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The demographic, socio-economic and political changes in many countries of Southeast Europe and its adjoining regions have resulted in an increase of wildfire occurrence, destabilization of fire management capabilities and increased vulnerability of ecosystems and human populations. The causes of increasing occurrence of wildfires in forests and other wildlands, including the underlying reasons for increasing human-caused fires, vary within the region. Main reasons include (1) the transition from centrally planned to market economies, (2) national to regional conflicts, creation of new nations, involving political tensions and war, (3) land-use changes, and (4) regional climate change towards increase of extreme drought occurrence. New solutions are required to address the increasing fire threat. Cooperation in fire management between the South East European countries, particularly on the Balkan, is essential to overcome the economic constraints and to improve political relationships between the governments and friendship between people in the region. A proposal is made for setting up a Regional Wildland Fire Network which will be part of a worldwide network under the auspices of the United Nations and the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC)