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Enhancing the protection of mountainous areas from wildfires in Eastern Europe

27.01.2014

A series of workshops and conferences is being held to improve wildfire suppression in protected areas in Armenia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine, as the threat posed by fires in the Black Sea region is on the rise. Climate change is the main cause of the increase - due to higher temperatures, especially in summer when most fires occur. Extensive fires would substantially decrease the already limited forested areas of the region.

The series, part of the EU-funded project, “Utilizing Stream Waters in the Suppression of Forest Fires with the Help of New Technologies,” also referred to as “Streams-2-SUPPRESS-Fires,” began in October 2013 and will run until March 2015. The purpose of these workshops and conferences is to present innovations and new technologies to improve wildfire suppression and the sustainable management of protected areas, with an emphasis on mountainous areas.

The meetings are a chance for researchers and scientists involved in Streams-2-SUPPRESS-Fires to present their national experiences and special training sessions to be conducted to help people interested in the conservation of protected areas learn how to use the fire and hydrological models that are used in the project, which is led by the Greece-based Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology (EmaTTECH).

The project will also entail the development of joint strategies, methodologies and action plans to ensure the protection and sustainable management in the natural forested protected areas of the Black Sea. The next workshop, "Current Status of Fire Researches and Fire Management in the Black Sea and the Eastern European Regions," will take place in Yalta, Ukraine, on 8-11 April 2014.  Read more