Protection of the Community's forests against fire
The Council of the European Union has adopted a Regulation extending the Community system of information on forest fires for a further five years (1997-2001). The scheme, established in 1992, has permitted the development of Community cooperation on forest fires and its continued development will provide an effective instrument for better evaluating forest-fire protection measures and for better analysing the causes of fires. Under the system, 60 million hectares of forest, equivalent to about half of European forests, have been classified as fire-risk zones. Fires continue to restrict the sustainable development of forests in fire-risk zones, thus reducing their contribution to the development of sustainable agriculture and the management of rural areas. The protection of forests, therefore, directly contribrutes to the objectives of the European Union in this area. The proposed budget for the continuation of the scheme is ECU 70 million.