4.1 Introduction

The report on the Europe region has been divided into two sub-regions, 1) Mediterranean, including other nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and 2) Western, Eastern and Northern Europe, with special emphasis on the Baltic region. For each of the sub-regions, a short overview is provided. A number of selected country reports provide an exemplary and representative insight into the fire conditions. For other countries, brief descriptions are provided as well as bibliographic or Internet (websites) references.

Narrative summary of major wildfire impacts on people, property, and natural resources during the 1990s

Europe

During the decade of the 1990s, approximately 50 000 forest fires per year throughout the Mediterranean basin burned about 600 000 ha of forest and other wooded land. This is almost twice as much as during the 1970s. Inter-annual fluctuations of fire occurrence and impacts within individual countries, however, are quite significant. Greece is a striking example of recent variability. In 1998, the year in which the reOrganization of responsibilities in fire control were moved from the Forest Service to the Fire Service, the country faced a difficult fire situation. More than 9 000 fires burned 112 000 ha, compared to the annual area burned between 1988 and 1997 between 24 000 and 66 000 ha.

Because of institutional strengthening and a relatively mild fire season, the area burned in 1999 was reduced to 10 700 fires affecting 19 000 ha of wildlands. This brought the average area burned to a record low of 1.8 ha per fire. The prolonged drought in the Eastern Mediterranean region in mid-2000, however, confronted the country with another extreme situation. By end of September 2000 a total of more than 150 000 ha had been burned (see country report of Greece; Figure 4-1). At the same time, the Balkan region suffered high fire occurrence, particularly in Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia. Turkey also experienced an extreme fire season (Figure 4-2).

An overall comparison of fires in the Mediterranean between the 1980s and 1990s shows that within the two decades there is inter-annual variability of forest fire occurrence and area affected by fire, but no general trend towards more or less fires damage. The same is concluded for the situation in Northern Europe.

Eastern Europe: The Russian Federation

It is difficult to compare the statistical databases of the 1980s vs. the 1990s. Reliable remotely sensed data on area burned for the two decades are not yet available (the 1980s are currently evaluated on the base of NOAA AVHRR archived data). There is a consensus that the official statistics in both decades underestimate the area burned in the territory of the Former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. Extreme fire events occurred in both decades, e.g., large fires during the 1987 drought that probably burned more than 14 million ha.

Figure 4-1 Numerous heat signatures (red) and large smoke plumes (light blue) are visible from fires burning in central Greece on 13 July 2000.

One exceptionally large smoke plume extends from a large fire located west of Athens across the Aegean Sea into Turkey near the Sea of Marmara. Source: NESDIS/OSEI (displayed with the daily Greece situation report on the GFMC Website on 14 July 2000 at: www.ruf.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe/current/archive/gr/2000/07/gr_07142000.htm

Figure 4-2 The Europe fire-weather forecast for 15 July 2000 indicates the extreme fire danger in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin.

Source: Experimental Climate Prediction Center (ECPC). Daily displayed during the large fire situation on the GFMC Website (same Internet location as given in Figure 4-1).

According to the database of the Russian Aerial Fire Protection Service Avialesookhrana during the fire season 1998, 4.27 million ha of forest and other land under fire protection had been affected by fire. However, a preliminary satellite-based analysis by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IAASA) was conducted in 1998. This analysis indicated that 9.4 million hectares burned between the Urals and the Pacific Coast and between the southern border of the country and 75°N (7.1 million ha of forested land). In 1999 the area burned was 752 000 ha.

According to official statistics of the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service (Avialesookhrana), 18 017 fires occurred in forests under the control of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia during fire season 2000. These fires burned a total of 907 693 ha of forest and 277 036 ha of non-forested areas. However, burned area mapping by satellite in the same year indicated that 1.9 and 1.4 million ha respectively of forest and other land were burned in Amurskaia Oblast and the Buryatia Republic (see country report of Russia and Figure 4-3). It is assumed that in average years ca. 3 to 5 million ha of forested lands are affected by fires (predominantly surface fires), and in extreme years 10 million ha and more. These discrepancies between the different providers of fire data need to be explored further. They indicate the need for an improved fire information system, not only for Russia but also for those countries that are facing difficulties in obtaining reliable information on active fires and fire impacts.

Figure 4-3 Burned area map of Chita Region and Buryatia Republic for the period 16 April to 21 June 2000.

The area burned is 1 399 327 ha.

Source: Fire Laboratory of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Russian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk..

Fire databases

The European countries all belong to the ECE region that is the only regional entity within the UN system that regularly collects and evaluates statistical data on wildland fires. The fire statistics are collected and evaluated by the UN-ECE Trade Division, Timber Section, Geneva. The statistics include all Western and Eastern European countries, countries of the former Soviet Union, the U.S.A. and Canada. The last data set covers the period 1995-97. The statistics can be obtained on the Internet (ECE/FAO 1998).

Summary tables with forest fire statistics of the European and Asian ECE member states for the period 1990-1997 are given in Table 4-1 to Table 4-4. The data in the tables are taken from the ECE Forest Fire Statistics and compiled by the FAO Temperate and Boreal Forest Resource Assessment 2000 (Chapter V: Forest Condition and Damage to Forests and Other Wooded Lands). Remarks commenting on the data of individual countries are included in the Annex to Chapter V. Countries missing in this table did not provide data or did not experience wildland fires in the period concerned.

The Commission of the European Union has established the Community Information System on Forest Fire which by 1997 covered 319 provinces of France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain (Lemasson 1997).

Furthermore, the UN-ECE Trade Division, Timber Section, regularly publishes ECE/FAO International Forest Fire News (IFFN). This newsletter is produced at the Global Fire Monitoring Centre (GFMC) since 1988 and contains numerous country reports with statistical data. Meanwhile 66 country reports are available in the Internet starting with the issues of 1990 (GFMC 2001b). The GFMC also publishes regular updates of wildland fire statistics and individual fire reports on the GFMC Website. Different information sources often provide data that are not matching officially reported data (cf. examples cited above).

Table 4-1 Number of forest fires in the European and Asian ECE member states, 1990-1997.

Table 4-2 Total area of forest and other wooded land burned in the European and Asian ECE member states, 1990-1997.

COUNTRY	YEAR
	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997
	(1000 ha)
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)
Albania	0.42	0.25	1.01	0.52	0.71	0.15	0.41	0.42
Austria	0.20	0.05	0.13	0.11	0.06	0.03	0.03	0.04
Belgium	0.02	0.05	0.02	0.11	0.05	0.07	1.45	0.28
Bosnia and Herzegovina		0.88	0.88	1.30	0.71	0.63	0.88	0.88
Bulgaria	1.04	0.51	5.24	18.16	19.11	0.55	2.15	0.78
Croatia		4.54	11.13	20.16	7.94	4.65	11.21	11.12
Cyprus	1.45	0.11	0.01	0.07	0.18	0.07	0.12	0.17
Czech Republic		0.08	1.28	1.15	0.81	0.40	2.04	3.48
Denmark	0.14	0.14	0.28	0.01	0.00	0.00	0.06	0.01
Estonia	0.19	0.06	1.79	0.65	0.46	0.19	0.58	1.15
Finland	0.43	0.23	1.08	0.58	1.58	0.64	0.92	1.05
France	72.60	10.13	16.61	16.70	25.00	18.14	11.40	21.00
Germany	0.95	0.92	4.91	1.49	1.11	0.59	1.38	0.60
Greece	38.59	13.05	71.41	54.05	57.91	27.20	25.31	52.37
Iceland	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Ireland	0.84	0.67	0.57	0.54	0.28	0.46	0.46	0.46
Israel	5.77	3.48	6.70	7.17	3.79	8.30	6.49	6.19
Italy	195.32	99.86	105.70	203.14	68.83	22.63	23.81	65.78
Latvia		3.10	8.37	0.57	0.35	0.54	0.93	0.60
Lithuania	0.12	0.05	0.86	0.31	0.30	0.32	0.39	0.17
Luxembourg	0.009	0.004	0.002	0.008	0.002	0.001	0.003	0.002
Malta	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.001	0.002	0.003	0.007	0.005
Netherlands	0.22	0.41	0.17	0.10	0.28	0.23	0.16	0.22
Norway	0.09	0.53	1.37	0.22	0.23	0.11	0.51	0.63
Poland	5.03	2.11	33.33	3.68	2.50	1.74	5.31	2.17
Portugal	129.84	182.49	59.07	49.96	77.32	169.61	83.05	26.07
Romania	0.46	0.28	0.73	0.55	0.31	0.20	0.26	0.06
Slovakia	0.57	0.21	0.59	0.52	0.10	0.09	0.22	0.04
Slovenia	0.60	0.71	0.67	1.86	0.91	0.26	0.29	0.49
Spain	204.04	244.71	104.59	89.33	437.64	143.48	59.82	88.29
Sweden			5.81	1.00	3.10	0.40	2.18	1.89
Switzerland	1.10	0.15	0.05	0.04	0.29	0.44	0.23	1.93
The FYR of Macedonia		5.18	5.18	10.07	5.37	0.13	1.78	5.31
Turkey	13.00	7.64	12.31	13.73	21.00	4.79	14.92	6.17
United Kingdom	0.46	0.11	0.19	0.15	1.04	0.54	0.59	0.33
Yugoslavia		1.54	1.97	6.90	1.58	1.65	4.59
Armenia	0.01	0.02	0.01	0.00	0.02	0.15	0.10	0.02
Azerbaijan		0.06	0.08	0.03	0.01	0.05
Belarus	1.04	0.32	23.82	1.25	2.11	3.78	8.95	0.97
Georgia		0.11	0.11	0.11	0.11	0.01	0.20	0.11
Kazakhstan	1.30	4.90	1.20	0.70	5.98	28.93	12.86	347.98
Republic of Moldova	0.12	0.02	0.02	0.00	0.22	0.00	0.00	0.07
Russian Federation		1.126.22	1.142.78	1.200.44	723.08	462.86	2.311.93	983.72
Turkmenistan		1.25	1.25	0.01	2.34	1.40	1.05	1.60
Ukraine	2.43	1.78	4.25	3.21	10.04	4.00	127.06	47.03

Table 4-3 Total area of forest burned in the European & Asian ECE member states, 1990-1997.

Table 4-4 Total area of other wooded land burned in the European and Asian ECE member states, 1990-1997.

Use of prescribed fire

Mediterranean Region. In France, prescribed burning has been expanding substantially for a decade or so, and now involves 6 000 to 10 000 ha, depending on weather conditions. Teams of specialists (foresters, pastoralists, firefighters), identified by the local authorities, work in a given geographical area. The cost of prescribed burning varies according to the conditions under which it is carried out. But in all cases it is relatively low: from $US 40 to $US 80/ha for treeless land in foothill areas to $US 160 to $US 800/ha for clearing land with large trees before burning. Even in this last case, prescribed burning nevertheless is only half as expensive as mechanical treatment.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean region, prescribed burning is used marginally (in Italy, Portugal and Spain), or not at all (in Greece and in the North African and Near Eastern Mediterranean countries). Where it is in use, administrative authorities have found it to be less costly than the suppression of wildfires resulting from rural populations' attempts to incinerate standing vegetation.

National and international research programmes are currently studying the effects of prescribed burning on the different components of the Mediterranean and mountain ecosystems (the different strata of plant communities, the surface layers of the soil, the fauna and biodiversity). A recent study “Prescribed burning as a tool for the Mediterranean region: a management approach” was prepared by the EU-funded project Fire Torch, which brought together research teams from Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece.

Northern, western and Eastern Europe. In Northern and Western Europe prescribed burning in forestry, landscape management and nature conservation is increasingly used. Prescribed burning in forestry is becoming a key element of sustainable forest ecosystem management in the Nordic countries (see country report of Finland). In other countries (Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom) fire is increasingly used in landscape management and nature conservation. The main goal of fire use is the maintenance of open vegetation types and the prevention of bush and tree encroachment (halting of succession towards forest). This is done to maintain or improve habitat conditions for a range of plant and animal species that occur in seral stages of vegetation development. These are species that would disappear without mechanical, biological and/or fire treatment (see Goldammer 1997a, 1997b; Goldammer 1998 a, 1998b; Page and Goldammer 2000).

Community involvement in fire management activities

In the Mediterranean section of this report it is mentioned that in the Maghreb countries the involvement of local populations in fire prevention activities is still maintained, especially in forest villages. The demand for food and energy (fuelwood) has increased to the point of seriously reducing the forest area and the inhabitants view forest fires as a direct threat to their living conditions. In these countries, the incidence of forest fires has remained at a relatively constant level.

In many other European countries, especially in the countries of Central and Northern Europe, volunteers play a major role in rural fire suppression activities. In Germany, for instance, fire brigades outside of large cities consist primarily of volunteers. Thus, in the case of forest and other wildland fires, the main burden of fire suppression, especially in initial attack, depends on the availability of local people and their rapid mobilisation. Experience has shown that the involvement of enthusiastic volunteers and their specific knowledge of local conditions are helpful for successful intervention. In the case of Germany, however, the availability of modern fire suppression technologies, communication and command systems and the favourable road access create favourable conditions to involve volunteer firefighters who have not been trained for extreme wildland fire conditions.

Public policies

Fire policies or policies that are affecting wildfire prevention or fire management within the ECE region have been investigated in depth by Goldammer (1986) and reviewed in the frame of the FAO consultation “Public Policies Affecting Forest Fires” (Goldammer 1999). Thus, the particular national policies are not re-visited in this report. Instead, a brief review is given about the activities of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) in the field of forest fires. These include: (1) the above-mentioned periodic collection and publication of fire statistics of the member states, and (2) the work of the ECE/FAO/ILO Team of Specialists on Forest Fire.

As a result of limited secretariat resources, representatives of the Joint ECE/FAO/ILO Committee on Forest Technology, Management and Training have taken on the challenge to undertake more work themselves. This is accomplished by entrusting several of its activities to Teams of Specialists, especially those where specific expertise is required. The Team of Specialists on Forest Fire was created in the 1980s and reorganized in 1993.

The team's main task is to provide a critical link in communication and cooperation among fire scientists, managers and policy makers. The main activities embrace (1) the production of International Forest Fire News (IFFN) in support of the Global Fire Monitoring Centre (GFMC); (2) organization of seminars; and (3) promotion of synergistic collaboration among governments, non-government institutions and individuals, especially science and technology transfer. The scope of the work of the Fire Team includes the countries outside the ECE region because there is no similar institutional arrangement available in other FAO regions.

International Forest Fire News. International Forest Fire News (IFFN) has been published bi-annually since 1988. It produced a steadily increasing communication process in international fire matters. Since then, IFFN provides an international information platform on which advances in fire research, technology and policy development are reported and disseminated. Currently the printed version of IFFN is subscribed to by more than one thousand agencies, research laboratories and individuals all over the world. Starting with its 19th issue (August 1998) the IFFN is available on the homepage of the "Global Fire Monitoring Centre" (GFMC 2001a, 2001b). The GFMC Website includes country and special reports published since 1990. Country reports are organized in 66 country folders.

Seminars: The seminars conducted by the ECE/FAO/ILO Team of Specialists on Forest Fire between 1981 and 2000 focused on topical fire policy issues:

• Fire Suppression Technologies (Poland 1981)

• Fire Prevention (Spain 1986)

• The Socio-Economic Environment of Fire (Greece 1991)

• Forest, Fire, and Global Change (Russian Federation 1996)

• The First Baltic Conference on Forest Fires (Poland 1998)

• The Baltic Exercise on Fire Information and Resources Exchange - BALTEX FIRE 2000 (Finland 2000)

• Forest Fire in the Eastern Mediterranean, Balkans and adjoining Regions of the Near East and Central Asia (2002)

The bibliographic references of the conference results are available on the GFMC homepage (GFMC 2000b).

The Fire Team was reorganized in May 1998. The list of team members is continuously updated on the website of the GFMC (GFMC 2000c). The last two team meetings were held in May 1988 (in conjunction with the First Baltic Conference on Forest Fires) and in 2000 (at BALTEX FIRE 2000). The complete meeting reports are available in the pages of IFFN (Goldammer 1998c, Goldammer 2001).

The new Baltic focus of the ECE/FAO Fire Team is described in part 2 of this regional report (Western, Eastern and Northern Europe). Close contacts are maintained with the FAO Committee on Mediterranean Forestry Questions Silva Mediterranea.

References

ECE-FAO. 1998. Forest Fire Statistics 1995-1997, UN Economy Commission for Europe/Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Timber Bulletin, Vol. LI, No.4. ECE/TIM/BULL/51/4, New York, Geneva, 19 pp. or via Internet at: stats.htmlhttp://www.unece.org/trade/timber/ffstats.htmlwww.unece.org/trade/timber/ff-stats.htmlstats.html

GFMC 2001a. www.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe/

GFMC 2001b. Int. Forest Fire News (IFFN) Country Archive. www.ruf.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe/iffn/country/country.htm

GFMC 2001c. www.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe/intro/team.html

Goldammer, J.G. 1986. Legislation and regulations related to forest fire prevention and control. In: ECE/FAO/ILO Seminar on Methods and Equipment for the Prevention of Forest Fires. 217-225. Madrid, Spain. Inst. Nac. Conservación de la Naturaleza (ICONA). 268 pp.

Goldammer, J.G. 1998a. Pazary lasow w regionie baltyckim: perspektywy stworzenia skoordynowanego planu regionalnego obejmujacego badania naukowe oraz rozwiazania technologiczne i organizacyjne (Forest fires in the Baltic Region: Perspectives for a regional concerted science, technology and management plan). In: Pierwsza Baltyscka Konferencja nt. Pozarow Lasu, polska, 5-8 maja 1998 roku (Proceedings, First Baltic Conference on Forest Fires, Radom-Katowice, Poland, 5-9 May 1998), p. 48-58 (with English summary). Narodowy Fundusz Ochrony Srodowiska i Gospodarki Wodnej, 398 pp.

Goldammer, J.G. 1998b. Historia ognia w systemach uzytkowania ziemi w regionie Baltyckim: Celowe zastosowanie ognia w lesnictwie, ochronie przyrody i ksztaltowaniu krajobraze (History of Fire in Land-Use Systems of the Baltic Region: Implications on the Use of Prescribed Fire in Forestry, Nature Conservation and Landscape Management). In: Pierwsza Baltyscka Konferencja nt. Pozarow Lasu, polska, 5-8 maja 1998 roku (Proceedings, First Baltic Conference on Forest Fires, Radom-Katowice, Poland, 5-9 May 1998), p. 59-76 (with English summary). Narodowy Fundusz Ochrony Srodowiska i Gospodarki Wodnej, 398 pp.

Goldammer, J.G. 1998c. UN-FAO/ECE/ILO Team of Specialists on Forest Fire. Minutes of the Meeting, Warsaw, Poland, 9 May 1998. Int. Forest Fire News 19: 88-93.

Goldammer, J.G. 1999. Public policies affecting forest fires in Europe and boreal/temperate Asia. In: Proceedings. FAO Meeting on Public Policies Affecting Forest Fires, p.113-164. FAO Forestry Paper 138.

Goldammer, J.G. 2001. BALTEX FIRE 2000 (Baltic Exercise for Fire Information and Resources Exchange 2000). Conference report. Int. Forest Fire News 24 (in press).

Goldammer, J.G., Prüter, J. & Page, H. 1997a. Feuereinsatz im Naturschutz in Mitteleuropa. Ein Positionspapier. Alfred Toepfer Akademie für Naturschutz, Schneverdingen, NNA-Berichte 10, Heft 5, 2-17.

Goldammer, J.G., Montag, S. & Page, H. 1997b. Nutzung des Feuers in mittel- und nordeuropäischen Landschaften. Geschichte, Methoden, Probleme, Perspektiven. Alfred Toepfer Akademie für Naturschutz, Schneverdingen, NNA-Berichte 10, Heft 5, 18-38.

Lemasson, M. 1997. Forest fire in the Europen Union. A Community Information System on Forest Fire. Int. Forest Fire News 17: 24-28.

Page, H. & Goldammer, J.G.2000. Fire history of Central Europe: Implications for prescribed burning in landscape management and nature conservation. Paper presented at the Baltic Exercise for Fire Information and Resources Exchange (BALTEX FIRE 2000), Kuopio, Finland, June 2000 (in press).