Fire management to maintain biodiversity and mitigate economic loss

Fire is a natural part of many forest, shrubland and grassland ecosystems’ natural functioning, having effects on species dynamics and diversity, physical structure of ecosystems, and on services they provide. Fire-ecosystem relationships are modified under changing climatic conditions, and fire regimes (i.e. the pattern, frequency and intensity of fires in a given area) have been heavily modified due to human activities, with both ecological and economical implications. Intense or inappropriate fires can cause enormous damage, and extreme fires experienced in Europe since the year 2000 have called for co-ordinated European policy on fire management. In this context, FIREMAN aimed at analysing fire-biodiversity relationships and generating policy guidance and management tools for the appropriate use of fire to foster biodiversity in three major European ecosystems (boreal forests, wet upland eathland/moorland and Mediterranean shrub-forest systems).