Periodic Reporting for period 3 - FIRELOGUE (Cross-sector dialogue for Wildfire Risk Management)
Reporting period: 2024-11-01 to 2025-11-30
Wildfires are a growing problem across the world, as unprecedented wildfires have raged with an intensity and across geographical regions never seen before. Furthermore, the multitude of stakeholders – ranging from forestry and agriculture to infrastructure operators, insurance, civil society, civil protection authorities and first responders – constitutes a challenge in designing integrated wildfire risk management (WFMR) policies. In line with demands for more public participation, transparency and fairness in risk management institutions and procedures, Firelogue aimed to coordinate and support the Innovation Actions (IAs) funded under Green Deal Call "LC-GD-1-1-2020 - Preventing and fighting extreme wildfires with the integration and demonstration of innovative means". The overall aim of the project was to contribute too the reduction of wildfire risk while taking justice aspects into consideration and making synergies and conflicts between different stakeholders and measures explicit and hence actionable.
Firelogue was organised along three dimensions:
1. The overall coordination and networking between the EU Fire Projects (Support Dimension). This encompassed the organisation of Wildfire Project Clustering Events with the first event implemented digitally in April 2022 and two subsequent physical events, one in November 2023 and another one in May 20205, both in Brussels. In addition, a Joint Impact Assessment was developed accross the projects and communication and dissemination teams joined forces under #EUFireProjectsUnited.
2. The development of an overview of project results and facilitation of collaboration (Coordination dimension). The coordinating dimension in Firelogue built on the elaboration of equity and justice aspects in wildfire risk management as an important dimension for developing effective strategies in a complex multi-stakeholder environment. Under this dimension, the Just Transition concept and its applicability to the WFRM context were explored and even translated into a Nature Climate Change publication. In addition, five thematic working groups (environment/ecology, citizen engagement, infrastructure, insurance and civil protection) were established which discussed the results from the IAs and offer a forum for developing policy recommendations. Their results translated into a dedicated Deliverable on recommendations and a Policy Brief developed jointly with the Green Deal Support Office (https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/strategy/strategy-2020-2024/environment-and-climate/european-green-deal/green-deal-projects-support/green-deal-resources/multi-stakeholders-recommendations-integrated-wildfire-risk-management(opens in new window)).
In addition, Firelogue facilitated the collabration of the IAs on a joint proposal for "An Integrated Wildfire Risk Management Strategy for the EU: developing resilient landscapes and safer communities" (https://zenodo.org/records/15525837(opens in new window)) as well as a summary document (https://zenodo.org/records/17200695(opens in new window)) which was translated into French, Spanish and German. All documents are available via the Firelogue Zenodo Community. The summary has also been shared with the relevant Commissioners.
3. The Connecting Dimension relates to the integration of knowledge. Firelogue therefore developed a knowledge platform building in the Lessons on Fire platform by the Pau Costa Foundation. It includes the Technology Mall which will allow the creation of short portraits for the technological solutions developed. For the non-technological solutions, a dedicated section for “WFRM measures” has been created. In addition, a case study map containing the location of all IA and FirEUrisk case studies as well as a summary of their activities was created. There is also a library of fire-related articles and scientific research papers, to which the users can upload their work and become part of the WFRM community as well as an online calendar of fire-related events where a registered user can upload and promote event/workshop/conference etc. Moreover, the Firelogue Thematic Strands contributing to the creation of a knowledge base or further processing in the Working Groups (see above) have taken up their work. Finally, a roadmap detailing the collaboration between the Innovation Actions was developed and several conferences were attended collaboratively such as the IX International Conference on Forest Fire Research (ICFFR) in Coimbra in November 2022, the International Wildland Fire Conference (IWFC) in Porto in May 2023 or the joint participation in the Civil Protection Forum 2024 were highlights if the project.
1. The overall coordination and networking between the EU Fire Projects (Support Dimension). This encompassed the organisation of Wildfire Project Clustering Events with the first event implemented digitally in April 2022 and two subsequent physical events, one in November 2023 and another one in May 20205, both in Brussels. In addition, a Joint Impact Assessment was developed accross the projects and communication and dissemination teams joined forces under #EUFireProjectsUnited.
2. The development of an overview of project results and facilitation of collaboration (Coordination dimension). The coordinating dimension in Firelogue built on the elaboration of equity and justice aspects in wildfire risk management as an important dimension for developing effective strategies in a complex multi-stakeholder environment. Under this dimension, the Just Transition concept and its applicability to the WFRM context were explored and even translated into a Nature Climate Change publication. In addition, five thematic working groups (environment/ecology, citizen engagement, infrastructure, insurance and civil protection) were established which discussed the results from the IAs and offer a forum for developing policy recommendations. Their results translated into a dedicated Deliverable on recommendations and a Policy Brief developed jointly with the Green Deal Support Office (https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/strategy/strategy-2020-2024/environment-and-climate/european-green-deal/green-deal-projects-support/green-deal-resources/multi-stakeholders-recommendations-integrated-wildfire-risk-management(opens in new window)).
In addition, Firelogue facilitated the collabration of the IAs on a joint proposal for "An Integrated Wildfire Risk Management Strategy for the EU: developing resilient landscapes and safer communities" (https://zenodo.org/records/15525837(opens in new window)) as well as a summary document (https://zenodo.org/records/17200695(opens in new window)) which was translated into French, Spanish and German. All documents are available via the Firelogue Zenodo Community. The summary has also been shared with the relevant Commissioners.
3. The Connecting Dimension relates to the integration of knowledge. Firelogue therefore developed a knowledge platform building in the Lessons on Fire platform by the Pau Costa Foundation. It includes the Technology Mall which will allow the creation of short portraits for the technological solutions developed. For the non-technological solutions, a dedicated section for “WFRM measures” has been created. In addition, a case study map containing the location of all IA and FirEUrisk case studies as well as a summary of their activities was created. There is also a library of fire-related articles and scientific research papers, to which the users can upload their work and become part of the WFRM community as well as an online calendar of fire-related events where a registered user can upload and promote event/workshop/conference etc. Moreover, the Firelogue Thematic Strands contributing to the creation of a knowledge base or further processing in the Working Groups (see above) have taken up their work. Finally, a roadmap detailing the collaboration between the Innovation Actions was developed and several conferences were attended collaboratively such as the IX International Conference on Forest Fire Research (ICFFR) in Coimbra in November 2022, the International Wildland Fire Conference (IWFC) in Porto in May 2023 or the joint participation in the Civil Protection Forum 2024 were highlights if the project.
From a scientific point of view, the main achievement development so far is the conceptual basis for integrating equity and justice aspects into multi-stakeholder processes in managing wildfire risk. More specifically, Firelogue applied aspects of Just Transition and environmental justice to the wildfire risk context and proposed that the “justice lense” will allow for the identification of synergies and conflicts across different stakeholder groups. We presupposed that an understanding of these synergies and conflicts with respect to overall WFRM interests but also with respect to specific measures is important to design integrated multi-stakeholder WFRM strategies. Tying this approach to workshop concepts will allow to make synergies and conflicts explicit and hence actionable. This conceptual grounding was an entirely novel approach to engaging stakeholders in WFRM. It was presented in a joint paper among several partners (IIASA, FhG, CTFC) that has was accepted for publication by Nature Climate Change (NCC).
The concept was via workshop formats by the means of five thematic working groups (environment/ecology, society, insurance, infrastructure and civil protection. The working groups wereled by Firelogue partners CTFC, VOST, IIASA, KEMEA and TIEMS. They are composed of experts from the Green Deal IAs as well as additional experts from the Firelogue Associated Partners and the wider Firelogue network. This conceptual grounding and “discussion infrastructure” served as a blue print for the practical design of integrated WFRM strategies at different scales.
In addition, Firelogue has advanced scientific work on policy coherence in wildfire risk management, tipping points in risk management systems or the use of targets and KPIs in mannaging wildfire risk. The main impact is to be expected from the feeding of all Firelogue and IA results into the mentioned joint strategy proposal which is likely to inform a Commission Communication to be released in the first quarter of 2026. Due to its integrated character, this proposal aims to reduce wildfire risk at all scales and the subsequent negative impact on societies and the environment.
Finally, Firelogue has established its digital platform. Building on the Lessons on Fire platform by Firelogue partner Pau Costa Foundation (PCF), it set-up a central infrastructure for the IAs to make their publications, technologies, and suggested measures available at a central place while also promoting WFRM events and connecting stakeholders. The platform has now been handed back to the Pau Costa Foundation and can continue to serve as a central place for knowledge sharing among different types of WFRM stakeholders and hence facilitate wildfire risk reduction more broadly.
The concept was via workshop formats by the means of five thematic working groups (environment/ecology, society, insurance, infrastructure and civil protection. The working groups wereled by Firelogue partners CTFC, VOST, IIASA, KEMEA and TIEMS. They are composed of experts from the Green Deal IAs as well as additional experts from the Firelogue Associated Partners and the wider Firelogue network. This conceptual grounding and “discussion infrastructure” served as a blue print for the practical design of integrated WFRM strategies at different scales.
In addition, Firelogue has advanced scientific work on policy coherence in wildfire risk management, tipping points in risk management systems or the use of targets and KPIs in mannaging wildfire risk. The main impact is to be expected from the feeding of all Firelogue and IA results into the mentioned joint strategy proposal which is likely to inform a Commission Communication to be released in the first quarter of 2026. Due to its integrated character, this proposal aims to reduce wildfire risk at all scales and the subsequent negative impact on societies and the environment.
Finally, Firelogue has established its digital platform. Building on the Lessons on Fire platform by Firelogue partner Pau Costa Foundation (PCF), it set-up a central infrastructure for the IAs to make their publications, technologies, and suggested measures available at a central place while also promoting WFRM events and connecting stakeholders. The platform has now been handed back to the Pau Costa Foundation and can continue to serve as a central place for knowledge sharing among different types of WFRM stakeholders and hence facilitate wildfire risk reduction more broadly.