Comparative assessment of wildland fire legislation and policies in the European Union: Towards a Fire Framework Directive

Wildfires are one of the main risks affecting European forests, particularly in Mediterranean countries. Socio-economic changes, certain forest management actions and other policy measures outside the forest sector have generally influenced the flammability of ecosystems and increased the risk of large wildfires. Policy and legislation have great relevance in fire management in order to face the new realities that are bringing about fundamental changes within the forest sector. This paper presents the assessment of the main strengths and weaknesses of the national and regional fire legislation and policy documents in Europe in order to consider their contributions to integrated fire management. The assessment is based on the information obtained through a questionnaire sent to the national representatives of the Expert Group on Forest Fires - a group linked to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), established by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission-, and national fire technicians, and also on other relevant databases with information about wildfires and national forest policies. The territorial scope covers the European Union including its 27 Member States. The scales considered for the policy analysis are the national level for centralised countries and the regional level for decentralised countries. As a result of the analysis of the existing wildfire legal framework and policy instruments, current opportunities, threats, challenges and demands regarding fire management in Europe have been identified. Furthermore, some common ecological and socio-economical patterns have been recognised at the regional level, which were used to provide recommendations to policy-makers and to set the basis for a new legislation and policy measures relative to integrated fire management, adapted to each territorial context. Finally, a Framework Directive is considered as the best legal instrument for promoting the concept of Integrated Fire Management in Europe. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.