Forest fires in Fennoscandia under changing climate and forest cover (IBA-ForestFires)
This project synthetizes the current knowledge of the occurrence, monitoring, modeling and extinction of forest fires in Fennoscandia and surrounding regions. In addition, the project investigates how forest fires can promote black carbon emissions over Arctic. The results will help Arctic societies to prepare for the negative impacts of climate change and support the development of efficient mitigation strategies.
An infographic about IBA-ForestFires project (larger image in PDF).
The infografic is also in Finnish - IBA-ForestFires-hanketta esittelevä infografiikka (PDF)
Project description
Recent fires near Finland have shown that forest fires can strongly impact human activities in Fennoscandia. Moreover, in the future conditions are expected to become increasingly favorable for forest fires due to climate change.
IBA-ForestFires project synthetizes the current knowledge of the occurrence, monitoring, modeling and extinction of forest fires in Fennoscandia and surrounding regions. In addition, the project investigates how forest fires can promote black carbon emissions over Arctic. The results will help Arctic societies to prepare for the negative impacts of climate change and support the development of efficient mitigation strategies.
The project will produce a comprehensive report on key issues related to forest fires in a situation where climate and forest structure are expected to rapidly change.
In addition, an international meeting will be organized at the end of 2020, where the key findings of the project will be presented for the scientific community, policy makers and other relevant sectors.
The project is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland IBA funding scheme that promotes the collaboration between Baltic, Barents and Arctic regions.
Project information
Duration: 9/2019–05/2021
Partners: Finnish Meteorological Institute (coordinator), Ministry for the Interior – Rescue Services, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Emergency Services Academy Finland, Häme and Lapland Universities of Applied Sciences
Funding: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA of Finland)
Publications, press releases, media coverage
Project report "Climate change and forest management affect forest fire risk in Fennoscandia" summarizes the results of the project (06/2021)
Attachment, figure 3.12. of the report: Forest fire risk classes in the Republic of Karelia (PDF, high-resolution)
Press release (in Finnish) / Tiedote (17.10.2019): Metsäpalojen esiintymistä, havainnointia ja sammuttamista selvitetään uudessa hankkeessa
Related projects
Sustainable, climate-neutral and resource-efficient forest-based bioeconomy (FORBIO)
Black carbon in the Arctic and significance compared to dust sources (IBA-FIN-BCDUST), contact Outi Meinander
Integrated services and approaches for assessing effects of climate change and extreme events for fire and post fire risk prevention (ERA4CS SERV_FORFIRE), contact Andrea Vajda
Contact
Research professor (tenure track) Juha Aalto, tel. +358 50 409 0963
email: forename.surname@fmi.fi