Side Event: Prevention and restoration on forest fires. Linking actions before and after fire.

Forest fires are a major threat for Mediterranean ecosystems and population in our region. Usually the focus on suppression and preparedness activities is higher for the general population and also at political level. Nevertheless, at technical level, both prevention and post fire restoration are considered at the same level as suppression and preparedness as well as key factors to manage the forest fire problem in our countries.

With this side event proposal we aimed to open a discussion and share different approaches and points of view on how prevention and restoration are linked and how can we improve the coordination of the actions on each of those areas of work.

The complete cycle of forest fires management considers different phases such as prevention, preparedness, suppression and restoration. Being preparedness and suppression more linked to the response of the forest fire event and being prevention and restoration the first and last phases to consider within the cycle.

What happens if we take out of the equation preparedness and suppression? What are the links between the first phase of prevention and the last one of restoration? Are those lines of work really related? How present are prevention measures on restoration phase and vice versa? What are the challenges we face at Mediterranean level to make prevention and restoration measures sufficiently and effectively linked to support each other?

All those questions have been part of the technical reflection of long experience experts on the subjects who will share their national approaches and knowledge with the participants of the side event.

Event Objectives and Outputs

• Objectives: The main objective was to share knowledge and experience at Mediterranean level on the focus of the relation between prevention and restoration.

• Expected outputs: Identification of better practices and synergic approaches at Mediterranean level that improve both prevention and restoration in a transversal way.