NEW! Wildfire Peer Reviews
The Commission has launched a new tool to support wildfire risk management capacity building and good practices exchange among European countries. The Wildfire Peer Review Assessment Framework (Wildfire PRAF) will facilitate peer reviews of wildfire risk management systems within the framework of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). This new tool will help countries assess their capacity to prevent wildfires from starting and their preparedness to cope with them.
Member States and Participating States are invited to volunteer for a wildfire management peer review or to use this tool for a self-review, at national and/or regional level.
Wildfires are one of the most prominent disaster risks in Europe and are increasing in intensity and geographic scope due to climate change. The year 2022 was the second worst in Europe in terms of hectares of burnt areas since 2006, behind 2017 only. In 2022, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism was activated 11 times by 6 countries (Albania, Czechia, France, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia) due to large wildfires that exceeded their national capacity to cope. This is indicative of the significant attention paid to forest fires across the disaster risk management cycle under the UCPM.
In September 2022, the EU ministers responsible for civil protection called on the Commission to step up its support to Member States for wildfire prevention. In response, we put forward a Wildfire Prevention Action Plan. The Wildfire PRAF is a key contribution to this action plan.