ANNEX 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE 4^th INTERNATIONAL WILDLAND FIRE CONFERENCE (Sevilla, Spain, 2007)

Conclusions and Recommendations from Regional Session C: Europe, Mediterranean, North Africa and Caucasus

1. The protection of the environment in Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and the Caucasus region cannot be effective without a Regional Strategy for Fire Management designed according to the distribution and intensity of the danger and developed in cooperation with the public and private stakeholders of the Forest Sector.

2. Rural abandonment and decline of the forest economy in the Mediterranean Basin is a major concern as climate change may aggravate the natural conditions of fire risk.

3. Special attention must be given to fires burning on radioactively contaminated lands, by fires on areas with unresolved conflicts and on territories with post-war hazards such as land mines and unexploded ordnance, as they affect human security and peace in the region

4. Priority is to be given to the prevention of fires caused as a consequence of the socio-economic changes in rural areas, and the promotion of the participation of the local population.

5. Some issues to be included in this Regional Strategy are:

• Maintenance, improvement and enlarging of the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) with standardized procedures for data collection and use of remote sensing for quick appraise of large fires impacts, as a tool to identify the high risk zones.
• EFFIS to set a danger prediction network covering all Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and the Caucasus.
• Definition of forest fire risk areas taking into account the fire incidente, fuels, value of forests, protected areas, forest-urban interfaces and forest ownership.
• Analysis of forest fire emissions and impacts on human health
• Studies on the silvicultural condition of woodland areas, including forest fuel and biomass maps in coordination with the National Forest Inventories.
• Analysis of socio-economic impacts of fires
• Studies on fire causes, including the use of fire at the rural areas and possible preventive actions in cooperation with the local population.
• Scientific research programmes addressing the consequences of changes of climate, land use and land cover and socioeconomic changes on fire regimes, environment and society.
• Creation and distribution of awareness materials in several languages.
• Programmes of preventive infrastructures: preventive silviculture, roads, lookouts, water reservoirs.
• Joint actions on border areas, where appropriate, such as observation and monitoring networks with compatible communication systems (considering languages).
• Promotion of bilateral and multilateral agreements, where appropriate, for cooperation in suppression activities, including standardized procedures of integration of resources.
• International training courses
• Programmes for burned areas restoration, giving priority to the surfaces destroyed by large, intense fires, where the environmental impact is the greatest.

6. These Recommendations for a Regional Strategy are to be included in the Conference Conclusions and presented to the international bodies competent in the Region, like a contribution to the build up of a Regional Strategy of Cooperation in Fire Management.

7. Agencies and groups are encouraged to participate in the Fire Management Actions Alliance in support of their adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines for Fire Manangement.

8. It is also recommended that a Regional Consultation on Global Change and Wildland Fire will be convened within the next 2 years to progress to the 5^th International Wildland Fire Conference.