Resilient landscapes to face catastrophic forest fires
The international conference, “Resilient landscapes to face catastrophic forest fires: global insights towards a new paradigm,” brought together fire experts, policymakers and key stakeholders to share experiences and consider new strategies for action on wildfires.
With the increasing threat and occurrence of catastrophic fire events around the globe, the need for new strategies for wildfire prevention and protection is clear. The high-level international conference held on 14-15 October 2019 in Madrid aimed to bring together stakeholders and experts to propose holistic approaches for fire resilient landscapes that better integrate socioeconomic aspects of fire prevention.
From local to international policy, and from scientific research to practice, global actors defined, discussed, and debated the many socioeconomic components of fire and sought to identify possible solutions.
Read more on the first report of the event; further synthesis documents will be available in due course.
Former Prime Minister of Spain Felipe González and former Prime Minister of Finland Esko Aho opened the event with a dialogue on the role of rural areas and the bioeconomy and what is needed to move towards a resilient and sustainable Europe.
Expert keynote speakers included David E. Calkin, from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in the United States, and Peter F. Moore from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, who will provide a global perspective for the growing threat, and urgent need for effective, landscape-level prevention of catastrophic fires.
Presentations, case studies, panel discussion and open debate explored how leading scientific research on the socioeconomic dimensions of wildfire prevention can be translated into potential actions for a clear path forward to co-construct fire resilient landscapes in the Mediterranean and beyond.
The conference was coorganised by the European Forest Institute (EFI) and the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), with support from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Association of Forest Engineers.
