Wildfire CE

Climate change increases the threat of fires throughout Central Europe. Since they often affect more than one region, fighting these fires requires better cooperation and information sharing. The Wildfire CE project improves fire risk assessment and management by mapping potential fires, providing fire assessment manuals and developing action plans for pilot regions. In cooperation with regional authorities and emergency services, the partners empower local communities and organisations to tackle this cross-border challenge by sharing know-how, tools and coordinated actions across borders.

The project will therefore ensure, through closer cooperation between neighbouring regions, the sharing of knowledge and experience, the adoption of integrated and targeted approaches to tackle the growing threat of forest fires.

At the level of the Autonomous Province of Trento, the project activities are useful for the revision of the Provincial Plan for the Protection of Forests from Fires.

The main objective of the project is to enable regions, especially border regions, to adapt and prepare to respond to the increasing risk of forest fires resulting from climate change.

2025

• Mapping access and resources.

2026

• Fuel mapping and fire behaviour;
• Fire weather conditions, fuel moisture and fire danger;
• Current approaches and best practices for wildfire risk management and fire alert levels;
• Fire risk harmonisation and land management on border areas.

2027

• Balancing fire risk management with people and nature;
• Online platform development;
• Transfer to the pilot region;
• Transfer to other regions by expanding to Central European areas not directly involved;
• Final conference and symposium on forest fires in Central Europe.

• WP1 - Fire risk identification in Central European border regions
• WP2 - Testing of the cross-border forest fire risk management portal in pilot areas
• WP3 - Implementation of fire risk management in border areas and transfer to other regions as well

Civil Protection, Forestry and Fauna Department

For the Autonomous Province of Trento, the project is financed 80% by European funds from the Central Europe Programme and 20% by Italian state funds.

2024

• 14 October - Workshop of Italian partners and stakeholders, at the Corte Benedettina in Legnaro (PD) https://www.interreg-central.eu/news/italian-associated-partners-and-stakeholders-workshop/

The workshop gave rise to an exciting debate, emphasising the urgent need to strengthen the coordination between parties in the response to fire emergencies both at national and European level, the need to improve data collection, in particular for mapping and fuel type monitoring, as well as the need to train local government employees in the use of remote sensing data and software. The results of the workshop of Italian associated partners and stakeholders laid the foundation for better cooperation and practical activities to fight fires in border regions, instilling a sense of optimism and hope.

• 6-7 November - Second Partner meeting, at the Chamber of Crafts and Small Business in Ajdovščina (SLO) https://www.interreg-central.eu/news/even-in-winter-active-in-fighting-fires/

Meeting of all Partners in Ajdovščina (SLO). In addition to the steering committee meeting, the meeting continued with a detailed presentation of the implemented activities by the working groups. The day ended with the planning of further activities in accordance with the project's financial and implementation plan. The second day focused on visiting the area affected by the 2022 Karst fire and also the largest regional civil protection centre in Italy: the Friuli-Giulia region's civil protection headquarters in Palmanova. The vision of both the fire area and the prevention work carried out on a local and cross-border level were certainly factors that will drive the partners to further and closer liaison and cooperation on the topic of fires.

2025

• 21-22 May - Third Partner meeting, at the Loucka Monastery in Znojmo ( CZ ) https://www.interreg-central.eu/event/workshop-at-cz-and-project-partners-meeting-20-5-2025-22-5-2025/

Meeting of all Partners in Znojmo (CZ). The first day was dedicated to presentations and advances related to the topics of WP1, i.e:

- access and resource mapping;
- fuel mapping and fire behaviour;
- weather conditions, fuel moisture and fire danger.

The second day was essentially divided into two parts: in the morning there was a discussion on the mapping of risk areas in the pilot regions and a discussion on the test event to be carried out on the online platform that will enable the assessment of forest fire risk, first in the pilot areas and then for all of Central Europe.

In the afternoon, there was a meeting with the Znojmo fire brigade and a visit to the Podyjì National Park, located in the South Moravia region of the Czech Republic, on the border with Austria.

• 12-13 November 2025 - WildfireCE project participants meet in Trento

Cross-border cooperation in the fight against forest fires is the main focus of the WildfireCE project, funded by the Interreg Central Europe programme, in which the Forest Service is a partner together with the University of Padua and seven other partners from Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Saxony.

On 12 and 13 November, Trento hosted the project meeting, which also included a visit to the Avio Forest Fire Fighting System and the Avio Fire Brigade barracks. During the visit, the foreign participants were shown the organisation, equipment and approach used in the province, as well as the structure and roles of the civil protection system aimed at managing forest fires.

The project envisages the implementation of action plans in four pilot areas, located on the borders of Italy/Slovenia, Italy/Austria, Austria/Czech Republic and the Czech Republic/Germany. To support these plans, the information necessary for an effective forest fire-fighting activity will be processed and made available on a shared platform, consisting in the mapping of fuel types, modelling of fire behaviour, mapping of fuel moisture status in relation to meteorological trends and risk mapping, i.e. the degree of danger in relation to sensitive territorial targets (infrastructural or environmental).

The Province of Trento contributes by providing its experience in prevention and control activities in a predominantly mountainous territory, characterised by rugged morphologies. The results of the project may also be useful in updating the plan for the defence of forests from fires in the Province of Trento, the work on which began this year.