International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA)

Wildland Fire Working Group

The International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA) was founded in 1991 after a meeting of the International Panel on Boreal Forests in Archangelsk, Russia. The Wildland Fire Working Group (originally called "Stand Replacement Fire Working Group [SRFWG]) was one of the first working groups created under the IBFRA, and to date it has been the most active. Following an organizational meeting in Siberia in 1992, the Wildland Fire Working Group has strongly promoted and facilitated cooperative international and multi-disciplinary boreal forest fire research between Russia and western boreal countries of Europe and North America (Fosberg 1992, Stocks et al. 1996a).

A number of collaborative studies dealing with global and regional climate change / fire issues, remote sensing, fire behaviour, fire danger rating, fire history and fire ecology and effects have been initiated:

• Conference and field campaign Fire Research Campaign Asia-North (FIRESCAN), initiated by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and the Sukachev Institute for Forest in Central Siberia in 1993, with participation of all boreal nations;
• International Crown Fire Modelling Experiment in Ft. Providence, Northwest Territories, Canada, which began in 1997-98 with a cooperative involvement of European and Russian scientists, and 
• the Russian FIRE BEAR (Fire Effects in the Boreal Eurasia Region) Project initiated in Krasnoyarsk region in 1998 (ongoing, with Canadian and US participation)

The IBFRA Wildland Fire Working Group has developed close ties with the

• FROSTFIRE experiment, conducted in the State of Alaska (USA).

Next IBFRA Wildland Fire Working Group Meeting

• 14th Conference of the International Boreal Forest Research Association (22-27 September 2008, Harbin, China)

The IBFRA Wildland Fire Working Group is cosponsor of:

• UN ECE-FAO International Forest Fire News (IFFN)

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