"Forest fires in Southern Europe - From prevention to restoration"
(Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain)
24-25 January 2005, Brussels
Section 5: 2003 and 2004 forest fires in relation to policy tools and organisation, sharing experiences.
Forest fire prevention and rural development programmes in the
European Union
Tamas SZEDLAK
Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate-General
Unit F1. Environment and Forestry
European Commission
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The number of forest fires and their effects were particularly severe in the last two years in Southern Europe, as it was mentioned in the previous presentations. There were more than 54.700 fires in 2003, with more than 730.000 hectares burnt areas in this part of Europe. The experience gained from these events should be used for improving prevention and restoration measures in the future.
I would like to summarise the measures that the EU has put in place in the area of forest fire protection under the Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on protection of the Community's forests against fire, as well as in the rural development programmes.
The Community by means of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 set up a common scheme to monitor forest fires and protect EU forests from fire. The scheme ran from 1992 to 2002, and in 2003 was replaced by the Forest Focus Regulation. The objective of CR (EEC) No 2158/92 was to underpin the efforts of the Member States to prevent forest fires, while ensuring at the same time that forestry measures with support from other sources, such as rural development in areas subject to fire risk, are linked with protection systems through the implementation of forest fire protection plans. During the period 1992-2002 the EU financial contribution focused on the following measures:
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Measures to identify the causes of forest fires and means of combating them, in particular:
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studies to identify the causes of fires and to devise proposals to eliminate such causes;
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campaigns to inform and educate the public on the risks and consequences of forest fires.
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Measures to set up or improve systems of prevention, with particular emphasis on the launching of protective infrastructures such as forest paths, tracks, water supply points, firebreaks, and preventive forestry measures within the framework of a global strategy for the protection of forested land against fire;
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Measures to set up or improve forest monitoring systems;
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Training of highly specialised personnel and analytical studies and pilot projects on new methods, techniques and technologies to boost the effectiveness of the scheme.
This Council Regulation follows the efforts initiated in 1986 under the Council Regulation (EEC) No 3529/86. Making use of Community funding under this regulation required a classification by Member States of their territory according to high, medium and low forest fire risk areas, as well as the establishment of national and regional forest fire protection plans for the areas classified as being of medium and high risk. The "forest fire protection plans" are an integrated set of forest fire prevention actions drawn up by the Member States at the appropriate geographical level in areas which face a permanent or cyclical fire risk (high or medium forest fire risk areas).
Figure 1: Forest fire risk zones in the EU 15.
The entire territory of Spain, Portugal and Greece has been classified as high risk area, whereas France, Italy and Germany have set up a classification of high and medium risk areas per region. In total, some 60 million ha of forests and other wooded land were classified as high or medium forest fire risk zones within the EU-15.
The New Member States also have started to classify their forests and prepare the forest protection plans. For instance Cyprus and Slovenia have already prepared their forest protection plans.
Some results of the Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/99
Under this Regulation, the Community has supported forest fire prevention actions with a yearly EU funding of about EUR 10 million. The scheme set up by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 provided significant co-financing (EUR 123.7 million for the period 1992-2002) for monitoring and preventive measures implemented by Member States.
About 50% of these funds were used for creating or improving prevention infrastructures (water points, forest roads, firebreaks, and silvicultural measures), 30% for surveillance equipment, 16% for awareness raising and information campaigns, for specialised training, and about 4% for analytical studies and geographical information systems.
It is important to recall that although the number of forest fires of less than 1 ha increased over the period 1992-2002, the average burnt area, intervention time and the duration of the fires decreased over that period.
During the period 2000-2002, following the adoption of the new implementing regulation, (Commission Regulation (EC) No 1727/1999) Member States submitted national forest fire protection programmes. These programmes were the backbone of the forest fire prevention measures during the period.
Figure 2: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 expenditure per year
Source: European Commission
Figure 3: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 expenditure per activity for the period 2000-2002. Source: European Commission
Figure 4: Council Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 expenditure per sub-measures for the period 2000-2002. Source: European Commission
Forest fires prevention and restoration measures under the Rural Development Regulation (CR No 1257/99).
In 1999, the European Council in Berlin adopted the Agenda 2000 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a new and important step in the development of the CAP. Agenda 2000 represented a deepening and an extension of the 1992 reform and the consolidation of rural development as the second pillar of the CAP.
The EU's rural development policy under Agenda 2000 seeks to establish a coherent and sustainable framework for the future of the rural areas based on the following main principles:
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The sustainability of agriculture and forestry, i.e. its varied role over and above the production of foodstuffs and raw materials. This implies the recognition and encouragement of the range of services provided by farmers and foresters;
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A multisectoral and integrated approach to the rural economy in order to diversify activities, create new sources of income and employment, and protect the rural heritage;
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Subsidiarity for Member States to draw up their rural development programmes.
The core instrument to achieve these objectives is Council Regulation No 1257/1999 - the Rural Development Regulation.
Forestry measures within the rural development policy
The overall principles of the EU's Forestry Strategy, e.g. multifunctionality and sustainability are reflected in the rural development policy of the EU by bringing together economic, social and environmental objectives into a coherent package of voluntary measures and thus giving added value to the implementation of forest programmes of the Member States in their regions. The forestry measures of the rural development programmes are at the same time seeking to contribute to more global issues such as climate change and biodiversity.
The Rural Development Regulation thus emerges as an important vehicle for implementing the EU's Forestry Strategy. In broad terms, the integration of forestry aspects in the Rural Development Policy follows three pathways, in particular for privately owned and municipality forests:
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afforestation of agricultural land (article 31);
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investments to improve the multifunctional role of forestry (article 30);
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improvement of the forest protection values (article 32).
The integrated rural development approach puts great emphasis on linkages with other policy areas and land uses, as well as on the consideration of specific socio-economic and ecological factors, in line with the following basic principles:
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interdependence of different sectoral and horizontal policy areas, - the need to combine different interests and to achieve economic, social and environmental objectives in a coherent way;
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regional diversity - an acknowledgement of locally distinctive characteristics and priorities, problems and opportunities;
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bottom up approach - an emphasis on the active involvement and participation of local communities, and self-help rather than reliance on external action.
A total amount of EUR 4.8 billion has been allocated to forestry measures in the EU-15 Member States under the EAGGF budget for the period 2000-2006. This amount represents almost 10% of the total budget allocated to rural development over that period (Leader+ excluded).
Portugal (19.3%), Spain (17.5%), Ireland (14.9%), UK (14.6%), Denmark (12.4%) and Italy (12%) are the countries with the highest proportion of the budget allocated to forestry measures within their rural development programmes.
- Specific measures related to forest fire prevention and restoration.
The Rural Development Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/99) provides the possibility of financial support for:
- restoring forestry production potential damaged by natural disasters and fire and introducing appropriate prevention actions (article 30.1, 6th indent);
- maintaining fire-breaks through agricultural measures,(article 32.2nd indent);
- restoring agricultural production potential damaged by natural disasters and introducing appropriate prevention instruments (article 33, 12th indent).
Concerning forestry, support may be granted for private and public forest owners and support of the article 33 measure shall relate "to farming activities and their conversion and to rural activities".
In line with the principle of subsidiary, the Member States can decide, depending on their priorities, the specific forestry measures to be included in their rural development programmes. They also have the possibility to reorient the priorities between the different measures according to their needs. This option became particularly important after the fire season in 2003.
The financial forecast of the rural development programmes is provided in table 1. This table indicates the EAAGF budget allocated to the different forestry measures in the Member States (EU-15) for the period 2000 - 2006
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Source: European Commission
Recent policy developments
As the CAP's second pillar, the rural development policy follows the overall orientations for a sustainable agriculture in line with the conclusions of the Lisbon (March 2000) and Gothenburg (June 2001) European Councils. At Lisbon, EU leaders stated their objective of making the EU "the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" by 2010. The Gothenburg conclusions added a new emphasis on protecting the environment and achieving a more sustainable pattern of development, and highlighted the fact that in the context of Agenda 2000, European agriculture had "become oriented towards satisfying the general public's growing demands regarding food safety and quality, product differentiation, environmental quality and the conservation of nature and the countryside". The reform of the CAP in 2003 gave a further impulse to this objective through the introduction of a series of new measures in the Rural Development Regulation, including additional resources to be generated by modulation. With regard to forestry, the 2003 CAP reform introduced the possibility to provide support to State-owned forests for investments aimed at enhancing the ecological and social values.
Rural development policy post-2006
In July 2004, the Commission adopted a proposal to reinforce the EU's rural development policy for the period 2007-2013, and to greatly simplify its implementation (COM (2004) 490 final). The proposal will increase EU funding to EUR 13.7 billion per year for 2007-2013. By introducing a single funding and programming instrument, the new policy will be much simpler to manage and control.
To achieve a more strategic approach to rural development, a first step in the programming phase would be the preparation by the Commission of a strategy document setting out the EU priorities around the three major objectives for RD policy set-out in the Communication on the Financial Perspectives for the period 2007-2013, namely:
- Improving the competitiveness of the agricultural and the forestry sector;
- Enhancing the environment and countryside through support to land management;
- Enhancing the quality of life in rural areas and promoting diversification of economic activities through measures targeting the farm sector and other rural actors.
The proposal acknowledges the important role of forestry in rural development and includes a number of measures across the three priority axes aiming at enhancing the protection and sustainable forest management and promoting the multifunctional role of forests in the EU, as well as a better integration of forestry in rural development programmes.
The following measures are of specific relevance for forest fire prevention and restoration:
Axis 1: Improving the competitiveness of the agricultural and forestry sector offers support for infrastructure in Article 28: under the heading: Infrastructure related to the development and adaptation of agriculture and forestry:
"Support provided for in Article 19 (b)(iv), may cover notably operations related to access to farm and forest land, energy supply and water management."
Axis 2: Land management contains Article 45: Restoring forestry potential and introducing prevention actions provides for
"Support for restoring forestry potential in forests damaged by natural disasters and fire and introducing appropriate prevention actions.
Preventive actions against fires shall concern forests classified by the Member States as high or medium forest fire risk according to their forest protection plans."
The Leader approach, through the local public-private partnerships ("Local Action Groups") could contribute to the development and diversification of activities in rural areas.