PAMIF and PTME after the 2026 Guideline: what the law requires and how many municipalities still lack a plan

What changes with the 2026 Basic Guideline

In April 2026, the Council of Ministers approved an update to the Basic Guideline for Civil Protection Planning against wildfire risk, published as the Resolution of 23 April 2026 in Spain's Official Gazette. The new guideline revises the framework set by Royal Decree 893/2013 and strengthens risk analysis, early warning and inter-agency coordination, according to MITECO's wildfire progress reports, which by the end of July 2026 put burnt area above 180,000 hectares and major wildfires at 38 for the year, six times more than on the same date in 2025.

PTME and PAMIF are not the same plan

The 2026 update doesn't change an underlying distinction that still causes confusion between administrations: the Municipal Territorial Emergency Plan (PTME) and PAMIF are not interchangeable.

• The PTME is the basic plan, mandatory for every municipality regardless of its wildfire risk: it organises the response to any type of emergency and defines the municipal command structure, including the CECOPAL.
• PAMIF is a specific plan focused solely on wildfire risk, detailing prevention, response and evacuation for that particular hazard.
• PAMIF sits inside the PTME as a special plan or operational annex: a municipality can comply with the law without a PAMIF if it isn't in a high-risk zone, but never without a PTME.

When PAMIF is mandatory

PAMIF's obligation isn't uniform across Spain: it depends on the risk classification each autonomous region sets in its own special wildfire plan (INFOCA, INFOCAT, INFOMA, INFOCAM and equivalents). Municipalities identified as priority or high-risk are required to have an approved PAMIF, an obligation stemming from Royal Decree 893/2013 and its 2026 update. In medium-risk municipalities, drafting one is usually advisable, with requirements that vary by region; low-risk municipalities are usually not required to have a specific PAMIF, though basic planning measures still apply. The plan must also integrate with the self-protection plans of activities located in the municipality, then regulated by Royal Decree 393/2007. Determining a municipality's risk level is up to the region's competent civil protection authority, so the obligation shouldn't be assumed generically — it must be checked against the applicable regional plan.

What a PAMIF must include, under Royal Decree 893/2013

Beyond regional specifics, MITECO's PAMIF development guide and Royal Decree 893/2013 agree on a minimum content:

• Identification of the municipality and classification of its zones by wildfire risk.
• Risk analysis: hazard, vulnerability and resulting risk maps, plus the Potential Severity Index.
• Operational structure: plan director (the mayor), municipal coordination team and CECOPAL.
• Resource inventory: human resources, machinery, water points, access routes and refuge areas.
• Activation, alert and evacuation protocols, coordinated with regional and national plans.
• Periodic review — at least every five years — and an annual training and drill schedule.

The compliance map, region by region

The gap between the legal obligation and real-world adoption is, according to several sources, one of the system's weakest points. Greenpeace Spain puts the figure at 80% of municipalities in high wildfire-risk zones without an emergency plan. Regional data paints a similar picture:

• Castilla y León: 701 municipalities at "maximum risk" lack the plan that's been mandatory since 2013, and only 150 (21.4%) have started the process, according to ecoticias.com.
• Galicia: 178 municipalities have no wildfire action plan, according to GaliciaPress.
• Extremadura: an audit by the Court of Auditors found 55 high-risk municipalities without a peri-urban prevention plan, 43 of which weren't even aware whether they had one.
• Andalusia: 593 municipalities classified as being in wildfire danger, but only 139 (18%) have an approved Local Wildfire Emergency Plan (PLEIF), according to the Junta de Andalucía. Los Gallardos (Almería), the municipality where a wildfire caused 13 deaths in July 2026, was one of those without a local plan.

Keeping the plan alive, not just approved

Approving a PAMIF doesn't close the obligation: Royal Decree 893/2013 requires reviewing it at least every five years, and MITECO's guide insists on updating it after any significant change to the territory — new access routes, hydrants, developments — while keeping up an annual training and drill schedule. Spain's Environmental Prosecutor's Office already sent a formal request to more than 150 municipalities reminding them of this obligation, according to Civio's investigation. In practice, the gap between having an approved plan and having one that's genuinely alive — with information kept updated and accessible to every service on the day it's needed — matters as much as the obligation to draft it in the first place. Centralising that information in a single platform, queryable in real time, is exactly where Comacon, by Osprean, operates.