During the Covid-19 pandemic (since 2020) firefighters and fire prevention programs in Brazil were initially challenged to provide fire training while complying with safety protocols, such as social distancing, and later faced the complete inability to provide in-person training. Remote (online) courses became a feasible alternative, and within the framework of international cooperation, the United States Forest Service (USFS) carried out, in partnership with public institutions in Brazil, short-term online training for instructors, firefighters, employees, volunteers, and civil servants who work to prevent and suppress wildfires. Here we report on USFS’ experience in adapting and implementing two international courses (S-190: Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior, and FI-110: Wildland Fire Observations and Origin Scene Protection for First Responders), originally designed for in-person delivery by the United States National Forest Fire Coordination Group (NWCG), but authorized (by NWCG) for translation and adaptation for remote training by USFS in Brazil. In total, 192 trainees (104 women and 88 men), completed the two courses. Participants also completed pre- and post- training evaluation surveys and results are presented here. We discuss remote-training format in fire courses and possible challenges of the two cited courses (S-190 e FI-110) for fire prevention and suppression in Brazil.

This reports the findings from ‘Towards fire-smart landscapes’ (Tropical Forest Issues, volume 61) published in November 2022. It includes 26 articles from 100 contributors; 22 case studies from across tropical America, Asia and Africa, three explaining the importance of fire ecology, management and concepts, and a synthesis, that add to the expanding global knowledge on integrated fire management. They show how fire science, traditional knowledge, supportive policies, community inclusion, landscape governance and capacity strengthening, when suitably combined, will lead to a future with less destructive fire, in part by encouraging the wise use of benign fire. The fire management expertise presented, opens the door to new and promising solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation, by learning from and preserving cultural heritage and diversity and developing future-oriented nature-based solutions. Fire management the world over will surely benefit by learning from these tropical experiences. Local participation is crucial, for all parties to share perceptions and jointly design and implement fire prevention and suppression. The importance of indigenous and traditional knowledge of fire management emerges strongly, and equitable landscape governance is key. Where they are lacking, national integrated fire management strategies, policies and action plans must be developed, with cross-sector collaboration, capacity development, clear roles and responsibilities, and adequate resources. And it is clear is that a paradigm shift is urgently needed, from a focus on suppression, to one on prevention and integrated management.

To mitigate the negative impacts of landscape fires (LFs) in the Western Balkans (WB), it is necessary to have inclusive, cross-boundary cooperation, and to strengthen the capacities and policies for landscape fire management (LFM) in the region. The Landscape Fire Management in the Western Balkans (LFMWB) Programme embeds these aspects with an aim to increase forest and landscape resilience to LFs. The increased resilience to LFs and the strengthening of Regional Southeast Europe / Caucasus Wildland Fire Network and establishing national networks will contribute to cross-boundary knowledge exchange and cooperation. To achieve the objectives of the LFMWB Programme, landscape and participatory approaches are applied involving different stakeholders in multi-stakeholder dialogue. The LFMWB Programme is working towards achieving the following results: establishing operational regional and national networks, developing country reports, preparation of regional strategies and regional policy guidelines. Moreover, a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue for integrating LFM into broader frameworks at the national level is initiated. All of the gained experience and knowledge will be put into practice by establishing and managing a competitive fund for community-based LFM in highly vulnerable regions to fire. The Programme activities contribute to strengthening the capacities of the stakeholders on LFM, adaptive landscape management and climate change as well as to improve the cooperation, capacities and policies regarding LFM in WB. The Landscape Fire Management in the Western Balkans is a regional initiative financed by the Global Programme Climate Change and Environment of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation – SDC and implemented by Farmahem and the Regional Fire Monitoring Center (RFMC) based in Skopje, North Macedonia, with backstopping support from the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation.

The objective of the USAID/US Forest Service South America Regional Fire Program is to improve the countries capacity to understand, prevent, manage, and recover from wildland fires.

To achieve this, first, the program conducted assessments of the overall fire management situation in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia, including existing training, curricula, and qualification systems. With this information, actions have been taken to support improvements in existing systems or, when needed, develop new interagency qualification systems.

As a result, the four countries started to work on their qualification systems integrated with ICS and international resources classification. Peru now has developed a new interagency qualification system, has given several standardized courses and all qualified responders will be registered in a new national database. This will contribute to a more efficient and effective national and regional capacity to coordinate fire management efforts, wildland fire suppression, resource sharing and mutual aid agreements.

An interagency standard qualification system ensures better interoperability in fire management activities. It is a system that qualifies training, experience, and physical fitness by incident position. As this system is performance-based, the responders assuming incident-related positions are the most qualified for the job, regardless the agency, jurisdiction or country they belong to. Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia have made significant progress in this matter. The joint work with the USAID/US Forest Service has proven to be fundamental to develop this tool and strengthen regional fire management overall capacity, which will help to mitigate wildland fire related problems in South America.

In 2022, the U.S. Forest Service internally published the Fire Management Assessment in Brazil and made it available to institutions that are part of international cooperation actions in the country. One of the objectives of the study was to present the current and future status of wildfires and fire management, based on joint work with institutions and key stakeholders. Considering the relevance of the assessment for strategic actions in Brazil, this summary presents reflections on the process of preparing the document, the methodology used, and the information obtained. In total, 50 questionnaires were answered by representatives of fire management institutions in Brazil, including 8 federal institutions, 21 state institutions, 4 municipal institutions, 13 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and 4 public universities. Through quantitative and qualitative data, there is information about fire prediction systems, training and qualifications in Brazil, the Incident Command System (ICS), wildfire investigation, fire ecology, and the management structure on Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units. As a result, the assessment asserts the need for integrated public policies and government practices in Brazil that address the biomes most impacted by fires, the standardization of institutions regarding qualification to strengthen fire prevention and management systems, and long-term actions to minimize the size, severity and impact of these events in the country.

In recent years we have been observing how in many parts of the world forest fires have become extremely complex emergencies, in many cases exceeding the national response capacities of the country where they occur, causing an increase in the demand for international resources to complement national efforts.
These emergencies underscore the need to gradually improve international cooperation between countries, to respond to large and complex emergencies.
Therefore, it is necessary to create exchange programs between firefighting organizations from different countries that build trust between them and where the transfer of experience and knowledge for capacity building around the management of this type of event is the backbone of these programs.
The international program EGIF was born with this idea, sponsored by the Chilean National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) and organized by the Pau Costa Foundation (PCF).
In the EGIF program, professionals from three different countries, Chile, Portugal and Spain and from five different organizations have participated to address four specific thematic areas of knowledge: forest fires behavior analysis, emergency organization, operations with technical fire and finally air operations.
During the presence of the EGIF in fires and through workshops, training sessions and lessons learned meetings, the EGIF shared work methodologies around these thematic areas.
Undoubtedly, through the transfer of knowledge and the creation of common working methods, bridges of trust have been created that will have an impact on better cooperation thanks to EGIF program.

Wildfire management in Western Europe is close to a tipping point and the last fire season has been a preview of conditions to be expected in the future. The rise in temperatures due to human-induced climate change will lead to conditions more conducive to the spread of wildfires in this region. A shift in wildfire governance is needed to proactively reduce wildfire risk as business-as-usual approaches to risk management are deemed to fail.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with experts on wildfire/forest fire in Western Europe to understand, the current challenges and opportunities in wildfire risk reduction and resilience. The proposed analysis provides helpful information for the various national perspectives and for identifying risk reduction priorities and strategies for decisionmakers to ensure that society, landscapes and forest become more resilient to wildfire. These strategies potentially reducing the impact of future wildfires on Western European society and delivery of ecosystem services.
Results indicate that there is need for lessons to be learnt from other countries and urgent actions is needed to be prepared for the conditions that are anticipated. Similarities in landscape and challenges provide for synergies and opportunities to collaborate on a regional level.
Currently there is not enough done to adapt to future wildfire conditions anticipated. There is opportunity to implement and adapt lessons and best practices from other fire-prone counties and other risks without having to learn through experience. Wildfire risk reduction need to be fast-tracked to make society, agencies and civil protection resilient to new wildfire risks.