OSCE co-hosts Antalya seminar on preventing wildfires

An advanced seminar on wildfire management for the Southeastern-Europe and South Caucasus regions, organized by the OSCE in co-operation with the Government of Turkey, started in Antalya March 2 in the Turkish city of Antalya, the OSCE said.

The three-day practical seminar for fire protection agency personnel from  Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia,  Georgia, Russia and Turkey will focus enhancing national capacities and international co-operation to prevent wildfires.

"Supporting efforts to build national fire management capacities will help to ensure that OSCE participating States have the ability to deal with this growing environmental threat to security," Goran Svilanovic,  Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities says.

During the past decade, the severity and extent of wildfires has increased throughout the OSCE region due to the following facts: land-use change, rural exodus, and extreme weather patterns and climate change.

The participants will study fire behaviour and fire suppression techniques  as well as tools and equipment, and will participate in prescribed burning and suppression firing demonstrations The participating countries are hosted by the Antalya Forestry Directorate of Turkey.

International experts from the Global Fire Monitoring Centre  and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction  Regional Southeast Europe / Caucasus Wildland Fire Network are also taking  part. The seminar is held as part of the Environment and Security (ENVSEC) Initiative.


/Trend News/