CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND CONSULTATIONS SUPPORTED OR CO-ORGANIZED BY GFMC
Our Response to Wildfire Threat – Cooperation of a better Chios
Omireion Cultural Center and Maria Tsakos Foundation
City of Chios, Chios, Greece, 15-16 October 2012
Between 18 and 22 August 2012, the Greek island Chios was affected by a severe wildfire. More than 12,700 hectares of forests, pastures and other vegetation types were burned. While wildfires are not an unusual phenomenon on Chios, the wildfire of 2012 was very severe with regard to the ecological and socio-economic consequences. The fast spread and the large size of the wild fires on Chios exceeded the capacities of local fire service to bring the fires swiftly under control. Most importantly, however, were the devastating impacts of the wildfire on the island’s trademark mastic gum industry, which is based on the world’s only mastic tree plantations. About a quarter of the island’s mastic groves have been wiped out.
In following-up the destructive wildfires, the conference “Our Response to Wildfire Threat – Cooperation of a better Chios” , organized under by the Maria Tsakos Foundation, sponsored by the Minister of Mercantile Marine and Island Policy of Greece, and in cooperation of the Regional Prefecture of Chios Island; Omireion Cultural Center and Maria Tsakos Foundation. GFMC contribution “United Nations Partnerships in Strengthening the Role of Civil Society in Fire Management”, presented by J.G. Goldammer on behalf of the UN Secretary General, BAN Ki-moon, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA):
- https://fundacionmariatsakos.org/
- Chios Fire Conference Agenda (English) (PDF, 0.2 MB)
- Chios Fire Conference Agenda (Greek) (PDF, 0.2 MB)
- Keynote speech by J.G. Goldammer (PDF, 0.1 MB)
Follow-up of the conference
- Post-conference reports with letter of UN Secretary General BAN Ki-moon, conference resolutions and visual impressions (IFFN No. 42, 2012)
Impressions of the wildfire of August 2012: Fire-affected highland forests and the fire-endangered Nea Moni Monastery (UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site).
Captain Panagiotis Tsakos and GFMC Director Johann Georg Goldammer addressing the conference
