ProPopulus Team
This year Spain has seen the equivalent of more than 100,000 football fields burn in wildfires. The abandonment of rural areas and traditional agriculture and forestry has resulted in the accumulation of biomass in forests, which, coupled with an extremely warm and windy summer, has produced a combination that feeds the risk of big forest fires.
The prevention and control of forest fires is the central theme of a high-level workshop to be held in Madrid on 14 and 15 October 2019, sponsored by the European Forestry Institute (EFI) and the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Technology (INIA), with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food of Spain.
The workshop will bring together various stakeholders and experts to discuss the feasibility of a holistic paradigm integrated into the preventive management of forest fire risks, focusing on particularly in the socio-economic aspects of these. The workshop aims to take stock of the experiences in five continents to advance a collective vision in the fire prevention strategies.
Through specific presentations on each country’s experiences, roundtables and open discussions, the workshop aims to expand the fire agenda. Confirmed speakers include economist David E. Calkin of the Rocky Mountain Research Station (USA) as keynote speaker, Luca Tacconia, of the National University from Australia, Canberra (Australia), and Cristina Vega-Garcia of the University of Lleida (Spain).
During the two days of the event, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the existing experiences at global scale, scientific research, what innovative elements can be counted on and what are intervention options to assess how to incorporate socio-economic dimensions into the various approaches to fire prevention.