Controlled agricultural burning allowed for two years under mandatory technical planning

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) opened a two-year transitional exception to the national ban on agricultural burning through Executive Decree No. 3, published in the Official Gazette Volume No. 453, Number 182, on Thursday, October 1, 2026, pages 4 and 5. The regulation exempts the controlled burning of vegetation, stubble, or residues of agricultural origin, provided it is carried out under strict technical planning and with prevention, control, and supervision measures. The decree entered into force on the day of its publication.

The reform modifies the “Prohibition of the Practice of Agricultural Burning in Crops given the Threat of Forest Fires at a National Level,” issued through Executive Decree No. 2, of April 15, 2026, published in the Official Gazette No. 70, Volume No. 451, of April 4, 2026. That regulation prohibited agricultural burning in crops of any nature nationwide for the purpose of preventing, controlling, and combating forest fires.

The Executive justified the exception based on the need for an “adjustment period” to allow those who perform controlled burns to adapt gradually and orderly to the regulations, and to progressively adopt the necessary measures, procedures, and best practices. The legal basis invoked are articles 117 and 246 of the Constitution of the Republic, articles 2, 10, and 42 of the Environment Law, articles 21, 22, and 23 of the Protected Natural Areas Law, and article 26 of the Forestry Law.

An exception with a peremptory deadline

Article 1 of the decree inserts a new article 6-A, of a transitional nature, between articles 6 and 7, which sets a peremptory deadline of two years starting from the entry into force of the provision. With the publication on October 1, 2026, that period extends until October 1, 2028.

The exception is not automatic. The text conditions the burning on two cumulative requirements:

• Strict technical planning of the burn.
• Implementation, “without exception,” of prevention, control, and supervision measures.

Article 6-A itself warns that the provision “will be strictly transitional in nature” and will lose its validity once the period has elapsed, without prejudice to the legally corresponding provisions.

MARN must establish the technical conditions

The decree obliges MARN to issue the necessary administrative instruments to apply the exception. The list includes:

• Agreements.
• Instructions.
• Circulars.
• Resolutions.
• Any other indispensable administrative instrument.

These instruments must guarantee the correct application of the provision and establish the technical conditions and security measures that must be observed during authorized burns. So far, the decree does not detail deadlines for issuing them.

The risks the regulation seeks to contain

The recitals describe the scope of impact that the original prohibition sought to avoid: the spread of fires toward forest ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, nearby vegetation, other adjacent agricultural crops, or human settlements, including Protected Natural Areas. The regulation also aims to raise public awareness regarding environmental prevention and precaution.

Article 2 provides that the decree takes effect from the day of its publication in the Official Gazette. The document is signed by the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Arch. Fernando Andrés López Larreynaga, and was issued in the District of San Salvador, municipality of San Salvador Centro, department of San Salvador, on October 1, 2026.

The decision shifts the burden of demonstrating planning and control for each burn to the agricultural producers, while the MARN remains responsible for establishing the technical rules. In practice, the decree reopens a practice prohibited since April 2026 in a country exposed to forest fires, and it does so with a two-year clock that makes the issuance of instructions and oversight the critical point of the regulation.

Source: Official Gazette, Volume No. 453, Number 182, October 1, 2026, Executive Branch Section, pp. 4-5 (official reference: Executive Decree No. 3).