FIREFIGHT Mediterranean Region WWF project 9Z

Transcription

1 FIREFIGHT Mediterranean Region WWF project 9Z An analysis of key issues that underlie forest fires and shape subsequent fire management strategies in 12 countries in the Mediterranean basin Final Report May 2001

2 Alcyon and the scientists that participated in the preparation of this report would like to express their sincere thanks to all those who helped them come up with a result that, hopefully, adds a little help to facing the problem of forest fires in the Mediterranean. Particular thanks go to WWF and IUCN, as well as on a personal basis to Pedro Regato at WWF MedPO, Stephanie Mansourian at WWF International, and Peter Moore, co-ordinator of Project FireFight South East Asia for their assistance and constructive comments. Also, to Aristotelis Papageorgiou at WWF Greece for all the advice and information provided, and to all the people who took time to discuss with the project team and fill in questionnaires. Proposed Reference Title: Dimitriou, A., Mantakas, G., Kouvelis, S.,: An analysis of key issues that underlie forest fires and shape subsequent fire management strategies in 12 countries in the Mediterranean basin. Final report prepared by Alcyon for WWF Mediterranean Programme Office and IUCN. May 2001.

3 CONTENTS Introduction 1. A Profile of forest fires in the Mediterranean 1.1 Forest fires in numbers Number of fires Burned forest area Direct causes of forest fires 1.2 Impacts 1.3 Legislation related to forest fires Laws and guidelines of Mediterranean countries European Union guidelines 1.4 Actors involved in forest fire protection Spain Portugal Italy France Greece Turkey Lebanon Cyprus Other countries Summary and conclusions 1.5 International actors involved in forest fire protection European Union United Nations Forestry cooperation in the Mediterranean 1.6 National and International funding on forest fires European Union funds 2. Root causes of forest fires in the Mediterranean 2.1 Socio-economic features related to forest fires 2.2 Sectoral policies Forestry Civil protection Agricultural policy Tourism and tourist infrastructure development Urban development Transport networks Energy networks Waste dumps 2.3 Structural and strategic causes related to forest fires International cooperation Forest fire management Development policies Case study: Root causes of forest fires in Greece 2.4 Conclusions 2.5 Countries forest fires root causes matrix

4 3. Gap analysis and responses 3.1 Identification of gaps in forest fire management Strategy Technical aspects Information 3.2 Logical Framework / Strategic Plan on suggested WWF/IUCN activities References

5 Introduction Forest fires occur because of anthropological or natural causes. Lightning is the most common natural cause of fire. The majority of fires around the world are however caused by human activity. It has been estimated that annually fires burn across up to 500 million hectares of woodland, open forests, tropical and sub-tropical savannas, million hectares of boreal and temperate forest and million hectares of tropical forests. In the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, fire is the main cause of destruction of the natural vegetation. Each year about 50,000 fires reduce to ashes 700,000-1,000,000 ha of forestlands, causing tremendous ecological and economical loss. Thus, wildfires seem to be a permanent problem for all the Mediterranean countries. As a result, fire has been viewed by many as an environmental disaster over hundreds of years and has been linked, rightly in most cases, with reduced soil fertility, destruction of biodiversity, global warming and damage to forests, land resources and of course human assets. Contentions like these fail to make important distinctions about different types of fires. Fire is a paradox: it can kill plants and animals and cause extensive ecological damage but it can also be extremely beneficial, being the source of forest regeneration and nutrient recycling. Fire, the experts say, is nature's way of recycling the essential nutrients, especially nitrogen. For many boreal forests fire is a natural part of the cycle of the forest, and some tree species, notably lodgepole pine and jack pine are "serotinous" - their cones only open and seeds germinate after they have been exposed to fire. Fire in these circumstances is essential. Burning quickly decomposes organic matter into numeral components that cause a spurt of plant growth, and can also reduce disease in the forest. But it is important to remember that fires under extreme weather conditions can be devastating to these forests. In contrast, fire causes severe damage to tropical forest ecosystems, which are characterised by high levels of humidity and moisture. They do not normally burn and are extremely prone to severe fire damage. Research from Amazon is only just beginning to show us how long-lasting damage from fire can be on the tropical forest ecosystems. Fire has played, and will continue to play, a major role in shaping forest ecosystems throughout the world. The inter-relationship between humans, fire and forests is a complex one and has been the subject of countless studies and reports. Most ecosystems including the Mediterranean type among them, evolved in environments where wildland fires occurred regularly, establishing fire as a process that affects many ecosystem functions. Fire acts with different frequencies and intensities depending upon the vegetation and topography involved. Climatic regimes determine the occurrence of fire. Thus, vegetation composition, biomass and structure depend on climate and on fire frequency and intensity, while fire frequency and intensity depend in turn on vegetation biomass, structure, topography and climatic regimes.

6 Periodic forest, grassland, and shrubland fires are part of the natural environment - as natural and vital as rain, snow, or wind. Evidence of past fires is found in charcoal layers in lakes and bogs and in the fire-scarred cross sections of trees. Recurring disturbances by fire are essential to the functioning of many ecosystems, termed "firedependent". Many examples are available to describe how fire affects the functioning of ecosystems, such as influencing plant succession, fuel accumulations, structure and composition of vegetation, insect and disease populations, nutrient cycling, productivity, diversity and habitats for wildlife. Regions of the Mediterranean have suffered large, disastrous fires whose occurrence demonstrates violent fire behavior. The frequency and intensity of these fires is promoted by certain factors of the Mediterranean environment, such as: A. The Mediterranean climate itself with the prolonged summer drought, high temperatures and strong local winds creates extremely high fire risk. As a consequence of dry weather and high temperatures (> 30 o C), the moisture content of dead fine fuels decreases below 10%, thus increasing greatly the ignition probability. A small heat source is sufficient to start a fire. Prevailing winds cause a further decrease in atmospheric humidity and also contribute to fast fire spread, crowing and spotting. B. The type of fuels. Mediterranean type vegetation itself (maquis, gariggue or phrygana and low elevation pine forests such as P. halepensis and P. brutia forests) has inherent chemical, physical and physiological properties that increase its flammability with age (VELEZ 1986). On the other hand this type of vegetation has developed distinct adaptation mechanisms to ensure their survival to recurrent wildfires: i. Vegetative reproduction through abundant resprouting after fire, and, ii. Fire stimulated seed germination in species in which heat treatment is a prerequisite for the break of dormancy or the cone opening. Thus, Mediterranean type vegetation is well adapted in a fire environment presenting unique adaptation characteristics to fire. At the same time its strongly flammable character serves as a provoking mean for frequent and intense fires. C. The Mediterranean basin has been populated since thousands of years. It is the origin of the first cultures of humanity that developed agriculture, built cities and used timber for commercial purposes. The presence of human for this long period has shaped an anthropogenic forest landscape, where the fire is often the result of his pressure on the environment. Fire as a natural force seems to be a deterministic factor in fashioning, positioning and developing the numerous Mediterranean plant communities and this happened long before man s appearance on earth. But as far as man understood its role it became the most important tool of mankind to clear forestlands with the most simple, quick and cheap way (VIEGAS 1997).

7 Lightning, volcanoes and people have been igniting fires in wildland ecosystems for millennia. The current emphasis on managing ecosystems highlights interactions between disturbance processes and ecosystem functions. Land managers and fire managers need to understand the historic frequency, intensity and the real extend of past fires. The project Firefight Mediterranean was assigned from WWF Mediterranean and IUCN to Alcyon as a baseline review in order to identify the root causes and main actors that lie at the basis of forest fires in the region. Its objective is to have a clear indication as to what is the optimal and feasible line of intervention of WWF and IUCN in order to address the problem of wild catastrophic forest fires, and which are the mechanisms and potential partners that need to be taken into account. This report provides an overview of the situation in the region, givin a detailed analysis for each country to the extent that is possible on the basis of the data and information that exist. It looks into the issue of forest fires taking into account both natural and socio-economic conditions. Finally, the information presented is analysed in the context of a gap analysis that leads to a logical framework outlining the course of action to be taken by WWF / IUCN.

8 1. A profile of forest fires in the Mediterranean 1.1. Forest fires in numbers The aim of this chapter is to present a review of the key issues that describe forest fires in the Mediterranean and to give a clear picture of the trends of forest fires in the region over time. To do this, the study has used data from various sources, drawing mainly on FAO. Consolidated data for the region is hard to find. Although the report uses this data for providing a global picture of the region, the reader should be aware that the data is in some cases not directly comparable with any statistical precision, since different countries follow different methodologies of collecting data. Regional and global collection of fire statistics is conducted at present under the auspices of ECE/FAO (for the ECE region) and FAO (ECE/FAO 1995, FAO 1992). In 1995 a meeting on fire statistics, held in Geneva, concluded that the approach pioneered in the EU (European Commission 1996) should be extended around the Mediterranean. The Commission of the European Communities would provide technical support to this work and to process data for new countries and the FAO/Silva Mediterranea forest fire network would contribute to establishing contacts, encouraging the setting up of such systems and ensuring international comparability. However, it would be many years before all countries, even in Europe, were able to supply the type of detailed information required by the fire-by-fire approach. Official statistics usually refer to three main measures, in order to describe forest fires: number of fires, areas burned and direct causes. Number of fires Large fluctuations occur from year to year, mainly due to the differences of climatic conditions (humidity, temperature, wind). The case of two different countries, Morocco and Spain is presented in figures 1 and 2. Fluctuations appear in the number of fires in both countries, but in the case of Spain we observe a rather increasing trend over the years. The same trend is observed for Albania, Greece, Portugal and Turkey. The number of fires for the countries of the study for a period of 20 years ( ) is presented in Table 1 of Appendix I, based on the FAO (1999) report.

9 Figure 1: Number of fires in Morocco from 1978 to 1996 Morocco Figure 2: Number of fires in Spain from 1978 to Spain Nr of fires Nr of fires The average number of fires per country for the period is presented in figure 3. Spain, Italy and Portugal show the highest average numbers of fires with a large difference to the rest, followed by France, Turkey and Greece. The other countries have less than 1000 fires per year in average.

10 Figure 3: Average number of fires for the period Average number of fires Albania Algeria Croatia Cyprus France Greece Italy Morocco Portugal Spain Tunisia Turkey Average number of fires In order to describe the development of the number of fires over time, independently from the fluctuations due to the climate, we compare the percentage of change of the decade average of all countries in figure 4. Figure 4: Change in the number of fires (%), between the decades and Number of fires Percentage of change between the decades and Albania Algeria Croatia Cyprus France Greece Italy Morocco Portugal Spain Tunisia Turkey Portugal shows a remarkable increase of close to 4 times the number of fires between the two decades. A large increase is also observed in the case of Albania, Greece, Spain and Turkey. The number of fires in Cyprus has decreased to half. The other countries show minor changes from decade to decade. The differences in numbers of forest fires from country to country can originate from various reasons. In some countries the actors involved in forest fire suppression who also record the number of fires have changed, i.e. the shift from Forest Service to

11 the Fire Brigade in Portugal. This may have affected greatly the number of fires recorded, since the firemen have a different operation modus and training and may give different definitions to forest fire. An example is given for the case of Greece, where the Fire Brigade that took over forest fire suppression in 1998 records all nonurban fires of all size, since they measure incidents, i.e. times that they had to operate. The Forest Service used to separate fires in the forest from ones occurring on agricultural land and never recorded fires that burned less than an area of 0.1 ha. As a result, the number of fires in Greece has grown three times from 1997 to 1998! Other reasons for the differences observed may be changes in the political system (Albania, Croatia) or in some cases war and rebellions (Albania). For some of the countries, especially in North Africa and Middle East, a reduction in the number of fires may have been caused simply because there was a reduction in the forest cover, due to overexploitation. Burned forest area An overview of the total burned areas can be found in table 2 of Appendix I, based on FAO (1999). As expected, fluctuations exist between the values of different years. The largest areas burned are observed in the northern Mediterranean countries, namely Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece, as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5: Average burned areas for the period Average burned area Average burned area (ha) Albania Algeria Croatia Cyprus France Greece Italy Morocco Portugal Spain Tunisia Turkey Lebanon In order to describe the development of the burned areas over time, a comparison between the average values in the period covered by the existing data from FAO (1999) is presented in figure 6. North African countries, Cyprus and Turkey do not show large differences, while Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain show a clear trend of increase. The burned areas have almost doubled in these countries between the 60s and the 70s and between the 70s and the 80s. The small decrease in the 90s is probably not correct, since the severe damages of the years 1998 and 1999 were not calculated.

12 The reasons for this phenomenon seem to be connected with economic development and urbanization. During the 70s and the 80s, the south EU countries have shifted their economic activities from agriculture to industry, commerce and tourism (FAO, 1992; see also next chapter). Land abandonment and lack of traditional activities, such as small-scale agriculture and pasture, have caused fuel accumulation, which favored the outbreak of catastrophic large fires (ALEXANDRIAN and ESNAULT 1999; VELEZ 1999). At the same time, the expansion of cities and the new land uses that have appeared, such as tourism, have created tensions to the forests. As a result, forests on remote mountainous areas burn because of biomass accumulation and lowland, coastal forests burn because land is converted to other land uses. Countries of Northern Africa and Middle East experience a heavy urbanization too, but the size of rural population remains constant or increases, due to the general population increase (see next chapter). This is a problematic situation too, because land use conversion around the cities is combined with overexploitation in rural areas. The low number of forest fires in them is probably not a positive sign, since it could probably be the result of a heavy deforestation, which has happened with means other than fire (overgrazing, logging for fuelwood, etc.). Another aspect is the change of the nature of land management over the decades. In many Mediterranean countries, large plantations have replaced traditional small-scale forestry, leading to a more intense economic activity. This has resulted in a dramatic decrease of forest quality, since many old growth forests have been replaced by poor coppiced stands. This is the case especially in Northern Africa, where overexploitation has lead to a serious increase of coppice forest and the conditions favoring forest fires have increased (Regato, personal communication). Other reasons, such as war or sudden political changes were the reason behind severe damages, as seems to be the case in Cyprus in 1974 and Albania after 1993 (FAO 1999).

13 Figure 6: Change of average burned areas between the decades Average burned areas of decades (ha) s 70s 80s 90s Algeria Cyprus Greece Italy Morocco Portugal Spain Turkey A big problem nowadays is the continually increasing damage caused by a small number of fires of high intensity and spreading. During 1994 in Spain, 79 forest fires out of a total of ravaged 80% of the total burned surface. A similar trend was described for France (VALLAOURI, personal communication). This happened mostly due to fuel accumulation over large areas as a result of the abandonment of rural land (VELEZ 1997). Forest fires are part of the Mediterranean ecosystem and society, and small-scale fires may always be expected. On the contrary, large catastrophic fires do not fit within the ecological cycle and constitute a major problem. Such phenomena show that there are problems in the policy and patterns of land management and rural development. It is significant to note that no country shows an improved situation, despite all the measures taken (Le Houérou, 1987). Summarizing on the data on burned areas, we can conclude on an increasing tendency in countries of South Europe. The reasons for this increase lies probably in several complex social and economic changes, connected mainly with urbanization, rural abandonment and changes in land uses. Three major conclusions come out of the data presented: The development that has occurred during the last decades and still goes on caused many problems in almost all Mediterranean countries, with forest fires as one of the results. Sectoral policies (if existing) were either wrong or not able to predict the trends in land use planning and to include aspects such as fire hazard. The governments have failed to protect the forest (burned or not) from the pressures caused by other land uses and could not stop land conversion and reduction of forest quantity and quality. The countries with the largest forest fire problem and the most dramatic increase in burned areas are usually the most prosperous ones, having expensive fire

14 suppression means, such as airplanes and vehicles. This paradox indicates clearly that the fire fighting approach used is wrong and measures that deal with deeper causes of forest fires need to be taken. Direct causes of forest fires Although statistics on the causes of the forest fires in the Mediterranean region are incomplete, it is evident that the majority of fires are set by humans. The main fire causes for a period of 10 ( ) years are shown on the following table (ANONYMOUS 1997): Table 1. Main fire causes in Mediterranean countries Arson Negligence Natural Unknown Croatia 4% 27% 4% 66% Cyprus 0% 22% 16% 62% France 7% 25% 4% 64% Greece 13% 20% 5% 62% Italy 55% 17% 1% 28% Portugal 31% 32% 2% 35% Spain 66% 12% 4% 18% Turkey 16% 41% 6% 37% The percentage of unknown causes is very high and does not allow a further analysis of the causes. Differences of this percentage between countries are large and probably connected with the accuracy and the credibility of the investigation mechanisms. Countries with low percentage of unknown causes have a high percentage of arsons and vise versa. In many cases, forest fires are declared as of unknown cause, when no one is willing to address the responsibility to cover the cost of the damages. For example, in Greece causes other than unknown are rarely recorded. In 1998, after a large fire that destroyed the largest part of the Taygetos forest, the Head of the Forest Service announced that the fire was caused by badly maintained electricity lines. The Public Electricity Company has sued him and the case is in court. The causes of fires sometimes are influenced by political situations. In some cases, governments claim that almost all forest fires were caused by arsonists, in order to avoid admitting the failure of the firefighting mechanism. The anthropogenic causes of forest fires can be classified in: Accidents or Negligence. A significant part of forest fires attributed to negligence is due to shepherds and farmers who set fire for forage improvement or crop residue removal and land clearing. Fires set for such purposes usually coincide with the hot and dry period of high fire risk, leading to large, uncontrolled wildfires. Other factors include the burning of household or garden refuse, fires resulting from forest workers, unattended or improperly extinguished campfires, carelessly thrown cigarettes, sparks from trains or electricity cables and military maneuvers. The root causes of accidental fires seem to be:

15 wrong range and agriculture management techniques applied in many countries of the region, government inability to establish and apply simple managerial regulations for agriculture and pasture (such as season of burning, method), lack of information and awareness on the danger of some activities that can cause a fire in the forest, lack of planned development and incorporation of fire hazard in sectoral policies, especially in land use planning, lack of government control on industrial, military, waste and transportation networks and facilities cause very often fires due to bad maintenance, increase of sudden and badly planned development of recreational and sport activities of urban people in forest areas. Deliberate ignition The following causes exist more or less in all the countries around the Mediterranean. The probability of occurrence (high or low) in each country may be different and depends on the effectiveness of forest organization, the political will and the public awareness, but in general there are common trends in the majority of the countries fires lit to regain grazing land and to renew the herbaceous cover fires started for personal revenge fires started from conflicts related to political reasons or even to forest policy fires started by illegal hunters to aid hunting operations fires started through arguments over public or private wildland ownership fires started to cause timber prices to drop fires started as an attempt to change land use classification, specially in regions of great interest to urban development and tourism fires started by pyromaniacs In many countries fires are considered as an enemy and the prevention policy is strict. For example in Greece it is forbidden to light a fire in the open between April and October. Shepherds who use fire for the amendment of pasturelands are illegal and are often prosecuted. This illegal burning is performed in the wrong time and most often at the wrong place, without scientific guidance for avoiding ecological damage or special measures for avoiding the spreading of fire. In conjunction with the large biomass accumulation it is almost inevitable to avoid damage. In Italy, for example, ha were burned in 1998 only due to shepherds. A lot of catastrophic consequences would be avoided if prescribed burning was legal and organized by the authorities (VELEZ, 1997). In many Mediterranean countries, there is a very important pressure for housing development along the line between urban and forest land, as well as an explosion of tourist development. At the same time, in some countries (e.g. Greece) the legislation concerning tenure and land use is incomplete and overlapping, creating confusion and opportunities for delinquencies (WWF GREECE 1999a, WWF GREECE 1999c). In summing up, the root causes of deliberate starting of forest fires are: unclear legislation about tenure and land use (Greece, Turkey), combined with the high political cost for governments to resolve this problem, constitute an

16 incentive for land grabbers and other opportunists for succeeding a land use change of the burned forest, lack of serious investigation of forest fire causes (large percentage of unknown causes in all countries) often makes arson a crime with low risk, decline of forestry due to demographic reasons and low prices of timber and other forest products, fuel accumulation because of rural abandonment and decline of traditional land uses and management. wrong range and agriculture management techniques applied in many countries of the region, governmental inability to establish and apply simple managerial regulations for agriculture and pasture, lack of planned development and incorporation of fire hazard in sectoral policies, especially in land use planning. 1.2 Impacts The impacts of forest fires are neither homogenous, nor identified to the same level of detail in all Mediterranean countries. In most cases, due to the deficiencies in the forest fire data collection methodology, only the direct impacts (i.e. burned area, damages to houses and agricultural cultivations) are reported. However, this information is clearly insufficient to determine the direct and indirect impacts to nature and the ecosystems, as well as the social and economic web of a given region. Forest fires have impacts both on the natural ecosystem, and an important distinction should be made regarding the obvious and usual statistical information, such as burned area and type of cover (wooded, shrubland etc). On the contrary, the importance of the ecosystem that was affected by a fire, as regards the presence of rare or endemic species, the impacts that fire had on the services provided by the ecosystem as regards water retention, wildlife habitat or corridor, and the extent of reversibility of the damage and the need for human intervention, are some of the impacts at a nature level that are almost never recorded. On the social and economic side the case is very similar. Records include the impacts of fires to houses, buildings and agricultural facilities and produce, such as sheds, livestock and crops. The damage to private or public infrastructure like telecommunications or energy networks is also recorded. On the contrary, the indirect and long term effects to te economy and society of an affected region is not recorded, an no projection are made so as to estimate the future effects of fire in the socioeconomic life of the region. For example, the effects of forest fire in an agricultural or tourist area, go far beyond the direct effects to households, facilities and infrastructure. In order to calculate the real cost to society (to monetary terms as well as non-monetary values) one has to know what is the need for substitution of goods and means of production, the alternative employment opportunities for those who have lost some or all of their their productive investment, the damage to the public image of a tourist area (as regards both natural attractiveness and security). Also, the changes a fire may cause in the social web of a region, either by creating or re-enforcing an trend of abandonment of

17 agricultural practices (especially from young people who may not be prepared tpo wait the years it takes until a prennial plantation like olives- has become productive again) as well as the immigration that may follows the loss of productive investments, in order to face up to the economic damage. Finally, health problems induced in the long term as a result of the loss of vegetation and species and changes in dietary patterns are some of the indirect, long term effects, to mention but a few. The research has shown that there are no records in any of the Mediterranean countries reviewed in the context of this project where such data on the impacts of forest fires are collected. Some of this information may be found usually by extrapolation and projection form the primary data that exist on forest fires, but this may happen only at exceptional cases of specific interest to some ineterst group (e.g. NGO, Hotel Owners etc.) and is never the result of a uniform state policy. Because of the lack of such information, it is clear that the estimation of the cost of the impacts of forest fire is much lower than the real one. As a result, the only cost that is really taken into account is the one of forest fire suppression means, while the real cost to society in terms of productive infrastructure and social expenses or opportunity cost is not taken into account in policy making. From the analysis of the impacts of forest fires in the Mediterranean region the following conclusions can be drawn: The impacts of forest fires can be distinguished in two broad categories; those which can be measured or estimated approximately in monetary terms (direct impacts) and those whose estimation in monetary terms is very difficult (indirect impacts). Although the estimation of the total impact of forest fires (direct and indirect) is of great importance for policy and planning, it is usually not taken seriously into account. This could be related to the poor or/and insufficient planning as well as the lack of adequate forest policy, which among others constitute the fundamental causes of forest fires. Data on the direct impacts of forest fires is very limited, scattered in several sources and usually not so reliable. Moreover, whenever such data exists, it simply refers to information concerning areas burned from forest fires, not mentioning at all other important issues such as the ecological or economic impacts of forest fires. Indirect impacts of forest fires, although difficult to be estimated, are very important since they are closely related to the basic ecosystem functions as well as people s quality of life. Research on fundamental impacts of the forest fires such as loss in biodiversity and genetic diversity, loss of plants and animal populations and species is absent in most of the Mediterranean countries. Due to data limitations concerning the total impacts of forest fires, their importance does not constitute a major issue in public awareness campaigns.

18 1.3 Legislation related to forest fires Laws and guidelines of Mediterranean countries Several Mediterranean countries have developed legislative tools to enhance protection of forests from fire. The existing data on this issue are hard to find, since laws and regulations are scattered and incorporated within different policy frameworks, such as forest operational laws and police regulations. The relevant legislation was not developed following a specific and complete fire management policy. Most regulations came as a response to the identification of causes. Since this issue is rather problematic, more investigation in necessary, in order to develop the proper legislative framework. In order to reduce accidental fires associated with infrastructure and its use (roads, railways, waste dumps, power lines, etc.) almost all countries in the Mediterranean have established regulations and punishment is foreseen for those found responsible. Although the identification of the causes of accidental fires is generally easy, their prevention is generally poor (Alexandrian et al 1999). Most of the Mediterranean countries have established severe penalties associated with deliberately set fires. In a number of cases - e.g. Portugal and Israel (Rosenberg, 1986) - the punishments were made more severe after the country experienced a wave of arson. It has been observed, nevertheless, that the heavier the punishments provided by the law, the more difficult it is to prove arson and the more the courts hesitate to condemn arsonists (Goldammer, 1986). The majority of Mediterranean countries have a variety of legal instruments to punish the guilty parties in the case of a forest fire. The punishments for deliberately set fires are always much more severe than those for involuntary fire. They range from forced work - e.g. in Morocco (Zitan, 1986), Algeria (Grim, 1989) and Tunisia (Chandoul, 1986) - or imprisonment of only a few months (e.g. in Cyprus) to life imprisonment (e.g. in France). Many countries have regulations that prohibit the use of fire in forests and near their boundaries during the period regarded as high risk, including on privately owned land (i.e. Greece). Infraction of these regulations is generally punished by way of a fine, which is sometimes very high. Other countries (Spain, Italy, France, Cyprus) prohibit access to forests both with the aim of prevention and to promote civil safety (Goldammer, 1986). In Turkey, public policy and legislation to prohibit agricultural burning near forest boundaries during fire season to reduce fire risk has actually had the opposite effect. The ban is not working, since 15 percent of the fires are due to agricultural burning, the largest single cause of forest fires. Consideration is being given to modifying this legislation to permit agricultural burning under controlled conditions coupled with farmer training in better burning practices (Biglili 1997). There are similar management regulations within the forest legislation for the prevention of fires throughout the Mediterranean basin. It is based on the creation of tracks, firebreaks and water reserves. This work is often designed within the framework of traditional management projects (e.g. in Algeria and Tunisia). Maintenance of these networks is often a problematic issue, especially as the

19 authorities responsible for creating the systems are often not the same as those who are responsible for maintaining them (Alexandrian et al 1999). Several countries (France, Israel, Italy. Spain and Turkey) have adopted provisions in their forestry laws aimed at obliging forest owners to clear the undergrowth along roads and/or railways (Goldammer, 1986). Undergrowth clearance can be interpreted as a measure of prevention (aimed at preventing ignition) as well as a measure of presuppression (aimed at making roads safe). In France, the law obliges owners to clear the undergrowth within a perimeter of 50 m around their house (self-protection). In Lebanon, the Ministry of Agriculture directs people, NGO s and municipalities to prune forest trees at least near roads to reduce "ladder fuels" and prevent crown fires (Bassil 2000). In France, fire prevention measures, e.g. fuel breaks are planned at the scale of an entire forested area (massif forestier) without differentiating between ownerships. The private owners have to be convinced of the necessity and utility of proposed projects. In the rare case of refusal, a judicial proceeding in order to dispossess the owner is possible, but not recommended (Teusan 1995). In Greece, a Fire Brigade Regulation is released every year in spring, obliging landowners, mayors and other local authorities to clear the understory in the area of their responsibility, especially next to the roads. In reality, this provision is little applied because of the expense of such an operation and the opportunity cost of this form of land use (Alexandrian et al 1999). Furthermore, difficult and intense control from the side of the state is needed, which is practically impossible. All national laws, regulations and other institutional tools mentioned above, aim at fighting forest fires from an operational approach. Although they are necessary, they are not really effective on the ground, as experience has shown, since they are not incorporated within a broader strategy against forest fire. They seem to respond spontaneously to the direct causes and fail to include the root causes of forest fires in the different countries. Some Mediterranean countries have tried to deal with land conversion and have adopted laws about the future of burned areas, in order to block land use change and discourage future arsonists and land grabbers. Even reforestation is sometimes an action foreseen by law, for example the Greek and Turkish constitutions mandate the reforestation of burned areas, and similar legislation exists in Portugal and in Spain. In Greece, the constitution has a special article (117) for burned forests, which declares all such areas protected by the state. The forest law that expressed the constitution obliges the Forest Service to present a detailed map of the burned forest within two months after fire and a special regulation is released. This was never implemented on the ground, since the forest legislation has other contradicting regulations, about exceptions concerning the ability of converting forests to something else due to public benefit. This has helped persons and social groups with political power to succeed expansion of urban plans within the forests (WWF Greece 1999c). In France, the scattered construction near and in forested areas is a major problem in the southeastern part of the country. In 1992 this led to a decree that instituted a plan of risk zones. It authorizes local communities to classify their territory in function of the fire risk into categories and to prevent construction (buildings) in wildfire prone

20 areas or to apply restrictive measures. The communities also have to manage their domestic waste dumps in a way that prevents spontaneous combustion (Teusan 1995). Some Mediterranean countries (Greece, Turkey) do not have clear legislation describing the boundaries between properties and land use forms. In Greece, a forest cadastre was first decided with a law in 1836 and was never implemented (WWF Greece 1999a). The current law of 1999 has initiated the procedure again, but a recent decision by the EU to reduce funds given for this task has opened questions about the implementation of a national cadastre. Borders separating public and private lands are not completely drawn in Turkey as well. Only in 30% of the country's total area are the ownership boundaries delineated. So, there are always ownership disputes and conflicts in and around forests and protected areas. People take advantage of this situation to increase their properties to the disadvantage of public forests (Biglili 1997). The tool they use is mostly fire. European Union guidelines EU regulations and guidelines are of great importance for the Mediterranean member states, since they are setting the framework of their national legislation. Furthermore, EU regulations influence accession and bordering countries and shape the general policy directions for all countries of the region. The Forestry Action Programme, which was adopted by the European Council in 1989 and was reviewed and strengthened in 1992, includes actions for protection against forest fires (Regulation No. 2158/92) with a budget of 70 MEuro for the period Their purpose is to identify and eliminate the causes of forest fires and to improve forest monitoring systems. This programme is oriented primarily at what the EU defines as fire prevention, promoting measures such as the provision of forest paths, firebreaks, water supply points, clearing equipment and monitoring facilities, which should be actually classified under pre-suppression. A milestone in the EU legislation against forest fires was the Interministerial Seminar on Forest Fires in Lisbon (1992), that recommended improved forest fire prevention policies within a framework of enhanced public awareness, environmental education and identification of the social and individual motivations and behavior patterns that are responsible for the majority of forest fires. It was also recommended that a database of fire statistics should be compiled and member states were encouraged to help each other in the area of research of the causes of the fires, and to apply the legislation in force. All members of this seminar emphasized the need to define and reverse the underlying political and social causes of forest fires in Europe. However, the context of Regulation No. 2158/92 did not focus on the political and socio economic causes of forest fires, as was requested by the interministerial seminar of Lisbon (1992), but included measures of a rather technical nature. Financial aid was distributed to the member states according to regulations that followed (1170/93, 1460/98 and 1727/99). Regulation (EC) No 804/94 of 11 April 1994 laid down certain detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation 2158/92 regarding forest-fire information systems. In order to set up an information system on forest fires, the Regulation asks the Member States to supply minimum

21 common core of information. Member States can apply for Community financing concerning such data collection, whether to implement or to improve forest fire information systems. On 17 September 1998, alarmed by the wave of fires throughout the Mediterranean region, the European Parliament stressed the heavy human and economic costs and the environmental damage to forests. It called on the Commission to make available, especially from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the resources required to alleviate the damage suffered by the regions affected, to implement a Community forestry policy and to establish closer coordination between the Member States on preventing and fighting forest fires. Summarizing on the EU provisions within the framework of the European forest policy, we realize that although the need for a different approach is recognised and described in official publications the legislative measures themselves come up to measures that just arrange the financial aid given to countries for suppression or presuppression. EU legislation fails to connect forest fires with its own forest and agricultural policy and other sectoral policies that are related with the socioeconomic changes that happen in the southern part of the Union. Based on a Central / Northern European forestry dogma, the European forest policy focuses mainly on production and promotes fire fighting at an operational level. Forest fires are also included in the EU policy on civil protection. Its approach is a purely operational one, aimed at the quickest and most efficient mobilization of member states to help after a disaster occurs, inside or outside the European Union. The most significant achievements so far have been the establishment of several operational instruments, pilot projects and self-training workshops, the establishment of the Vade-Mecum of Civil Protection in the European Union and an extensive Research and Development effort. All civil protection initiatives at Community level are implemented on the basis of the subsidiarity principle laid down by the Maastricht Treaty. The Commission s aim has been to support and encourage national efforts through a flexible legal and administrative basis. Experience in recent years has shown that the present system lacks the capacity to mobilise significant and sufficient resources from Member States and to coordinate interventions as required. In addition, Member States do not always make sufficient use of the existing structure and the support and coordination potential it offers. It also appears that Member States have not always been aware of the operational resources available and which could be provided as assistance, or of the possibility of mobilising these resources at an early stage of the emergency. Accordingly, the current system appears unable to meet the real need for intervention by Member States teams. According to a recent council decision, this clearly indicates the need for a significantly reinforced mechanism, as called for at the political level. Only a clear political will, expressed at the highest level, to use and take advantage of the proposed mechanism will guarantee its long-term effectiveness.

22 1.4 Actors involved in forest fire protection Different countries have different ways of organising their fight against forest fires. There is no comparative information about this issue for the countries of the study. Information about the system of some of the countries can be found in official reports given to FAO or EU, but almost all of them present just a short description of the actors and the procedures according to the official state dogma. Most descriptions are just lists of suppression means, especially airplanes, vehicles and firemen. There is no critical description of the weaknesses and advantages of the systems applied. This approach would be very useful for planning future activities and changes. The philosophy of forest fire prevention is similar throughout the Mediterranean basin. It is based on the creation of tracks, firebreaks and water reserves. This work is often designed within the framework of traditional management projects (e.g. in Algeria and Tunisia). Maintenance of these networks is an important issue, especially as the authorities responsible for creating the systems are often not the same as those who are responsible for maintaining them (Alexandrian et al 1999). Two general trends can be described within the countries of the Mediterranean, as far as protection from forest fires is concerned: a system where the Forest Service is responsible for forest fire prevention and suppression and a mixed system, where the Forest Service is responsible of forest fire prevention and the Fire Brigade takes over suppression and pre-suppression activities. In some countries, the mixed system is more complex and local and national authorities are involved as well. Spain In Spain, the authority responsible for forest protection is the Ministry of Environment and especially the General Secretariat for the Protection and Conservation of Nature. Each Region has the right to decide who will be responsible for fire fighting. Usually, in forest-urban interface this task is assigned to the Fire Brigade, while the Forest Service is responsible for mountainous areas. Fire management activities of the different administrations are coordinated in the National Committee of Forest Fire Protection (CLIF). Prevention activities are developed after the 3 rd Action Plan of Priorities (PAPIF ) (Velez 1998). In order to combat fires, there is a central disposal of 20 amphibian aircrafts available for the whole country while each Region rents on an annual basis the necessary number of helicopters (a total of 100 for the whole country). The General Direction for the Conservation of Nature makes a systematic effort to promote prescribed burning. Both Portugal and Spain give an emphasis in modern technologies for the early detection of forest fires through infrared detectors. However, statistics reveal that, in spite of sophisticated monitoring systems, fires are often first reported by local inhabitants (Alexandrian et al 1999).

23 Portugal Portugal has adopted the mixed system, where several institutions participate in the protection of the forest against fires, most of them acting at the national level, although there are some slight regional differences, due to the involvement of private or regional institutions (Viegas 1991). At the national level, the following services play the major role with their specific tasks: National Fire Brigade Service (Ministry of Internal Administration); in charge of coordinating fire suppression activities through more than 420 fire brigades, manned mostly by volunteers; Forest Service (Ministry of Agriculture); in charge of coordinating fire detection and advising the fire-fighters. It is also in charge of supervising reforestation activities, including on private land; Nature Conservation Institute (Ministry of Environment); a role similar to the Forest Service; but with particular focus on environmental matters; Civil Protection Service (Ministry of Internal Administration); in charge of supporting public protection, namely to handle situations in which areas have to be evacuated; Meteorology Institute (Ministry of Environment); supplies technical advice and support to the other institutions on weather conditions, namely, the daily fire danger index; National Association of Municipalities; represents the Mayors of the councils of Portugal, in charge of preparing and executing municipal plans for the protection of the forest in their councils; and, Private Foresters Association, a trade association of companies exploiting plantations for pulp production, and which have their own fire detection and fire fighting systems working in close cooperation with those of the government. According to Viegas (1991), this complex system works efficiently due to a strong coordination among the agencies. However, it seems that the size of the area burned in Portugal has increased during the last decade. Italy Forestry personnel, fire brigades, police, armed forces, workers, and volunteers are involved in fire supression in Italy. Emphasis is given in aerial rapid response and the Unified Aircraft Operations Centre coordinates all operations of the aeroplanes and helicopters belonging to the State Forestry Corps, the Air Force, the Army and the Navy. On the ground suppression is shared between the Forestry Corps and the Civil Protection Forces (Calabri 1990). In order to improve coordination and effectiveness, the National Civilian Protection Service was founded in 1992 (Law 225/1992) and in 1998 functions and administrative tasks were transferred from the State to the Regions and local organisations, in accordance with Law no. 59/1997 (Scipioni et al 1999). France France applies a mixed system of fire fighting as well (Teusan 1995). For the surveillance of forest land all state services are mobilized (gendarmerie, national