GFMC AND UNESCO
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
UNESCO considers the objectives of the GFMC to be in line with those of UNESCO in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation and since they tie in particularly with UNESCO’s action to promote and disseminate scientific information, knowledge and know-how with a view to reducing the negative impacts of fire.
UNESCO prepared an overview paper on its activities in the arena of forest fires at the occasion of the FAO Consultation on “Public Policies Affecting Forest Fires” (Rome, 1998): Forest Fires: Causes and Impacts, Prevention and Rehabilitation
Another major effort of UNESCO was the organization of the International Scientific Conference “Fires in the Mediterranean Forests: Prevention – Suppression – Soil Erosion – Reforestation” (Athens, Greece, 3 – 6 February 1999). The conference report contains conclusions and recommendations adopted by the international participants.
Since 2010 GFMC is working with UNESCO in the protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage sites / properties, see:
https://gfmc.online/programmes/un/unesco/unesco_1.html
Joint Scientific-Technical Projects
Many religious and other cultural heritage sites are embedded natural ecosystems that are subjected to wildfire risk. Within the regions of the Global Wildland Fire Network emphasis is given to support religious communities to protect temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, seminars, worship sites, including holy trees and groves. GFMC and partners have conducted studies and developed fire management plans for protecting UNESCO World Heritage Sites:
- Forest Fire Threat in Qadisha Valley, Lebanon: Precautionary Action to Prevent Damage or Destruction of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Extract of a report of an Initial Project, submitted to UNESCO by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) (2010) (PDF, 4.6 MB)
- Wildfire Protection Plan for the Theological Seminary of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Theological School of Heybeli Ada Island, Sea of Marmara, Turkey. Study conducted by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) (2014) (PDF, 16 MB)
- Landscape level fire risk assessment methodology demonstrated in Mt. Athos cultural heritage site. Study conducted by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) under the frame of the project “Fire Management concerning major Natural and Cultural Heritage Sites of the EUR-OPA countries (2014) (PDF, 1.4 MB)
- Mallinis, G. Mitsopoulos, I., Beltran, E. and Goldammer, J.G. 2016. Assessing wildfire risk in cultural heritage properties using satellite imagery and spatially explicit fire simulations: The Case of Holy Mount Athos, Greece. Forests 7, 46, 1-19. ISSN 1999-4907. doi:10.3390/f7020046 (PDF, 5 MB)
A policy paper includes examples of fire management in a UNESCO World Heritage site in Germany:
- White Paper on Use of Prescribed Fire in Land Management, Nature Conservation and Forestry in Temperate-Boreal Eurasia (edited on behalf of the participants of the Symposium on Fire Management in Cultural and Natural Landscapes, Nature Conservation and Forestry in Temperate-Boreal Eurasia, Freiburg, Germany, 25-27 January 2008, by the Global Fire Monitoring Center / Fire Ecology Research Group Freiburg, Germany, and published 10 February 2010).
Further information of GFMC’s outreach work:
Conferences and Seminars
At the 5th International Wildland Fire Conference (Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, 12-16 October 2015) a dedicated side event of GFMC, Council of Europe, OSCE and UNESCO was held:
- Fire Management in Protected Areas: A Side Event of GFMC, Council of Europe, OSCE and UNESCO (13 October 2015)
Between August and September 2021, capacity-building webinars addressing Climate change and fire management in UNESCO Global Geoparks and Biosphere Reserves were organized by the Latin American and Caribbean UNESCO Sites Climate, Risk, and Resilience Platform, with the support of UMGRAUEMEIO. At the Webinar on 29 September 2021 “Cambio climático y gestión integral de incendios” – Webinar 5 “¿Hacia dónde ir? Manejo integral del fuego” (Where to next: Integrated Fire Management), GFMC gave the opening presentation entitled “El manejo integral del fuego – un desafío mundial para la UNESCO”:
- https://es.unesco.org/fieldoffice/montevideo/CambioClimatico/Recursos
- https://gfmc.online/course/meeting/gfmc-meetings-calendar-2021.html
- Webinar 5 Agenda (Spanish) (PDF, 0.7 MB)
- Webinar 5 Agenda (English) (PDF, 0.7 MB)
