The Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) and Pau Costa Foundation (PCF) are partnering with Regione Toscana and University of Florence to host a hybrid conference in Florence (Italy) and online for diverse stakeholders involved in wildfire management.

The present challenges stress the need to enhance the debate on solutions, including the inefficiency of wildfire suppression at all cost, the use of more traditional landscape management for preservation of ecosystems under a changing climate, the benefits of prescribing fire to maintain long-term ecosystem services, and the need for establishing a wildfire risk culture. This conference will be a meeting point for international wildfire and landscape managers, scientists, policy makers, communicators and other representatives from national, regional and local organizations.

This conference focuses on connecting fire ecology research and management across geographic and disciplinary boundaries. The conference will cover a wide range of topics to address the main challenges of wildfires in the era of climate change with the perspective of fire ecology.

The main topics of the conference will be:

• The role of fire ecology for ecosystem conservation
• Landscape management. Local community engagement
• Managing with fire vs. prescribing fire for ecological purposes
• New fire generations in Europe and beyond
• Policies in Europe. Landscape management approach vs civil protection approach
• Wildfires and society

The deadline to submit a proposal for a virtual and online presentation is 15th June 2022.