With the summer holiday season beginning in France, the country’s government is running an annual campaign to warn individuals, businesses, and industries about the dangers of forest fires.
The ‘ayons les bons reflexes’ (let’s do the right thing) campaign is an annual event in its eighth year, that promotes ways to prevent forest fires and also what to do if one breaks out.
One of the campaign’s official partners is the open-air tourism association, Federation Nationale de L’Hotellerie de Plein Air (FNHPA), which is helping to spread the message to campsites, holiday parks, and other outdoor tourism accommodation providers around the country.
The key messages of the campaign in order to reduce the risk of forest fires include carrying out barbecues and fires on terraces and well away from vegetation, disposing of cigarette butts correctly in ashtrays, and ensuring that any construction or building work that could cause sparks is away from dry grass or vegetation. In all three examples, fire extinguishers should be on hand.
The French Government website has a host of communication tools to help businesses and individuals spread the message, including some specifically for those in the camping and tourism industry.
In addition to the campaign, weather service Météo-France has been broadcasting daily forest weather reports since 3 June 2025, a service designed to inform residents and tourists about the risk of fire in mainland France and Corsica.
The forest weather forecast is available every day in the late afternoon on the meteofrance.com website and on the Météo-France mobile app for the next two days, in the form of two maps. The fire danger level is specified by the department on a four-level scale: low (green), moderate (yellow), high (orange) and very high.
France is one of the most heavily forested countries in Europe, with 17.5 million hectares of forest within its mainland territory and Corsica.
With drought conditions and heat waves becoming more common occurrences in Europe each summer, the danger of forest fires increases.
