Integrated wildfire management and forest resilience take centre stage in the 10th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference

FOREST EUROPE held its latest Ministerial Conference in Stockholm on June 2 and 3, 2026, bringing together key actors with the aim of shaping the future of forests across Europe. Among them, EFI and FoRISK played an outstanding role. 

FoRISK Coordinator, Silvia Abruscato, moderated the high-level panel on wildfires under the frame of sustainable forest management. In her remarks, she stressed the urgent need to strengthen capacity building and cross-sector cooperation across governance levels, highlighting initiatives like FoRISK as essential tools to address the growing wildfire risks across Europe and beyond, and its permanent support by EFI as the official host of the Secretariat.

The session featured the keynote “Towards Integrated fire management in European forests” by Tiago Olivera, Associated Researcher at the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research, IN+ at Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisbon, which set the scientific foundation of the discussion, providing an overview of current wildfire trends, emerging challenges, and promising practices across the pan-European region.

This was followed by a discussion showcasing different national perspectives with:

• María Rodríguez de Sancho, Director General of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification, Spain
• Boris Greguska, Chief State Counsellor at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Slovak Republic
• İbrahim Yüz, Deputy Director General, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Türkiye
• Michael Reinhard, Head of the Forest Division at the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Switzerland.

There were three key takeaway conclusions identified from the discussion:

• Landscape approaches are essential to effectively address wildfire risks
• Prevention remains critical across all pan-European regions
• Community engagement and societal dimensions are central to building resilience

During the session, Michael Reinhard also introduced the first FoRISK factsheet developed with FOEN: “Wildfire prevention in the Alpine region: fire-resilient forest management in Switzerland.” The publication highlights how climate change is intensifying wildfire risks in Alpine forests and emphasises the importance of proactive, fire-resilient forest management to protect ecosystems, infrastructure, and communities.

FoRISK is an implementation mechanism under the Forest Europe process and is hosted by EFI. It supports countries and stakeholders in strengthening the risk prevention, preparedness, and integrated management of forest risks through international cooperation, knowledge exchange and capacity building.