Antinero began operating nationally in 2022, but the procurement framework that made its scale possible was introduced after the fires of 2021. Legislative changes first created exceptional procedures for urgent anti-erosion and flood protection works and then extended them to a wider range of forestry interventions. Under this regime, direct awards for eligible forestry works could reach the applicable European procurement threshold rather than the ordinary €60,000 ceiling for public works.

The programme brought these procedures together with substantial funding from the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Its scope expanded from forest clearing, thinning, biomass removal, forest roads and firebreaks to include studies, reforestation and post-fire anti-erosion and flood protection. Although publicly presented primarily as a fire prevention programme, its contracts now extend across preventive forest management, restoration and post-fire intervention.

The dataset contains 254 antinero contracts with a stated net value of €633.59 million, signed with 157 companies, individuals and joint ventures. All were awarded by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. The contracts are large in relation to the other forestry works examined here, with a median stated value of €2.10 million, and frequently span several regional units and forest authorities. Most were awarded directly under the special procurement framework.

Following the contracts beyond their signature also makes another characteristic of the programme visible. Many combine studies with the works they define, announce short periods for execution and are subsequently extended through administrative acts. The dataset therefore follows not only who receives antinero funding but the timing and territorial organisation of the works, the procurement procedures through which they are awarded and the administrative changes that follow.

No antinero contract identified here was awarded to a forest workers’ cooperative. Whether cooperatives subsequently participated through private subcontracting cannot be established from the public documents available and therefore remains outside what this dataset can claim.