The GFMC and the United Nations System
Addressing Landscape Fires and Fire Management at Global Level: Cooperative Work of GFMC with the United Nations System
The GFMC and its predecessor institution – the Fire Ecology and Biomass Burning Research Group of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Freiburg University – are cooperating with the United Nations family since 1985. Within the UN system a number of agencies and programs have sectoral responsibilities in fire management and related fields. The following links facilitate the access to these activities. Most of the UN agencies have cooperative agreements with the GFMC. The first-listed publication – the White Paper “Vegetation Fires and Global Change” – was published by GFMC in 2013 and provided an up-to-date summary of the role of fire and fire management globally. The following documents provide summaries / reviews of the role of the UN and other international organizations in fire management.
Goldammer, J.G. (ed.). 2013. Vegetation Fires and Global Change. Challenges for Concerted International Action. A White Paper directed to the United Nations and International Organizations. Kessel Publishing House, Remagen-Oberwinter, 398 p. (ISBN 978-3-941300-78-1) (low-res. PDF, 3.7 MB)
Recent initiatives of GFMC and partners (Status: 27 February 2023)
- Proposal towards development of the “International Landscape Fire Management Framework”(Draft 5, 23 March 2022)
- Presentation of the proposal by the Secretariat of the European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA) of the Council of Europe at the 2022 Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction (Bali, Indonesia, 23-28 May 2022), Sendai Framework Mid-Term Review Plenary Session 3 (27 May 2022) (mirrored by GFMC online repository)
- Statement of government of Mongolia at the 26th Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO 2022), Plenary 04 October 2022 “Forest Fires and the Global Fire Platform”, Item 7.2.
- In preparation of the 8th International Wildland Fire Conference (16-19 May 2023, Porto, Portugal) the concept paper “The Landscape Fire Governance Framework – Guiding Principles for Adjusting Strategies, Policies, and Management to Global Change” is available to the Global Wildland Fire Network for review and suggestions (until 31 March 2023 – contact address can be provided by GFMC, or write to: fire(a)fire.uni-freiburg.de)
- GFMC Introductory paper “The Global Landscape Fire Framework. Towards the Development of an International Instrument” (27 February 2023)
GFMC publications on international cooperation in fire management
- Goldammer, J.G. 2019. Thirty Years International Wildland Fire Conferences: Review and Achievements of a Circumglobal Journey from Boston to Campo Grande (PDF, 1.5 MB)
- UN Inter-Agency Cooperation and Coordination in Wildland Fire Management Including Key International Organizations. A Review by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), Secretariat, UNISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group (Final Draft – 07 November 2012) (PDF, 0.2 MB)
- Goldammer, J.G. 2006. Fire Management. Review of International Cooperation. FAO Fire Management Working Paper FM18, 45 p. (PDF, 0.6 MB)
Documentation repository on thematic activities of the UN Family in which the GFMC has taken responsibilities (ongoing and completed)
- UN-FAO/ECE/ILO Team of Specialists on Forest Fire
- International Forest Fire News
- UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR)
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- Joint UNEP / OCHA Environment Unit
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- United Nations University (UNU)
- Convention on Biological Diversity
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- Synergies between the three Rio Conventions (UN CBD, CCD, FCCC)
- UN Forum on Forests (UNFF)
- UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA)
- International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
