The Fire Management Voluntary Guidelines were prepared over a two-year multistakeholder process involving governments, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations and private-sector fire specialists and practitioners from around the globe. Many dedicated people and institutions gave willingly of their time and specialist expertise during the formulation and review.
Although the process was coordinated by FAO, Denny Truesdale of the United States Forest Service, USA, was the lead author, ably supported by a core team of specialists, including Johann Goldammer, Global Fire Monitoring Center, Germany; Gary Morgan, Australasian Fire Authorities Council, Australia; Patricio Sanhueza, Corporación Nacional Forestal, Chile; Brian van Wilgen, Jonkershoek Forestry Research Centre, CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa; Ricardo Vélez, Servicio Nacional contra Incendios Forestales, Dirección General de Conservación de la Naturaleza, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Spain; Ayn Shlisky and Robert Myers, Global Fire Initiative, The Nature Conservancy, USA; Murray Dudfield, National Rural Fire Office, New Zealand; Eric Rigolot, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Unité de Recherches Forestières Méditerranéennes; and Leonid Kondrashov, Training Insitute in Ecology and Nature Management, Russian Federation.
Valuable feedback was also received from the six Regional Forestry Commissions, FAO Member Countries and a wide range of organizations involved in various aspects of fire management.
FAO wishes to particularly acknowledge the support of the USDA Forest Service, Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), UN-ISDR Global Wildland Fire Network (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), The Nature Conservancy, the Government of Spain and the World Bank, which committed resources to the formulation process.
We also wish to thank Lynn Ball for editing and layout, Ron Myers for the cover photo, Roberto Cenciarelli for cover preparation and Graciela Andrade for administrative support.
To the wider group of persons and organizations that contributed to this paper, we express our grateful thanks.
