UNECE United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS No. 30 January – June 2004 UNITED NATIONS ECE/TIM/IFFN/2005/1 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations UNECE Timber Branch, Geneva Switzerland INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS No. 30 January – June 2004 UNITED NATIONS Geneva, 2005 NOTE The statements made in the articles are those of their authors and do not necessarily correspond to those of the secretariat or the official views of the author's home countries. Furthermore the designations employed and the presentation of the material of this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. ECE/TIM/IFFN/2005/1 UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION ISSN 1020-8518 iii International Forest Fire News (IFFN) is an activity of the FAO/UNECE Team of Specialists on Forest Fire and the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). IFFN is published on behalf of UNECE Timber Committee and the FAO European Forestry Commission. Copies are distributed and available on request from: UNECE Trade Development and Timber Division Timber Branch Palais des Nations 1211 Geneva 10 SWITZERLAND Fax: +41-22-917-0041 E-mail: [email protected] The publication is edited and prepared by Johann G. Goldammer, Leader of the FAO/UNECE Team of Specialists on Forest Fire, at the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), Germany. Mailing address, telephone and fax numbers of the editor: Johann Georg Goldammer Fax: +49-761-80 80 12 The Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) Tel: +49-761-80 80 11 Fire Ecology Research Group E-mail: [email protected] Max Planck Institute for Chemistry c/o Freiburg University Georges-Koehler-Allee 75 79110 Freiburg GERMANY All current issues of IFFN are posted on the homepage of the GFMC and can be accessed at: http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/ All IFFN contributions published between 1990 and this current issue are accessible through 77 country folders and other special files on the GFMC website. Call for contributions Readers of the International Forest Fire News are warmly invited to send written contributions to the editor at the above address. These may be in the form of concise reports on activities in wildland fire management, research, public relations campaigns, recent national legislation related to wildfire, reports from national organizations involved in fire management, publications or personal opinions (letters to the editor). Photographs (black and white) and graphs, figures and drawings (originals, not photocopies, also black and white) are also welcome. Contributions are preferably received by e-mail. The deadlines for submitting contributions to the bi-annual issues are: 15 May and 15 November. iv INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS (IFFN) IS AN ACTIVITY OF THE TEAM OF SPECIALISTS ON FOREST FIRE OF THE UNECE TIMBER COMMITTEE, THE FAO EUROPEAN FORESTRY COMMISSION, AND THE GLOBAL FIRE MONITORING CENTER (GFMC) CO-SPONSORS OF IFFN AND / OR GFMC ARE: The U.S. Department of the Interior The UN International Strategy for Disaster Bureau of Land Management Reduction (ISDR) The World Bank The World Conservation Union Disaster Management Facility Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische The International Boreal Forest Research Zusammenarbeit Association (IBFRA) Fire Working Group The IGBP International Global Atmospheric The International Union of Forestry Research Chemistry Project (IGAC) Focus Impact of Organizations (IUFRO) Biomass Burning on the Atmosphere and Forest Fire Research Group 8.05 Biosphere "Biomass Burning Experiment" (BIBEX) v CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................... vii EDITORIAL ............................................................................................................................................. 1 PRESCRIBED BURNING IN NORTHWEST EUROPE AND THE BALTIC REGION Introduction The Use of Prescribed Fire in the Land Management of Western and Baltic Europe: An Overview ................. 2 Denmark Restoration of Dune Habitats along the Danish West Coast ............................................................................. 14 Finland Planning of the Sustainable Slash-and-Burn Cultivation Programme in Koli National Park .............................. 16 Forest Fire Research in Finland ....................................................................................................................... 22 Germany Re-establishment of Traditional Heathland Management Tools in Brandenburg State ..................................... 29 Conservation Methods for Calluna Heathlands by Prescribed Fire in Schleswig-Holstein State....................... 36 Impact of Prescribed Burning and Sheep Grazing on Northwest German Heathland Ecosystem..................... 40 Prescribed Burning of Moorlands in the Diepholzer Moorniederung, Lower Saxony State ............................... 43 Use of Prescribed Fire in Maintaining Open Cultural Landscapes in Baden-Württemberg State ...................... 45 The First Long-Term Pilot Project in Germany in the Kaiserstuhl Viticulture Area, Baden-Württemberg State. 49 R & D project “Sustainable Development of Xerothermic Slopes of the Middle Rhine Valley” ......................... 59 Habitat Management in Military Training Areas................................................................................................. 63 The Use of Prescribed Fire along Railway Tracks for Reducing Wildfire Ignition in Germany .......................... 65 Slash-and-Burn Experiments to Reconstruct Late Neolithic Shifting Cultivation ............................................... 70 Netherlands Burning of Heathland in Military Areas in the Netherlands ................................................................................ 75 Poland Peatland Fires on Biebrza Marshes, Poland ..................................................................................................... 77 Sweden Fire in Sweden – History, Research, Prescribed Burning and Forest Certification............................................ 80 United Kingdom Prescribed Fire in a Scottish Pinewood: A Summary of Recent Research at Glen Tanar Estate, Aberdeenshire, Scotland ................................................................................................................................... 84 COUNTRY NOTES Estonia Forest Fires in Estonia - A Review .................................................................................................................... 94 Lithuania Forest Fires in Lithuania.................................................................................................................................... 99 Due of the time lag between editing and print/distribution of IFFN, readers interested in meeting announcements are kindly requested to visit the Internet version of this issue for update and short-term announcement of meetings (continuously updated) on http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de vii Preface Fires are one of the major causes of ecological, social and economic damage to forests in Europe, especially southern Europe, and North America, destroying or severely damaging every year hundreds of thousands of hectares, causing major damage to property, sometimes loss of life, and often preventing the establishment of ecologically balanced and resilient ecosystems. The causes of fires are complex, with sociological, economic, climatic and forest management aspects. The importance of fire issues, and the necessity to take an international approach has been widely recognised, and there are a number of major initiatives under way, some of which are described in this issue of International Forest Fire News. Communication between experts, and with policy makers and opinion formers is of the greatest importance to spread knowledge of the situation, its causes and possible solutions, and to promote synergies at the interagency level. UNECE and FAO, with the eight co-sponsors whose logos appear on the inside front cover, are happy to offer International Forest Fire News as a communication vehicle to the international forest fire community. Its usefulness is evident from the strong and continuously growing demand there is for IFFN. Brigita Schmögnerová Executive Secretary UN Economic Commission for Europe 1 EDITORIAL During the summer of 2003 in Europe much attention has been given to the extreme wildfires risk in Europe arising from the extremely hot and dry conditions between the Nordic countries and the Euro- Mediterranean region. Portugal was most severely affected by wildfires. The satellite image (below, left) shows fragments of fires burning in the South of the country in August 2003. At the end of the fire season more than 420,000 ha of Portugal’s forest lands had been scarred by wildfires. MODIS Satellite image showing fires The same satellite sensor depicted smoke columns of burning in Portugal on 4 August 2003. wildfires in the United Kingdom burning on 18 April 2003. The right satellite image shows smoke columns from forest and moorland fires burning in the United Kingdom. The country suffered extreme wildfires during the dry spring of 2003. As a consequence of these fires the formulation of