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- Green Deal Projects Support Office
Extreme wildfires are becoming a regular feature across Europe, increasing in size, severity and frequency. Although a natural phenomenon in many ecosystems, the scale and impact of current wildfires is unprecedented. Their behaviour is changing, the wildfire season is lengthening, and fires are increasingly occurring in regions where they were historically rare. Consequently, responding to and containing these extreme wildfire events is increasingly complex for those on the front line, as resources and approaches struggle to keep up with the rapidly changing environment.
Wildfires can ignite naturally and have done so throughout Earth’s history. Many species are adapted to fire, and in certain fire-prone habitats, fire can provide ecological benefits such as promoting biodiversity and enhancing soil fertility[1]. For this reason, humans have practised fire management for thousands of years, particularly through indigenous and traditional burning practices[2]. However, new extremes can make recovery more difficult as wildfires become more frequent and intense. Evidence points to climate change as an important driver for the change in behaviour and characteristics of wildfires. Factors that contribute to the ignition and spread of wildfire are exacerbated by climate change, such as dryness of the soil, fuel availability (e.g. dry vegetation), and high wind speeds. Furthermore, almost all wildfires in Europe, a staggering 96%[3] , are caused by human-related ignitions. As the interface between human settlements and natural landscapes has expanded over time, so too has the incidence of avoidable human-caused wildfires.
The consequences of wildfires are far-reaching and often tragic. Wildfires cause devastating destruction to human lives, property and infrastructure, with cascading effects on the overall socio-economic wellbeing of communities and society as a whole. Furthermore, wildfires severely impact ecosystems by damaging habitats, displacing wildlife, and disrupting natural cycles. In 2025, wildfires have been severe, with over 380,000 hectares of burnt area in Spain and over 260,000 hectares in Portugal[4]. There is urgent need for coordinated actions across Europe to strengthen wildfire preparedness, prevention, and suppression efforts.
Under the European Green Deal Call, four projects have been funded to address extreme wildfire risk, taking into account all elements of wildfire risk management. FIRE-RES, SILVANUS, and TREEADS are research and innovation projects that are developing technologies and strategies to combat the growing threat of wildfires. Their approaches range from innovative remote-controlled robots to landscape management practices, to citizen participation using mobile phone applications. Firelogue is a coordinating and supporting project that connects these three initiatives, fostering a wildfire community and bringing together their outputs into a holistic platform, Lessons on Fire. The four projects started in 2021 and are now reaching the end of their work.
To tackle an issue as complex and wide-reaching as the increasing risk of extreme wildfires, stakeholders must work together towards a common goal. Wildfire risk management efforts have historically been fragmented, with inconsistent strategies across regions and states. In areas newly exposed to wildfire risk, experience and resources are often less available, creating an uneven capacity to prepare and respond across Europe. A more unified, collaborative approach could lead to faster, smarter, and more effective wildfire management. To support this, the four projects (alongside precursor project FirEUrisk) have drafted a proposal for An Integrated Wildfire Risk Management (IWRFM) Strategy for the EU: developing resilient landscapes and safer communities.
View the Integrated Wildfire Risk
Management (IWRFM) Strategy
for the EU
This strategy brings together some of the leading voices in the European wildfire field to share their vision to address wildfire risk in a holistic manner. It is based on expert learnings from across the projects’ lifetimes and has been led by Firelogue. It marks the culmination of four years of multi-project collaboration, supported by a EUR 70 million investment from the EU.
The proposal calls for a united, pan-European approach to managing the risk of wildfires with a shift from responsive suppression actions to prevention actions. Overall, it aims to strengthen the EU’s capacity to plan for and respond to disasters, improve coordination and consistency between national wildfire policies, and promote proactive and preventive wildfire risk reduction measures.
To achieve these aims, the proposal suggests strengthening inter-agency collaboration, setting clear wildfire risk reduction targets, advancing peer learning, scaling innovations, and establishing continuous funding mechanisms. It promotes the broad application of key wildfire risk management elements, underpinned by state-of-the art approaches developed by the projects. These include risk assessment, risk management, and stakeholder engagement, all supported by robust governance mechanisms.
In May 2025, Firelogue hosted an event in Brussels to launch the strategy, Wildfire Risk Management Clustering Event. It was attended by over 160 policymakers, academics, fire practitioners, and other stakeholders such as financial institutions. It was an opportunity to showcase the results of the four Green Deal Call-funded wildfire projects and how they have been working to strengthen Europe’s capabilities to prepare for, respond to, and prevent extreme wildfires. The tools and approaches developed by the projects can be used to help the escalating wildfire situation in Europe. In this article, we explore the IWRFM strategy and the work that the wildfire projects presented in Brussels.
Video 1: Watch the video of the May 2025 event to hear from the projects and learn about the significance of their work to Europe.
Risk assessment and evaluation
Assessing and evaluating wildfire risk is an essential step in reducing and adapting to the growing risk of extreme wildfires. The projects have identified core elements to comprehensive risk assessments, such as humans, houses, infrastructure and ecosystems. These are particularly exposed to risk and their vulnerabilities and coping capacities should be considered. Approaches to risk assessment and supporting datasets have been developed for the European scale and could form a basis for creating risk assessment guidelines that include the use of satellite observations or predictive modelling. Harmonising guidelines, data, indicators, and indexes at European scale could contribute to making risk assessments comparable across different countries and authorities, and support more coordinated wildfire management efforts.
In Brussels, the wildfire projects discussed how their work has added to risk assessment capabilities. SILVANUS has been making use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assess risk, reducing the time taken and increasing the quality of results. This is particularly helpful if a fire has already ignited, allowing for quicker decision-making. In the post-fire recovery stage, AI can be used alongside satellite imagery and ground-level data to monitor ecosystem recovery and biodiversity. The project has also made use of ground-based robots to generate maps that can be used for risk assessment. These unmanned robots could be used to prevent and manage wildfire events such as those currently being seen across Europe by collecting data to monitor the on-ground risk of fire and autonomously driving to and from the edge of wildfires during an incident.
FIRE-RES has developed the Pan-European Fuel Map Server which uses satellite imagery to generate maps that help to identify fuel cover. In wildfire risk management, fuel is material, such as vegetation, that feeds wildfire spread and intensity. FIRE-RES’ platform is user-friendly and can be accessed via the web and the data will help to understand fire risk across Europe.
Figure 1: Screenshot of FIRE-RES’ Pan-European Fuel Map Server © FIRE-RES
TREEADS has proposed a methodology to assess the social, health, environmental and economic impact of wildfire risk management, known as the “Social Return on Investment” (S-ROI). It will allow decision makers to compare different wildfire management technologies and approaches, which can improve optimisation and planning.
Risk and adaptive management
There are six relevant stages to wildfire risk management strategies, namely, planning, preparation, prevention, pre-suppression, suppression and post-fire activities. The strategy proposal takes a landscape-level approach, as proposed by FIRE-RES, to effectively manage wildfire risk. Landscapes refer to the broader geographical areas in which wildfires ignite and spread. It considers the interconnected ecological, social, and infrastructural factors influencing wildfire behaviour. To reduce risk, landscapes should be proactively designed and managed by using a mix of measures at each management stage. These may include prescribed burning, networks of strategically managed vegetation, and introducing building regulations for inhabited areas. To support sustainable land use and wildfire resilience, fire-resilient landscapes can be supported by economic instruments such as the development of bio-economy value chains, financial incentives, and innovative policy and market tools. Finally, emergency response is an important aspect of wildfire risk management. Training can strengthen emergency response operations and pre-fire management strategies. To respond better across Europe, countries need to work together through training at an international level to enhance knowledge sharing across borders. Emergency management can be reinforced with science-based tools like advanced fire and weather models, 3D mapping, and real-time data to support faster, smarter decision-making. These tools can further support firefighter training when coupled with virtual reality to create immersive simulations of different fire response scenarios.
Figure 2: TREEADS’ Seed Capsule Container © TREEADS
TREEADS has developed technologies to help landscape restoration efforts after a fire. In Brussels, the project presented one of its solutions to reforestation. Instead of labour-intensive, time-consuming manual tree replanting, TREEADS has designed and launched its Seed Container Capsules, which can be quickly distributed across the landscape using drones. The capsules also protect the growing seedlings from predators and provide nutrients and humidity to support their growth.
SILVANUS demonstrated how it integrates citizen science into wildfire risk management, empowering the public to actively help monitor their own landscapes. The project’s Woode Biodiversity Profile mobile phone application crowd sources data to better understand the biodiversity of an area. Users take photos of plant leaves, trees, and forest landscapes and the data is processed and used for biodiversity monitoring. The app also provides education and awareness opportunities by providing information on identified plants.
Video 2: Click the above image to learn more about SILVANUS' Woode app © SILVANUS
Stakeholder engagement
Wildfire risk management involves a wide range of both public and private actors. These stakeholders include forest managers, landowners, businesses exposed to wildfire risk, emergency response services, local and regional authorities, volunteer groups, and local communities[5]. The IWRFM strategy proposal depicts strategies for engaging with these stakeholders and ensuring their involvement. Engaging stakeholders during the relevant stages of risk management improves coordination and harmonisation, so that competing goals or trade-offs are minimised. It also fosters a raised awareness of wildfire risk and empowers stakeholders to take ownership of solutions, leading to more effective outcomes.
At the wildfire clustering event, TREEADS presented their research into the characteristics of stakeholder engagement within wildfire risk management. Stakeholder analysis and mapping can be a useful approach to understand the relevant stakeholders in more detail and to develop networks more strategically at different scales. It has helped to guide stakeholder network building in integrated wildfire management and was used to design more effective services at TREEADS’ pilot sites.
FIRE-RES has approached stakeholder engagement from the perspective of education, tackling low fire risk awareness and a lack of fire knowledge amongst different groups, such as the general public. In Brussels, the project showcased its Fire Education Platform which brings together the high-quality wildfire information that already exists, into one easily accessible location. The platform is particularly tailored for use by students, teachers, and other professions, providing suitable information for each user type.
Integrated Wildfire Risk Management Governance
An IWRFM strategy needs to be supported by governance structures and bodies and promoting international collaboration. In Europe, the creation of inter-agency bodies at all scales are suggested to facilitate multi-stakeholder engagement and the design of effective strategies.
In line with this, SILVANUS presented a technical support tool to policymakers and peers in Brussels. Its decision support system is a model that considers the various wildfire risk management options and identifies the best-fit approach to mitigate and adapt to risk across all stages of wildfire management. From prevention and preparedness to post-fire restoration, it integrates the project’s management strategies and technologies, alongside weather conditions and stakeholder observations, for more efficient and effective decision making.
TREEADS has also contributed to decision-making with its post-fire decision support system. Similarly to that of SILVANUS, it integrates the projects’ various outputs, such as satellite imagery, fuel data, ecosystem data, and historic fire incidence data. It is used to help stakeholders make informed and fast-moving decisions on landscape recovery after a wildfire has taken place.
Key suggestions of the strategy
Bringing together these aspects, the IWRFM strategy proposal makes seven key suggestions:
A European Wildfire Directive that is complemented by IWRFM guidance could provide the legislative backing required to drive a change in wildfire risk management and coordinate authorities and actors.
The development of IWRFM targets and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to allow for monitoring of progress and accountability.
An enhanced understanding of public IWRFM expenditures and the creation of inter-agency bodies are needed at all scales to bring together all relevant stakeholders for integrated strategies.
The development of integrated fire risk assessment systems that incorporate all elements of fire risk including exposure and vulnerability.
Introduction of new forms of funding to scale up and implement the breakthrough solutions and tools that have been developed under the EU Green Deal public investment.
The creation of a European Technical Working Group to develop a coordinated approach to data collection and standardisation across Europe.
Implementation of adaptation and rehabilitation strategies to drive transformative change towards more resilient landscapes.
Conclusion
The European Union’s investment into the Firelogue, FIRE-RES, SILVANUS, and TREEADS projects through the Green Deal Call has produced tangible and valuable results, in the form of technologies, methodologies, and innovations. The learnings from the four years of funding have been brought together to produce the Integrated Wildfire Risk Management strategy, a set of guiding principles that, if implemented, would establish a coordinated transition towards a more fire-resilient Europe. The projects presented this strategy, alongside their work, to policymakers and peers in Brussels in May 2025, to communicate its importance and to celebrate the dedicated and impactful work that has been carried out under the Green Deal Call, alongside their precursor project FirEUrisk.
[1] WWF (2020). Fires, forests and the future: a crisis raging out of control?
[2] Puig-Gironès et al. (TREEADS) (2025). The use of fire to preserve biodiversity under novel fire regimes
[3] Joint Research Centre, European Commission (2024). Forest Fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2023
[4] European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). https://forest-fire.emergency.copernicus.eu/
[5] For more information on how some of the Green Deal Call funded projects are involving local communities in wildfire risk management, see our previous GD-SO article: Taming Europe’s flames: How EU-funded research is helping countries improve wildfire management.
