Majorca’s high season of forest fires is just weeks away as the island prepares to welcome flocks of sun loving tourists. Joan Santana, head of the Balearic Government's forest management service, is warning that Majorca’s forest fires are “a ticking time bomb” if they are not managed and looked after.

This year the island’s high risk season of forest fires begins on May 1, two weeks later than last year. This is due to the island grappling with a wet spring. Last month  Palma Airport saw the largest amount of rainfall in Majorca with 113 litres compared to the usual 23 litres per square meter, which means it rained about five times more than normal. Whilst some Spanish cities experienced "double the usual amount for spring as a whole", Ruben del Campo, a meteorologist and spokesperson for Aemet told the Express.

However, the story was very different in 2023 and 2024, when Majorca saw a lack of rainfall, resulting in many dry and dead trees. Although the island's trees are adapted to warm conditions, Mr Santana wants they “can't withstand everything, especially the continued droughts caused by climate change".

The Balearics have seen a significant increase in the amount of forest area. Between 1971 and 2010, the area has seen an increase of 185,000 hectares of actual forest.

Mr Santana said: "In the Tramuntana Mountains alone there was an increase of 78%. We have more forests and they are denser. The problem is that we are turning our backs on the forest, we are not taking advantage of them as a resource. And if forests are not managed, they become a ticking time bomb.

"Forest areas in the Balearics are growing at a rate of 1,100 hectares each year due to the abandonment of primary activities, and that means a loss of three hectares of agricultural land every day.

We'll have gone from 34 to 67 million trees. We have 2,260 more forest trees every day, which translates into 127,500 cubic metres more forest mass each year. As I say, it's a time bomb."

What is of an increasing concern to Mr Santana is the thought of fires getting our of control which he belives "could come in time".

He said: "Effective response to these large fires needs conditions to change radically - more moisture, lower temperatures and fires reaching areas with limited plant fuel. But we have densities of 45 tonnes of accumulated biomass per hectare, when the ideal would be 15-20."

Although the Balearics has not seen fires in the past three years Mr Santana believes this is "luck" and thanks to a "greater public awareness about prevention".