UNECE United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS No. 31 July – December 2004 UNITED NATIONS ECE/TIM/IFFN/2005/2 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations UNECE Timber Branch, Geneva Switzerland INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS No. 31 July – December 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/2005/2 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 EDITORIAL ............................................................................................................................................. 1 SPECIAL ISSUE – THE GLOBAL WILDLAND FIRE NETWORK Introduction The UN-ISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group / Global Wildland Fire Network ................................................... 2 Baltic Region Regional Baltic Wildland Fire Network Meeting................................................................................................. 4 Mediterranean / Balkans / Near East Conference on Forest Fire Management and International Cooperation in Fire Emergencies in the Eastern 14 Mediterranean, Balkans and adjoining Regions of the Near East and Central Asia (Antalya, Turkey, 30 March - 3 April 2004)........................................................................................................ Workshop on Multilateral Assistance Against Forest Fires in The Mediterranean Basin Zaragoza, Spain, 10 - 11 June 2003 ................................................................................................................. 20 Sub-Sahara Africa Training courses and Nelspruit Declaration....................................................................................................... 21 The South African Working on Fire Programme and the Regional Subsahara Wildland Fire Network (Afrifirenet) ...................................................................... 32 South America Foundation meeting of the Regional South America Wildland Fire Network ..................................................... 38 Pan-American Wildland Fire Conference (San José, Costa Rica, 23 October 2004) Introduction........................................................................................................................................................ 48 Regional Background Paper......................................................................................................................... 49 South America Background Paper ............................................................................................................... 52 Mesoamerica background paper.................................................................................................................. 55 Caribbean Background Paper ...................................................................................................................... 58 North America Background Paper................................................................................................................ 61 Speeches by M.H. Lakany, FAO, and D. Bosworth, USDA Forest Service.................................................. 63 San José Declaration on Pan-American Cooperation in Wildland Fire Management................................... 68 South East Asia The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution .............................................................................. 71 Northeast Asia Foundation meeting of the Regional Northeast Asia Wildland Fire Network (Seoul, South Korea, 2004) and follow-up meeting (Sendai, Japan, 2005) .......................................................................................................... 87 Central Asia Meeting of the Regional Central Asia Wildland Fire Network, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.......................................... 90 UN-ISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group / Global Wildland Fire Network First Meeting, GFMC, Freiburg, Germany, 3-4 December 2004: Recommendations of the First Meeting in support of The Framework for the Development of the International Wildland Fire Accord (International Accord on Cooperation in Wildland Fire Management) ..................................................................................... 104 Follow-Up Recommendations for the Development of an International Wildland Fire Accord........................... 108 Background Papers of the UN-ISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group Assessment of Global Emissions from Vegetation Fires ................................................................................... 112 Forest Fires in the Boreal Zone: Climate Change and Carbon Implications...................................................... 122 The WHO/UNEP/WMO Health Guidelines for Vegetation Fire Events - An Update.......................................... 132 Collection of Forest fire statistics in the countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe............................................................................................ 140 II International Symposium on Fire Economics, Planning, and Policy: A Global View Findings and Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 142 Recent Publications Wildland Fire Management Handbook for Sub-Sahara Africa .......................................................................... 145 *** Due of the time lag between editing and print/distribution of IFFN, readers interested in meeting announcements are kindly requested to visit the meetings page of the GFMC for short-term announcement of meetings (continuously updated) on: http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/course/meeting.htm vii PREFACE Wildfires are major causes of forest degradation and cause loss of human life, economic devastation, social disruption and environmental deterioration. The frequency, intensity and extent of damage from forest fires can be reduced through effective fire management, which includes fire prevention, fire preparedness and fire suppression. The potential exists to increase cooperation at global and regional levels on forest fire management, including information and early warning