Project objectives:

Alongside the European and national legislation and recommendations, namely: the EC Communication Halting the Loss of Biodiversity by 2010 - and beyond and the subsequent EU Forest Action Plan; the recent Work Program of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe; the National Law on the Prevention of Forest Fires; the Galician Prevention Plan of Forest Fires; and the Galician Strategy of Environmental Education, the current project wishes to develop and implement an awareness raising and educational campaign on forest fires™ prevention, that will increase the information about the correct and safe use of fire, as well as the knowledge and awareness on the value of forests, thus changing citizens behavior in order to contribute to a reduced number of forest fires caused by human careless or intentional behavior. The project will address some of the causes which are behind human action that studies show to be the main reason for the immense number of forest fires that every year occurs in Galicia and in Europe.

The Western Iberian Peninsula, including Galicia has been suffering from severe forest fires (Galicia is together with the neighboring Portugal the EU region which suffers from forest fires the most considering the total area occupied by forest): for the period between 1991 and 2004 an average of 10.000 forest fires took place every year, which corresponds to an annual average area of burnt land of 24.000 ha. If we look at the year 2006 alone, which was an especially hard one for many European countries, 6.997 forest fires have burnt 93.887 ha of land. This represents an immense environmental loss that will take years and years to be restored, correspond to millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere and implies great financial implications when we consider both the loss of ecosystem services and the cost of the means used to fight the forest fires and to restore the forestland that was destroyed. Studies on the causes of the forest fires in Spain show that 80% have a human origin be it intentional or the result of the negligent use of fire.

The concrete objectives of the project are:

1. To change citizens behavior by promoting active participation and encouraging co-responsibility of citizens in the protection of forests.
2. To reduce the forest fires with a human origin, be it intentional or negligent, in 20% by the end of the project considering that each hectare of burnt land throws into the atmosphere an average of 10 million mT of carbon dioxide, taking into consideration the average of burnt land per year for the period 1991-2004 and that 80% of the forest fires are of human origin, if the project reaches to reduce them in 20%, we will be saving the atmosphere from 38,4 thousand millions of CO2 per year.
3. To train the regions™ forest fire agents, contributing to keeping their knowledge and skills up-to-date, thus enhancing their capacity to prevent forest fires, contributing to implement European legislation.
4. To contribute to the protection of biodiversity by reducing the number of forest fires.
5. To raise awareness on the sustainable use of the forest.

Key messages to be passed to target audience (in compliance with EU legislation and policy):

The Campaign will focus on the following messages, which will be adapted in order to better reach the different target audiences (school students, population from rural areas, forest landowners, citizens in general):

• Raising awareness to and explaining that forest fires constitute a pressure and a factor leading to the loss of biodiversity, contributing to achieve the European goal of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
• Raising awareness to and explaining that forest fires have a significant influence on the ecological situation and in the productive capacity of European forests (clearly convene the idea that forests perform a significant social function, both because they are a source of natural resources and because they provide multiple ecosystem services “food, water, climate control, crop pollination, recreational, etc), in line with the European plan of action to protect the forests.
• Raising awareness to and explaining that putting into place measures that strategically prevent forest fires helps preserving and restoring biodiversity and the ecosystem services, contributing to achieve the European goal of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
• Raising awareness to and explaining that the participation of every citizen is a pre-requisite for the conservation of forests and that everyone is co-responsible to maintain European forests safe, as it is encouraged by the European policies.
• Communicating and explaining which are the main causes of forest fires, how they can be prevented and which behaviors can endanger them, helping protecting the forest, as demanded by European legislation.

The project will liaise and collaborate, to the extent that is appropriate, with any corresponding information and communication campaign being undertaken by the Commission on the topic covered by the project (forest fire prevention).