The WWF launches the “Off” project against forest fires

The severe and recurring drought caused by climate change also causes more intense, frequent and extensive forest fires in Italy, against which emergency intervention is often ineffective in promptly limiting the flames. As a result, the economic and environmental damage caused by forest fires is ever greater.
WWF Italy launches the alarm on the occasion of March 21, International Day of Forests, which comes a few days before Earth Hour: WWF global event which will take place on Saturday 25 March and will mobilize millions of peopleinviting them to turn off the lights for an hour and to carry out other actions for the future of the planet.

If fires are changing, strategies must also adapt to manage them adequately: in particular, it becomes essential to tackle the problem before it occurs, through adequate risk prevention strategies, which plan land management by actively involving the communities that live there. The vast majority of forest fire triggers in Italy are due to lack of knowledge, for example when the fire is used as a quick way to get rid of agricultural or forest waste.

The “OFF” Project of WWF Italy

The idea of ​​the new WWF Italy project, innovative on a national scale, called OFF (acronym of “Out Forest Fires” or “absent forest fires”) is based on this very concept. The project, lasting 18 months and 80% financed by the Cariplo Foundation, provides for the involvement of some municipal administrations and mountain communities adjacent to the Regional Nature Reserve, WWF Oasis and Special Area of ​​Conservation of the Natura 2000 Network “Valpredina – Misma” (Bergamo), and has the objective of reducing culpable fire triggers in agricultural and forestry practices and to encourage an active management of the territory to avoid accumulations of easily flammable vegetable fuel, thus avoiding disastrous fires.

Through the support of national and local experts in the forest sector and forest firefighting will be organised days of awareness and theoretical and practical training, intended for private land owners, farms, amateur farmers, hunters, hikers and other visitors to the interested areas. Through the training, good agro-forestry-pastoral habits and practices will be transmitted and demonstrated to be used as an alternative to the use of fire, as well as activities for the “circular” reuse of waste plant material and for active management of abandoned land.

The novelty: the fire smart community

The efforts of stakeholders who will help prevent fires will be recognized by awarding them the “OFF” project logo, which may later be joined by other communities nationwide: at the end of the project, in fact, guidelines will be produced with which the methodology employed will be replicable in the long term and in other realities. In this way aware communities are created, the so-called “fire smart communities“, informed, sensitized, empowered and therefore able to decide and act to reduce the risk of fire and preserve the natural heritage of the area in which they live, increasing its resilience and reducing flammability.

Edward Nevola, forest manager of WWF Italy adds: “Fires are an ecologically and socially complex phenomenon that can only be solved by adequately preparing, training and raising awareness among communities who live in the territory, to make it less vulnerable and more resilient. The OFF Project is an opportunity for the protagonists of the same territories to be able to prevent forest fires in a concrete way”.