Dr. Oyunsanaa Byambasuren is the Director General at the National Forest Agency of the Government of Mongolia. Before, he served as the Director General of the Department of Forest Policy and Coordination, Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), Mongolia. Prior to his career at the MET, he served as a Director of Fire Management Resource Center – Central Asia Region (FMRC – CAR) and Associate Professor at the Department of Environment and Forest Engineering, National University of Mongolia. He works as Deputy Director at the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). He received his BSc and MSc degrees at National University of Mongolia after graduating from Bugant High School, Selenge Province, Mongolia. He attained his Ph.D. degree at the University of Goettingen in Germany. His research focused on historical fire regimes of southern boreal forests funded by GFMC and Max-Planck Society. He has implemented and co-implemented International projects such as a Mongolian American Tree-Ring Investigation Project (MATRIP), Climate and Ecology of the Mongolian Empire (CEME), and Dynamics of Biodiversity Loss & Permafrost Melt in Lake Hövsgöl National Park (Hövsgöl GEF), Strengthening of Fire Management Capabilities in Mongolia and Selected Central Asian Countries in cooperation with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (SCE). He has been published number of scientific articles in international journals.

Johann Georg Goldammer is Chief of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), which he founded in 1998. Based at Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Freiburg University, the GFMC has worked with the United Nations family, multilateral and intergovernmental organizations and directly with more than 70 countries in supporting scientific-technical and policy advice for developing policies and capacities in landscape fire management. The GFMC is coordinator the Global Wildland Fire Network (GWFN) and a Voluntary Commitment for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. At regional European level, the GMFC is serving as a Specialized Euro-Mediterranean Center under the European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement and supports the Wildfire Disaster Risk Reduction agenda of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). As GWFN coordinator, he has established eight Regional Fire Monitoring / Fire Management Resource Centers throughout the continents. The mission of the GWFN and their regional centers is to provide advisory support to countries and international organizations towards developing policies and capacities in Integrated Landscape Fire Management. GFMC is also serving as Secretariat of the International Fire Aviation Working Group (IFAWG). Goldammer has attended and supported all International Wildland Fire Conferences since 1989.

Dr. Lucy Amissah is an Ecologist, and a Senior Research Scientist with the CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana. She holds a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Lucy has over twenty years’ experience in research and development in forest ecology, fire management and biodiversity conservation. Lucy’s research focuses on the impacts of disturbances (drought and fires) on tree species distribution, plant diversity, and the underlying mechanism using plant functional traits. Other research areas include the study of impacts of wildfires on farming systems dynamics in the forest zone of Ghana. Lucy has worked with other stakeholders to develop fire use guidelines and Manual of Procedures for Fire Management in the High Forest Zone of Ghana, which is one of the operational manuals used by the Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission of Ghana. In addition, Lucy has led the development and implementation of community fire management programs to help protect natural forests and restored forest landscapes. Lucy is currently the site Principal Investigator for the Wageningen University led EU-funded PANTROP project that seeks to assess how human-driven climate change, landscape degradation, and biodiversity loss affect forest recovery in tropical landscapes in Ghana, Mexico and Australia. She is serving as the founding head of the Regional Western Africa Fire Management Resource Center within the Global Wildland Fire Network.

Harifidy Rakoto Ratsimba is a Researcher on Natural Resources Monitoring at the Department of Water and Forestry in the School of Agronomy of the University of Antananarivo. He is currently the Head Researcher of LLandDev (Land, Landscape and Development Research Lab) in charge of the Regional Eastern Africa Fire Monitoring Resource Center (REA-FMRC) and works specifically on science / policy interfaces in the field of sustainable land management.

Sundar P. Sharma is a forestry professional of Nepal, MSc Forest Ecology and Management, Freiburg University, Germany. Since 2007, he is serving as coordinator of the Regional South Asia Wildland Fire Network. Keeping in mind that most fire in the South Asia region are caused by humans and are affecting primarily rural populations and their properties, his research is focusing on developing concepts and guidelines to promote participatory resource conservation, i.e. how local community can be involved in it. He developed a ‘3-levels fire management’ strategy (i.e. community, district and national levels) for Nepal. The strategy focused on ‘empowering local communities’ for wildfire prevention suitable in least developed country like Nepal. He has convened three regional consultative workshops to promote international cooperation and collaboration. In 2013, he was awarded the prestigious ‘The Green Star Awards 2013’ for his work on the humanitarian and environmental impacts of wildfires by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), Green Cross International (GCI) and UN Environment (UNEP).

Prof. Bambang Hero Saharjo is currently Head of Forest Fire Laboratory, Faculty of Forestry and Environments, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Indonesia since 2000. He is also Executive Director, Regional Fire Management Resource Center-Southeast Asia in collaboration with Global Fire Monitoring Center, University of Freiburg, Germany since 2017; Chair, Southeast Asia Wildfire Regional Network-UNISDR and a member of Pan Asia Wildfire Regional Network-UNISDR since 2011 and 2013, respectively; Co-Director, SDSU/Univ. Maryland IPB Forest Fire project funded by NASA since 2013; a member of a research project between IPB and the French Embassy in Indonesia since 2022; and an ASEAN Forest Fire Panel Expert since 2004. He published more than 180 papers in national and international journals, as well as 15 books. He has received awards, including the Canadian Forest Service Merit Award from the Canadian Forest Service-Natural Resource Canada in 2004, the Global Landscape Fire Awards from the Global Fire Monitoring Center, Germany in 2019, and the John Maddox Prize from London in 2019. He holds BSc in Forestry from Bogor Agricultural University, as well as MSc in Tropical Agriculture, and PhD in Tropical Forest Resources and Environment, Kyoto University, Japan.

Nikola Nikolov is Full Professor of the Hans Em Faculty of Forest Sciences, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Engineering (HEF) in Skopje, North Macedonia, and head of the Regional Fire Monitoring Center (RFMC) for South East Europe / Caucasus and coordinator of the Regional Southeast Europe/Caucasus Wildland Fire Network. RFMC was founded in 2010 Skopje with the support of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and the Council of Europe’s Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA) and is serving as a regional branch of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and a center of excellence of the Regional network. The mission of the Regional network and RFMC is to provide advisory support to countries of the region and international organizations towards developing policies and capacities in Integrated Landscape Fire Management.

Elena Hernández Paredes is a forestry engineer. Service manager at the Wildfire Management Service of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge of Spain since 2009. Responsible for national prevention, preparedness and suppression strategies and actions along with international affairs and relations. At national level, she leads the National Preparedness Program, aiming at improving the coordination among experts and agencies involved in wildfire management in Spain, through joint field exercises, exchanges of experts and the Forest Fire Assessment and Advisory Team (FAST). She also coordinates the Incident Management System and Training Certification national working group, the Integral Prevention Teams (EPRIF) and the Prevention and Analysis Teams (EPAIF), which support regional governments in the territory. At international level, she is in charge of the coordination of Silva Mediterranea Working Group on Forest Fires (FAO), and participates actively, in the European Commission´s Expert Groups on Forest Fires (DG ENV-JRC; DG ECHO) and the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), along with other international groups and initiatives such as the Global Wildland Fire Network, its Wildland Fire Advisory Group and the Fire Aviation Working Group (UNISDR). She is a member of the International Liaison Committee (ILC) for the International Wildfire Conferences.

Dr. Harald Vacik is working as an associate professor at the Institute of Silviculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) on the evaluation of natural resource management approaches in the context of sustainability and biodiversity. Supporting decision making with geographic information systems and decision support systems for multipurpose forest management are a key element of his research activities. He is actively involved in the development and application of criteria and indicators for evaluating sustainable forest management and is providing expert advice in the implementation of scientifically based practical applications of silvicultural Know How and multi-criteria decision making techniques in Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Himalaya Region. He is founder of the Austrian Forest Fire Research Initiative (AFFRI) and the Sub-Regional Euro-Alpine Wildland Fire Network of the Global Wildland Fire Network / Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). He is coordinator of the IUFRO group 4.03.03 “Information management and information technologies”, coordinator of the Community of Practice of Forest Management Decision Support System and member of the Commission for Geographic Information Science at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). Harald Vacik is working as an associate professor at the Institute of Silviculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) on the evaluation of natural resource management approaches in the context of sustainability and biodiversity. Supporting decision making with geographic information systems and decision support systems for multipurpose forest management are a key element of his research activities. He is actively involved in the development and application of criteria and indicators for evaluating sustainable forest management and is providing expert advice in the implementation of scientifically based practical applications of silvicultural Know How and multi-criteria decision making techniques in Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Himalaya Region. He is founder of the Austrian Forest Fire Research Initiative (AFFRI) and the Sub-Regional Euro-Alpine Wildland Fire Network of Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). He is coordinator of the IUFRO group 4.03.03 “Information management and information technologies”, coordinator of the Community of Practice of Forest Management Decision Support System and member of the Commission for Geographic Information Science at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Mariana Senra de Oliveira, is a biologist and specialist in Project Management, environmental analyst for Ibama since 2005. She is assigned to the National Center for Wildfire Prevention and Suppression – Prevfogo. Currently, she holds the position of technical assistant, being responsible for the research agenda, interagency and recovery of degraded areas. Among the activities carried out, it articulates, prepares and monitors cooperation projects both nationally and internationally, organizes events and participates in forums related to the theme of integrated fire management. Since June 2022, she is coordinator of the Regional South America Wildland Fire Network, a region of the Global Wildland Fire Network.

Daniel Seguro is Forestry Engineer, graduated at the National University of Loja in Ecuador, with a master's degree in Watershed Management from CATIE Costa Rica. He earned diplomas in Development Practices, Local Development, Territorial Planning, and Risk Management at Florida International University and the University of Chile. With 15 years of experience, he has participated in a range of activities related to the management and conservation of natural resources and sustainable development, collaborating and coordinating with national and international institutions such as FAO, GIZ, CAF, AICS and ABC. Since 2017, he coordinates the Forest Fire Reduction Program through Integrated Fire Management Actions "Amazonia Without Fire" in the Andes and the coastal regions of Ecuador (PASF), executed by the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition. In the frame of this program, governance frameworks are built, technical training in integrated fire management is promoted, community actions are articulated for the implementation of good agricultural practices as alternatives to the use of fire, and strategies are formulated based on the underlying causes of forest fires, among other technical and institutional elements. He is involved with the paradigm shift from zero fire to integrated fire management through public policy development. Daniel is the focal point of Ecuador of the Regional South American Wildland fire Network and for the Amazon Network for Comprehensive Fire Management within the framework of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

David Nugent is the Director Fire, Emergency and Enforcement with Parks Victoria, having worked in various public land management roles in Victoria for over 30 years. As the manager of over 4 million hectares of parks and reserves, Parks Victoria has a significant role in protection of visitors, communities and assets from bushfire. Fire is a critical part of ecosystems in south-east Australia and David plays a key role in managing its impact on natural and cultural values, working in partnership with Traditional Owners as a priority. David has over 20 years experience as a Certified Incident Controller across bushfire, floods and other emergencies, including through Victoria’s Black Saturday fires in 2009. His extensive experience spans fire deployments to North America, and conferences in Iran and South Africa. David is a board member of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC), the current Chair of the Australasian Interagency Incident Management System (AIIMS) Steering Group. He has been awarded the Australian Fire Service Medal, the National Emergency Medal and the National Service Medal. David is a member of the Champions of Change Coalition for more women in roles across fire and emergency. Their mission is to step up beside women to help achieve gender equality and a significant and sustainable increase in the representation of women in leadership.

Jerome “Jerry” Perez is currently the National Director for Fire and Aviation Management for the USDA Forest Service. Prior to returning to Washington, D.C., he was the Forest Supervisor of the Angeles National Forest from 2018 to 2022. He has also served as the State Director for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in California (January 2016 to October 2018) and State Director for the BLM Oregon/Washington Office (2012-2015). Before his 6-year tenure with the BLM, Perez worked for the U.S. Forest Service in a number of positions that include Deputy Regional Forester for the Intermountain Region in Utah; Forest Supervisor on the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky; Deputy Forest Supervisor for the Stanislaus National Forest in California; and National Litigation Coordinator in the U.S. Forest Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Perez graduated from West Virginia University with a bachelor’s degree in Forest Resource Management. He received his law degree from The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. Perez also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Ghana, Africa (1989-1991) where he met his wife Rita who also was serving as a PCV.