The ARIEM+ first and INTERLUMES projects more recently have enabled the developmet of a mechanism to support collaboration between services in the Spanish regions of Galicia, Extremadura and Castile and Leon and those in northern Portugal responsible for mobilising and managing resources during events such as forest fires, floods and erosion. It has enabled the development of a single operational command structure to improve response coordination and elaborated harmonised protocols and tactics for tackling emergencies.
ARIEM+ and Interlumes are both INTERREG POPTEC projects that have enabled the member institutions to improve coordination at different levels on prevention and detection of, and intervention against, emergencies including forest fires, which are quite common in the border area. The project has also allowed Castile and Leon to acquire specialised firefighting vehicles and personal protection items to improve firefighters’ efficiency. In INTERLUMES there has also been an investment in different construction of infraestructures for aerial or terrestrial means and investment in improving comuniccation and other technological developments.

One important piece of the projects was training and population awareness campaigns. Cross-border drills included simulations of different emergencies in ARIEM+ and two final exercises focusing on collaboration in preventing and extinguishing forest fires were organised in Spain in October 2019. After the drills, a set of conclusions was drawn up indicating how they could be applied to real-life situations.
In INTERLUMES there were also different training and awareness activities run from CDF (specialized training centre) from 2021 to 2022.

The resolution of the 7th International Wildland Fire Conference 2019 stated that in many regions of the world, wildfires are a growing threat to communities and to natural, cultural, rural, urban and industrial landscapes. The problem is increasing due to the consequences of social, economic and ecological change (land-use change, demographic change, ecosystem degradation), as well as climate change. It was stated that current risk governance and institutional arrangements are inadequate to cope with this growing trend and that cross-sectoral approaches are required by unified and integral planning in order to strengthen societal, environmental and economic resilience to landscape fires by addressing. Recommended action addressed, among other, risk governance and ownership and strengthening of local action. While the main responsibility to capacitate state authorities and civil society in applying principles of integrated landscape fire management is at national level, cross-boundary cooperation in fire management allows the exchange of knowledge and expertise in fire management. During the last four years, advancements have been made to address the principles of integrated fire management through border-crossing agreements and joint community involvement along borders between jurisdictions and nations. Bilateral and multilateral projects and programmes will be presented in the Session „International Cooperation“. The GFMC will highlight and summarize those examples of international cooperation, which cannot be presented by responsible implementation partners in this Session.

This reports initial results from the Fire-smart landscape governance programme (2021-2023), implemented by Tropenbos International (TBI) and partners in Bolivia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda.

Effective fire management requires long-term planning and that must involve all landscape stakeholders including smallholders, indigenous and local communities, local government, private enterprises, etc.) and that incorporates the needs and interests of women, men, youth and marginalized groups. At the landscape level, the programme applied integrated, context specific fire management practices, alongside evidence-based multistakeholder dialogue and awareness-raising, to reach agreements on developing participatory fire management plans. Practices, business models, financial mechanisms and locally owned solutions were co-created and demonstrated. In Bolivia for example, two municipal governments included fire risk prevention in their development plans, and the government adopted forest fire reduction targets in its revised Nationally Determined Contributions. In Indonesia, local ‘smart patrols’ were established, trained champion farmers showcased fire-smart peatland agricultural practices, and formal collaboration was established between the national peatland restoration agency and the district government. However, challenges remain where improved policies and regulations related to land-use planning, agriculture and forestry are not always in place, now being developed in Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda, to improve effective implementation of fire-smart management practices on the ground. However, this approach could be more firmly anchored in NDCs, and fire management policies and plans should be coherent with broader national frameworks on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The impacts of climate change on fire regimes are resulting in lengthening wildfire seasons, more extreme fires, and restricting opportunities to conduct prescribed burning. Coupled with decades of fire exclusion, interacting disturbances, and expanding urban interface, changing fire regimes have profound implications for ecosystems and society. As the climate continues to change, land managers will be increasingly challenged in developing and adopting strategies that facilitate societal and ecosystem adaptation to changing fire regimes. This can include increasing the pace and scale of actions proven to increase ecosystem and societal resilience. These strategies must include diverse perspectives and empower Indigenous cultures to develop management strategies based on their traditional knowledge. Yet, climate change may significantly reduce the relevance of historical conditions so that novel management approaches may be needed. However, adopting entirely new strategies is challenged by uncertainty in outcomes, management of societal expectations, and longstanding organizational cultural norms. Recognizing that these challenges can’t be overcome with simple science solutions, several science funding and boundary spanning organizations have partnered to explore the science, outreach, and policy needs to advance adaptation to changing fire regimes. This talk will present key themes from a recent workshop on the nexus of fire and climate change that form a preliminary framework for advancing adaptation to changing fire regimes. As an outcome of this talk, we hope to gain international perspectives to further inform the development of this emerging framework.

Objectives: Wildfires are among the key risks with cross-border dimension identified in National Risk Assessments by European Countries. The EU capacities to cope with wildfires have been recently increased, however better coordination is needed. The UCPM legislation stands that countries shall participate in peer reviews to promote effective disaster risk governance and exchanges of good practices. The 2022 EU Wildfire Prevention Action Plan foresees peer reviews on wildfires among the key actions in strengthening capacity building. In this context, a development of a specific analytical framework focused on wildfire risk become strategic to support this process.
Methods: The analytical framework guides the fact-finding desk and in-field visits within peer reviews. It ensures that all key aspects are addressed during an inclusive stakeholder consultation process. The wildfire peer review assessment framework (WF-PRAF) was developed based on sound desk research and an extensive expert consultation process and follows the structure of the wider framework drafted to support the current EU peer review cycle, successfully tested within the Romanian peer review conducted in 2022.
Results: The WF-PRAF is flexible and characterised by a modular structure that ensure an adequate level of adaptability to the specific needs and recognises 7 essential topics on which the analysis should be constructed: risk governance, risk assessment, risk management planning, risk prevention, risk preparedness, emergency response, and recovery and lessons learned.
Conclusion: The WF-PRAF will support the implementation of targeted peer reviews on wildfires, promoting a coherent risk management approach to strengthen resilience across the EU.

The reality of wildfires varies across the globe. On a large and small scale, regionally or nationally, the experience of wildfire professionals also varies according to the reality to which they have been exposed.

When professionals face complex situations, they may be new. Both in countries used to deal with wildfires and in countries where wildfires are just starting to occur. In these situations, the response and collaboration mechanisms are well developed, fully known and accepted. Receiving help in the form of airplanes, helicopters and firefighters is "normal". Even though we are talking about resources from countries with very different realities.

But, when it comes to share expert personnel in decision making support or other strategic positions, the reality is that there is a barrier to doing so. It seems that this type of support could be seen as a sign of lack of capability, while sharing air and ground resources is completely understood without this connotation.

Taking into account the current and future situation of greater affection and impact of wildfires at a global level, we must be humble and able to keep an open mind in all aspects. Working to find a way to share and integrate experts in strategic support during wildfire suppression will be a qualitative advance that is worth making the necessary efforts for its correct understanding and articulation.

This type of support is particularly important in countries that are just starting to deal with wildfires and do not have the experience and knowledge acquired.

This reviews the history of wildfires in Ethiopia and discusses plans aimed at improving fire management, using an integrated approach at national, sub-national and community levels. It presents findings from a joint PENHA-TBI and CIFOR-ICRAF programme (2022-23) that identifies opportunities and challenges from an assessment of national forest management policies and fire management practices, and maps and prioritizes fire-prone areas where efforts and resources should be focused. It also identifies capacity gaps in predicting, detecting, reporting and controlling wildfires, leading to the preparation of a draft national fire management strategy for consideration by national authorities for foreseeing and acting on fire risk, and making fire management part of forest and rangeland management decisions. Federal and State forestry agencies will collaborate in developing the strategy. Outside of the programme’s sphere of influence, however, is the urgent need for concerted efforts to promote participation, build awareness, and change mindsets at community and policy levels, encouraging cooperation between multiple actors, including development partners to support capacity strengthening. Alongside this, much more investment in firefighting equipment is required, to reduce reliance on external assistance, with more efficient coordination with international partners for swifter and more effective responses. It is also important to establish and equip task forces at local level, with the involvement of local administrations, communities and trained and equipped brigades and volunteer groups. Significant additional resources and coordination mechanisms must also be approved at federal level in order to facilitate this. The institutional and social aspects of effective strategy implementation are emphasized.

The International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) is an independent, non-profit organization. For more than 30 years the IAWF has facilitated global communication on wildland fire and provided objective leadership through a neutral forum of diverse experts who consider and address important, and at times controversial, wildland fire issues. The IAWF membership spans nearly all continents. The membership comprises a global voice and includes wildland fire managers, land managers, scientists, agency personnel and others who support IAWF’s goal to achieve a more sustainable wildland fire paradigm.
To support agencies and organisations from different parts of the globe, the Association decided to craft position papers related to the most pressing issues the global wildland community is facing. We envisaged that these position papers would characterize the state of the issues and suggest actions needed to be undertaken by various agencies. They also serve as resource for the global wildland fire community.
In May 2022, IAWF hosted a conference on climate and wildfire in the United States and Australia. In anticipation of this important event, IAWF created a position paper on climate change.
Following overwhelmingly positive feedback from the global fire community on this position paper, the IAWF started to work on developing a position paper on use of prescribed fire.
This paper and the subsequent presentation will show the critical role that position papers play in supporting agencies and organisations in developing their policies and strategies.