillside. Technology can extend the reach of skilled workers; it cannot eliminate the need for them.
That makes Europe’s forestry challenge both numerical and educational. The sector needs sufficient people, but it also needs workers able to combine field experience with ecological knowledge, climate adaptation and digital tools.
Attracting the next generation of foresters
Governments and forest owners therefore face a less glamorous investment decision than purchasing new satellites, sensors or software. They need to make forestry a more attractive and credible career.
Jessel argues that this will require modernised curricula, more practical training and apprenticeship opportunities, and stronger links between forestry schools, employers and public agencies. Safe working conditions and fair employment also matter. Recruitment campaigns will achieve little if the jobs themselves remain insecure, poorly paid or perceived as having limited prospects.
Forest Europe has similarly called for courses to include digitalisation, AI and green skills, alongside lifelong learning for the existing workforce. It also wants better workforce data. Current statistics often provide little more than headcounts and can miss contractors, seasonal workers and newer jobs connected with ecosystem services.
The wildfire technologies now emerging across Europe remain valuable. Earlier detection can buy emergency services time, while better modelling can help them anticipate how a fire might develop. But Europe cannot monitor its way out of a forest-management problem.
Satellites may show where the risk is growing. Algorithms may help decide where to look first. Preventing that risk from accumulating still depends on trained people willing and able to go into the forest and do the work.
Further reading on MoveTheNeedle.news:
Europe battles fast-moving wildfires. Can deeptech come to the rescue?