Climate Change, Wildfires and Fir Forests in Greece: Perceptions of Forest Managers

Background and Purpose: The potential impact that climate change may have on fire regime in ecosystems that are not fire-dependent emerges from fires that are nowadays spreading over higher altitudes and northern latitudes. The effects of fire occurrence in high elevation forests of Greece became apparent during the last few years when a number of large forest fires burned a significant number of high altitude fir ecosystems. This paper describes a study that investigated perceptions of wildfire risk to fir ecosystems of Greece in the context of climate change among a sample of Greek forestry experts by conducting personal interviews. Materials and Methods: A total of 63 forest experts answered the developed survey from 43 different forest management units covering all forestry agencies which manage fir forests in the country. The perceived fire risk and management to fir forest ecosystems was assessed by means of a subset of scales previously identified as relevant to climate change and to all fire management aspects, such as fire prevention, fire suppression and post fire treatments. Results: Increased fire risk was rated as a quite important issue in fir forests during the last few years, while the adapting options to climate change are not implemented mainly due to budget and personnel constrains. According to forest experts, fire prevention in fir forests under climate change should be focused on public awareness and fuel management. Nevertheless, the survey results indicate that there is also a need for specific fire prevention measures such as the type of logging activities and other technical measures. The result of this survey highlighted the need for the establishment of a new firefighting organization and for the better coordination of all involved parties during fire suppression. Conclusions: The findings of the current study can be critically important in determining how forest fire management considerations are incorporated into forest management plans and policies under climate change