Forest fires and wildfires are hitting Europe hard this summer. As well as life-saving response, fire prevention and preparedness have critical roles to play. An in-depth look at some of the EU’s activities to protect against devastating wildfire events.
Across Europe firefighters are working around the clock to bring wildfires under control, in surging temperatures and increased fire risk. Many regions have already suffered major fire events and remain at high risk.
The statistics are stark. Nearly 346 000 hectares of land had been recorded as burnt as of 16 July, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
More land has already burned in 2022 than in all of 2021 and EFFIS has predicted that there could be more land burned this year than in 2017, the current worst recorded year for wildfires.
When a country needs extra support, it can request assistance through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). Albania requested assistance from the UCPM in June, and the EU mobilised rapid support to help fight forest fires there.
Major fires followed in other countries, resulting in evacuations, loss of habitat and property and tragically, lives lost:
“It is clear that we are facing a global weather change, and that requires us Europeans to respond jointly. Throughout this year's forest fire season, the EU stands ready to coordinate and finance European firefighting operations to help saves lives, livelihoods and preserve our forests.”
While the current conditions show the need for fast, efficient and effective response, response alone is not enough. Everything possible must be done to prevent wildfires from breaking out, and being prepared for when they do happen.
Working on prevention means increasing the resilience of society, infrastructure and ecosystems (on land and in water) to disasters.
The best way to reduce the intensity of wildfires is through better forest management. The EU forest strategy for 2030 focuses on the protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests.
The strategy calls for more biodiversity-friendly practices such as uneven-aged and continuous-cover forestry, creation or maintenance of mixed-species forests, and forest related risk management practices.
The 2021 EU strategy on adaptation to climate change also emphasises mitigating wildfire risk through better management and land-use planning.
Some practical examples of wildfire risk prevention are in the land-based wildfire prevention report, which looks at current and future trends of wildfires and tools to monitor them.
The study Economics of Disaster Prevention and Preparedness highlights that wildfire risk reduction investments yield ten times more benefits than they cost.
EU-funded projects with a special focus on wildfire prevention:
We can prevent wildfires by building resilient and resistant landscapes, by ensuring that the structure and use of forests, woodland and vegetation are resistant, by investing in wildfire expertise and enhancing firefighting preparedness.
When wildfires can’t be prevented, disaster preparedness gets people and systems ready to respond. Preparedness includes training, exercises for teams and systems to test their readiness, and practical measures to anticipate needs.
In August 2021, Greece experienced around 65 simultaneous forest fires per day, with average temperatures often exceeding 40°C. In response to this, the EU strengthened cooperation with Greece to help prepare for the 2022 forest fire season.
More than 200 firefighters (as well as technical equipment) from Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Romania have been financed and coordinated under the UCPM to be on stand-by in Greece for the 2022 forest fire season. This means not only faster response but an opportunity for knowledge-sharing between the firefighters from different countries.
One of them is Ove Stokkeland, from Norway. Ove said: “It’s a great opportunity for us to learn and share experience in how to fight forest fires in this pre-positioning to Greece this summer. As a Nordic country, we need to prepare for the future, of more extreme forest fires, and this is a great opportunity to bring this knowledge back to Norway.”
The EU-funded Advanced Fire Analysis Network (AFAN) project also works on preparedness, improving European response to wildfire emergencies through knowledge sharing and learning. The network being built by AFAN is based on specific examples of wildfire risk, but the project hopes that it can be extended to other types of wildfire knowledge and to people acting in different stages of the emergency management cycle.
The European scientific community is also looking at how to support first responders during their work when the wildfires already take place. For example, a dedicated team at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has designed an index that can distinguish between extreme and non-extreme wildfires. It can help experts predict the potential for each fire to become extreme and plan their response accordingly.
Through prevention of wildfires, preparedness for when they happen and fast, efficient response, EU activities are working to support strengthened resilience to wildfires at each stage in emergency management.
The EU ensures a coordinated approach to preventing, preparing for, and responding to forest fires.
When the scale of a forest fire overwhelms the response capabilities of a country, it can request assistance through the UPCM. Nearly one-fifth of requests for assistance through the UCPM are in response to forest fires.
Once the UCPM is activated, the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) coordinates assistance made available by the UCPM countries; EU member states and six additional participating states.
When fires of this magnitude occur, UCPM member and participating states show solidarity by sending support to other countries, including helicopters and firefighting planes, equipment, and teams.
The EU created the European Civil Protection Pool which brings together a number of readily available civil protection capacities, for a stronger and more coherent collective response.
Should a wildfire emergency require more assistance, the EU activates resources from rescEU which includes a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters, medical evacuation planes, as well as a stockpile of medical items and field hospitals that can respond to health emergencies.
The EU's Copernicus emergency satellite mapping service complements forest firefighting operations with detailed information from space. Last year, Copernicus produced 61 maps of areas affected by forest fires across the globe.
Maps and ‘daily flash’ reports available on the ERCC portal assist in the critical provision of timely, user-friendly data available to all actors in the emergency response cycle.
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