Towards International Cooperation in Managing Forest Fire Disasters in the Mediterranean Region

Abstract

Growing concern about the trend of increasing vegetation destruction by fire application and wildfires has led to a number of international cooperative initiatives in wildland fire science, management, and policy development. In the 1990’s a number of international and interdisciplinary fire research programmes contributed to a better understanding of the impacts of fire on ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, atmosphere, and climate. The development and improvement of the utilisation of operational space-borne sensors for wildland fire early warning, detection, monitoring, and impact assessment has resulted in enhanced capabilities to obtain detailed and comprehensive information on the extent of wildland fires occurrence and consequences. A large number of bilateral technical cooperation projects in fire management between the industrial and developing countries have resulted in an increasing expertise in technology transfer and methodologies to address local target groups and approaches in fire management.