20 March 2019, Brussels, Belgium.
With a clear trend towards longer fire seasons and a projected increase in fire risk in almost all of Europe, there is an urgent need to improve forest fire prevention and preparedness efforts through active sustainable forest management.
Extreme fires can release huge amounts of carbon dioxide in a very short time. They do not just burn up trees and shrubs and emit smoke. They impact European citizen’s lives and properties, and also leave behind long-lasting changes to the landscape. These changes have effects on the climate, including by damaging forests that would otherwise sequester carbon.
The Climate Change and Forest Fires in Europe conference, held in the European Parliament, will present the state of forest fire incidents in Europe, provide insights on the link between climate change and forest fires and will discuss the reasons for these developments and how to address them.
The event is moderated by the Director of the European Forest Institute Mediterranean Facility (EFIMED), Inazio Martinez de Arano, and will include presentations and discussions from:
- Hosting MEPs, Nuno Melo and Andrzej Grzyb
- Jesús San-Miguel-Ayanz, Senior Scientist, JRC
- Artur Runge-Metzger, Director DG CLIMA
- Humberto Delgado Rosa, Director DG ENV
- John Bell, Director DG RTD
- Pierre Bascou, Director DG AGRI
- Johannes Luchner, Director DG ECHO
- João Soveral, Portuguese Farmers Confederation, Portugal
- Karin Perers, Mellanskog Family Forest Association, Sweden
- Damian Zielinski, Directorate General State Forests, Poland
- Pedro Vieira, Bee2FireDetection
