The ”Fire For Life” international workshop on restoration burning and management of sunlit forested habitats was arranged in Lammi, Finland in April 2017 by the projects Light & Fire LIFE (Finland) and LIFE Taiga (Sweden).

In recent years ecological research has lifted up the importance of the use of fire in ecological restoration and habitat management in boreal forests. However, natural fires are nowadays practically absent from forests and the controlled use of fire as a tool to improve quality of N2000 areas has not increased as wished. An international workshop was arranged  to enhance the use of prescribed fire in restoration of Natura 2000 areas.

The workshop showed that current practices and public opinion with respect to use of fire differ significantly between European countries. Fire has been a common tool for forestry in Sweden and Finland for centuries. Because of the long tradition, the use of prescribed fire in conservation area management is well-understood and accepted by the public. In contrast, legislation and negative public opinion limit the use of fire in e.g. the Baltic countries and Poland.

The workshop showed clearly that fire is needed to maintain the diversity in boreal forests. Good examples from Sweden and Finland show that prescribed use of fire e.g. in forest restoration is a safe and efficient way to mimic natural fires that are currently absent from boreal forests. In addition to maintaining valuable species and habitats, the use of prescribed fire benefits also people e.g. by providing possibilities to train for fighting uncontrolled fires.

• Workshop programme (pdf), 25th to 27th April
• Welcome & opening (pdf): Aulikki Alanen, Senior Environmental Adviser, Ministry of the Environment

Prescribed burnings in Finland and Sweden

• Prescribed burnings in boreal forests – Finland / Henrik Lindberg, Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) (pdf)
• Management of esker forests – Finland / Henrik Lindberg (pdf).
• Prescribed burnings in boreal forests and management of esker forests – Sweden / Anders Granstöm, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (pdf).

Presentations

• Light & Fire LIFE Project / Finland. Tuomas Haapalehto, Project Manager (pdf),
• Life Taiga Project /Sweden (pdf)
• Life Taiga: Monitoring of prescribed burnings / Sweden (pdf)
• Life Taiga: Example of a Monitoring Report, Skattlösberg / Sweden (pdf, in Swedish) (pdf)
• Manual for direct monitoring of burningn / (pdf, in Swedish)
• Birds in Adazi -LIFE: Controlled Burning in Adazi Militry Training Area / Sindra Elksne, State Centre for Military Objects and Procurement, Latvia (pdf)
• Fire management in Poland / Jan Reklewski, National Parks of Poland (pdf)
• Inventory in the Bialowieza Forest / Jacek Hilszczanski, Forest Research Institute, Poland (pdf)
• Fire history and tree population dynamics in Bialowieza Forest, Poland and Belarus / Eva Zin and Mats Niklasson (pdf)
• Burning in habitat management and wildfires in Croatia / Ivan Budinski, Association BIOM (pdf).