This conference focuses on connecting fire ecology research and management across geographic and disciplinary boundaries. The conference will cover a wide range of topics to address the main challenges of wildfires in the era of climate change with the perspective of fire ecology.
The present challenges stress the need to enhance the debate on solutions, including the inefficiency of wildfire suppression at all cost, the use of more traditional landscape management for preservation of ecosystems under a changing climate, the benefits of prescribing fire to maintain long-term ecosystem services, and the need for establishing a wildfire risk culture.
We aim to provide a forum for managers, scientists, educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to share and discuss the key wildland fire issues and topics below:
Main Topics
Subtopics include:
Debate between wildfire management and conservationism
The role of natural wildfires in ecosystems
Fire ecology in different ecosystems
Ecological changes driven by climate change
Controlled fire use for ecosystem services and conservation
Impacts of fire on wildlife and endangered species
Effects of fire on biodiversity
Restoration best practices and post fire management
Subtopics include:
Traditional ecological knowledge and fire use
Historical fire uses in different ecosystems (e.g., Mediterranean, peatland, boreal, alpine)
Traditional good practices applied in fire management by local communities
Fire experiences from fire prone countries: lessons learned
Subtopics include:
Prescribing fire (for fire ecology purposes) vs fire management (exclusively for land management)
Cost-benefits of fire ecology for landscape management
Subtopics include:
Review of the most recent extreme wildfires: causes and impacts
Fire threats around the world: Mediterranean, Terafires Central Europe, Atlantic and Nordic peat fires, Russia, Israel, Iran, Syria, North Africa, South America, Tropical fires, etc.
Impacts of climate change on new fire generations, fire ecology, fire regimes and affected areas
Novel technologies for landscape and wildfire management
Subtopics include:
Policies in different countries
Debate about fire exclusion polices vs fire management
WUI fires and planning policies
Subtopics include:
Analysis of WUI prevention and fire mitigation approaches
Environmental impacts of wildfires and smoke emissions (i.e., community health)
The role of gender in wildfires around Europe
Education, awareness and communication
