Perceptions of forest experts on climate change and fire management in European Mediterranean forests

Raftoyannis, Yannis; Nocentini, Susanna; Marchi, Enrico; Sainz, Rafael Calama; Guemes, C. Garcia; Pilaš, Ivan; Perić, Sanja; Paulo, Joana Amaral; Moreira-Marcelino, A.C.; Costa‐Ferreira, Maria; Kakouris, E.; Lindner, Marcus

doi:10.3832/ifor0817-006

Cited by 47 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…These can be very substantial ( figure 3). For example, Greece, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain together invest E2500 million each year in fire management, with most of this budget dedicated to fire detection and suppression [16]. This is similar to the estimated global average annual losses from fires reported by EM-DAT for 1987-2004.…”

Section: (B) Impacts On Society: Direct Effects On Peoplesupporting

confidence: 59%

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Doerr¹,

Santín²

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

481

269

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Wildfire has been an important process affecting the Earth's surface and atmosphere for over 350 million years and human societies have coexisted with fire since their emergence. Yet many consider wildfire as an accelerating problem, with widely held perceptions both in the media and scientific papers of increasing fire occurrence, severity and resulting losses. However, important exceptions aside, the quantitative evidence available does not support these perceived overall trends. Instead, global area burned appears to have overall declined over past decades, and there is increasing evidence that there is less fire in the global landscape today than centuries ago. Regarding fire severity, limited data are available. For the western USA, they indicate little change overall, and also that area burned at high severity has overall declined compared to pre-European settlement. Direct fatalities from fire and economic losses also show no clear trends over the past three decades. Trends in indirect impacts, such as health problems from smoke or disruption to social functioning, remain insufficiently quantified to be examined. Global predictions for increased fire under a warming climate highlight the already urgent need for a more sustainable coexistence with fire. The data evaluation presented here aims to contribute to this by reducing misconceptions and facilitating a more informed understanding of the realities of global fire. This article is part of themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

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Section: (B) Impacts On Society: Direct Effects On Peoplesupporting

confidence: 59%

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Doerr¹,

Santín²

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

481

269

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“…The responses were irregularly distributed per wilaya. A sample profile in terms of age, gender, level of education, type of employment, and working region was recognized as a factor influencing perception/opinion of respondents (Williamson et al 2005, Colombo 2006, Raftoyannis et al 2014. Our sample (N=228) is mainly composed of males (n = 221, 97%).…”

Section: Participants' Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…In the Western Mediterranean region, a number of researchers have approached the challenges of fire management by exploiting the knowledge of experts: with local farmers and fire experts in Spain (Zarraga Moreno 1988, Marino et al 2014, Raftoyannis et al 2014; in the analysis of training provided to Portuguese forestry workers and their opinions on fires (Colaço 2005, 2006; regarding the prevention of unwanted fires (Boström et al 2013); regarding agro-forestry farmers/landowners' attitudes towards fire prevention, including their perceptions of the causes of fires (Xavier & De Belém Martins 2010); and in the evaluation of the reduction of forest fire risk in Catalonia (Mogas & Riera 2001). A number of other projects have adopted similar approaches, such as FireSmart (Sebastián-López et al 2011) andFireParadox (Silva et al 2010a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfires in Algeria: problems and challenges

Meddour-Sahar¹

2015

iForest

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© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionIn the period 2003-2010, more than 5 million ha of forest were burned in the Mediterranean region, and more than 600 000 wildfires were registered (FAO 2013). From 2006 to 2010, approximately 269 000 fires burned a total of 1 907 512 ha of Mediterranean forests, other wooded lands (OWLs), such as shrubland and grasslands (on average 54 000 fires and 0.4 million ha per year, respectively), and agricultural lands (FAO 2013); of the total area burnt (38%), about 731 000 ha were forests. Approximately 78% of these fires burned in four southern countries of the EU (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain), and 50% only in Portugal and Spain.In the future climate change prediction scenarios, wildfire risk is forecast to increase nearly everywhere in the Mediterranean region (Giannakopoulos et al. 2009), with the southern Mediterranean area being at higher risk all year round. Projections for 2030 to 2060 suggest that the Maghreb (and the Balkans, North Adriatic, Central Spain, and Turkey) will suffer at least an additional month of high wildfire risk (Giannakopoulos et al. 2009).Whereas the five southern member states of the EU (or Western Mediterranean countries -FAO 2013), the so-called fire club (Vélez 2000), are well considered within the fire literature, the same cannot be said for the southern Mediterranean Maghreb countries. For instance, it was only in 2010 that the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) started to include Northern African countries in the mapping of burnt areas and the assessment of fire danger (European Commission 2013). The wildfire problems experienced in some Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, such as Algeria, are therefore almost unknown despite the fact that they significantly contribute to general wildfire statistics within the Mediterranean Basin area (Meddour-Sahar et al. 2013a). In the period from 2006 to 2010, for example, the total number of fires recorded in Algeria was 12 230 compared with 6 996 in Greece. The total burnt area in Algeria during the same period was 147 685 ha, representing about 8% of the total burnt area in Mediterranean countries (including forests, OWLs, and agricultural lands); this percentage was greater than for Bulgaria (3%), Turkey (3%) and France (3% -FAO 2013).Fire management challenges are not currently an object of great interest in North Africa, where recent literature on wildfires is rather scarce and mainly oriented towards fire ecology studies . Moreover, the Community-Based Fire Management (CBFiM) approach to fire management (FAO 2011) adopts similar tools, such as the Participatory Rapid Appraisal, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of projects. We consider expert analyses to be a potential and practical tool for developing a deeper understanding of fire management issues in Algeria, which provides a highly useful and relevant case study for exploring some of the challenges related to wildfires (i.e., fires are a permanent threat

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“…These episodes demonstrate that even strong suppression resources and capabilities may be inadequate when faced, for instance, with extreme fire behavior or multiple-fire starts linked to human risk (Rachaniotis & Pappis 2006). The challenges related to wildfires may increase with the predicted climate change, which could intensify fire propagation and increase burned areas, hamper fire suppression operations and increase costs (Raftoyannis et al 2014), which will be further raised by the expansion of wildland-urban interfaces (WUIs -Liang et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of factors influencing deployment of fire suppression resources in Spain using artificial neural networks

Costafreda-Aumedes¹,

Cardíl²,

Molina³

et al. 2016

iForest

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In Spain, the established fire control policy states that all fires must be controlled and put out as soon as possible. Though budgets have not restricted operations until recently, we still experience large fires and we often face multiple-fire situations. Furthermore, fire conditions are expected to worsen in the future and budgets are expected to drop. To optimize the deployment of firefighting resources, we must gain insights into the factors affecting how it is conducted. We analyzed the national data base of historical fire records in Spain for patterns of deployment of fire suppression resources for large fires. We used artificial neural networks to model the relationships between the daily fire load, fire duration, fire type, fire size and response time, and the personnel and terrestrial and aerial units deployed for each fire in the period 1998-2008. Most of the models highlighted the positive correlation of burned area and fire duration with the number of resources assigned to each fire and some highlighted the negative influence of daily fire load. We found evidence suggesting that firefighting resources in Spain may already be under duress in their compliance with Spain's current full suppression policy.

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Perceptions of forest experts on climate change and fire management in European Mediterranean forests

Cited by 47 publications

References 46 publications

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Wildfires in Algeria: problems and challenges

Analysis of factors influencing deployment of fire suppression resources in Spain using artificial neural networks

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