Southwest Anatolia Forest Research Institute is participating in a large integrated project of the 7th Framework Programme of the EU on forest fires and climate change.

The first preparatory meeting for the launching of the project will take place in Tunisia, March 15-17^th.

 

Forest fires are a major concern in many countries in Europe, most notably in the South, in the Mediterranean Region, but also in Central and Northern Europe. Fires are also a major threat in the Northern African countries, or in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean. Forest fires are also a major concern in other Mediterranean-type areas of the World. Increased fire activity in many of these areas has been linked in the past to changes in land-use and land-cover due to the abandonment of the land and consequent socioeconomic changes. In the recent years, extreme fire episodes funnelled by heat waves and drought have plagued southern European countries, as well as other fire-areas of the world. It is very likely that forest fires will continue increasing in the future as a result of continued socioeconomic changes, which include land-abandonment but also land occupation for recreational purposes, expanding the rural-urban interface. Climate change, by elevating temperatures and reducing precipitation, will add further risk. Furthermore, increasing climate (droughts) or weather (heat waves) extremes are additional threats that we need to be prepared for in the coming years and decades.

 

FUME is a large-scale integrated projected funded by the EU under the 7th Framework Programme for a period of 48 months in which 33 groups of scientists, from 17 different countries, from 4 continents will study the interactions between land-use and land-cover changes, socioeconomic changes and climate change. The objectives will be, first, to understand how these factors interacted in the past to produce forest fires and, second, to model future changes in all these components to produce the best available projections on how forest fires might change in the coming decades. Special attention will be given to the projected increases in climate and weather extremes (drought, heat waves) since under such conditions fires become more devastating. FUME will produce, among other things, the most complete cartography of forest fires in Europe, and will identify the factors that were behind fires, particularly, large forest fires. Maps with future risk will also be produced as well as an evaluation of the vulnerability of the vegetation to the new conditions. Threats for regenerating ecosystems under climate extremes, particularly drought, will also be investigated. FUME will revise current protocols to deal with extreme fire situations, in order to anticipate the changes in preparedness that will be needed. Additionally, restoration strategies in the light of the new conditions will also be developed. Training activities and close relationships with users are foreseen to keep research aligned to the actual needs, and procedures for quick transfer of knowledge to application by managers are also a main objective of this project

 

FUME is coordinated by the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Toledo, ES)(cifu@uclm.es.). For local contact: alikavgaci1977@yahoo.com

 

The full list of participants is: