INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT

"New Approaches to Forest Fire Management at an Ecoregional Level"

Khabarovsk, Russia

9-13 September 2003 (tentative dates)

(this announcement in Russian)

Workshop Objective: To share knowledge and information and develop initial recommendations for collaborative design, planning and implementation of a regional framework for comprehensive forest fire management in the Amur-Sikhote-Alin Ecoregion (Russian Far East).

Participants: About 50 Russian and international professionals including experts in forest ecology/fire behavior, forest monitoring and mapping, forest managers, federal and regional government officials and policy-makers, and representatives of nongovernmental and community organizations and international donor agencies.

Rationale:  Convened at the invitation of the Russian authorities, the workshop will serve as a knowledge sharing and discussion forum.  It will draw on a broad Russian and international pool of data, expertise, and best practices to identify technical and policy options for use by regional and local researchers, managers and decision-makers as they develop innovative, state-of-the-art, practical solutions for comprehensive fire management in the globally important forest ecosystems of the Russian Far East.  

Format:  The four-day workshop will include an opening plenary session for introductory, review and stocktaking presentations, breakout working groups for in-depth brainstorming of key topics, and final plenary presentations and discussion of recommendations.

Workshop Topics:

The workshop will be organized around three major topics; forest fire management, information and data services, institutional arrangements. 

Forest Fire Management Options – Discussion of sustainable forest management practices in fire adapted ecosystems.  Specific topics may include eco-regional and landscape level planning; fuels management (including perverse incentives for "sanitary cuts", arson, illegal logging); silvicultural regimes; prevention infrastructure in production vs. protected forests; ground vs. aerial suppression; communications and equipment options (heavy mechanization vs. light mobile units, light aircraft).

Forest Fire Information and Data Services – Discussion of ground, aerial, and satellite tools for detecting, monitoring and mapping forest fires  and forest cover.  Specific topics may include choice of platforms; data validation; storage, processing, transfer, and compatibility issues; value-added information products and services; user needs (global science, forecasting, management planning, decision support and emergency response systems, public awareness); and information regimes (mandatory disclosure, paid access, free dissemination).

Institutional Arrangements – Discussion of institutional arrangements for effective fire management.  Specific topics include federal, regional, and municipal mandates; fire statistics, planning, budgeting and financing; interagency coordination and regional coordination centers; fire insurance; regulations for direct public management vs. management by private concessions / leases; provisions for community participation (including indigenous peoples); staff training programs; public awareness; and independent access of civil society and NGOs to data and information.

Related topics that may be included in the discussions :  Fundamentals of fire ecology; role of fire in global and regional climate; fire history in the Russian Far East and adjacent regions; socio-economics of forest fire; typology of national fire management systems; global forest monitoring and fire datasets; limits and opportunities in fire modeling and prediction; and international cooperation and emergency response systems.

 

Workshop Sponsored by:

Office of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation
in the Far Eastern Federal District - Ministry of Natural Resources
of the Russian Federation - Government of Khabarovsk Kray – Government of Primorsky Kray - Khabarovsk Wildlife Foundation - Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Far East - Russian Academy of Sciences - World Bank - Global Environment Facility - Global Observation of Forest Cover / Global Observation of Landcover Dynamics Program –Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative – Global Forest Watch - Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC)  - World Wide Fund for Nature - Joint Research Centre of the European Commission - US Agency for International Development - US National Aeronautics and Space Administration - US Forest Service - Canadian Forest Service

Contacts: 

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