Wildfires in Algeria: problems and challenges

Abstract

© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionIn the period 2003-2010, more than 5 million ha of forest were burned in the Mediterranean region, and more than 600 000 wildfires were registered (FAO 2013). From 2006 to 2010, approximately 269 000 fires burned a total of 1 907 512 ha of Mediterranean forests, other wooded lands (OWLs), such as shrubland and grasslands (on average 54 000 fires and 0.4 million ha per year, respectively), and agricultural lands (FAO 2013); of the total area burnt (38%), about 731 000 ha were forests. Approximately 78% of these fires burned in four southern countries of the EU (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain), and 50% only in Portugal and Spain.In the future climate change prediction scenarios, wildfire risk is forecast to increase nearly everywhere in the Mediterranean region (Giannakopoulos et al. 2009), with the southern Mediterranean area being at higher risk all year round. Projections for 2030 to 2060 suggest that the Maghreb (and the Balkans, North Adriatic, Central Spain, and Turkey) will suffer at least an additional month of high wildfire risk (Giannakopoulos et al. 2009).Whereas the five southern member states of the EU (or Western Mediterranean countries -FAO 2013), the so-called fire club (Vélez 2000), are well considered within the fire literature, the same cannot be said for the southern Mediterranean Maghreb countries. For instance, it was only in 2010 that the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) started to include Northern African countries in the mapping of burnt areas and the assessment of fire danger (European Commission 2013). The wildfire problems experienced in some Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, such as Algeria, are therefore almost unknown despite the fact that they significantly contribute to general wildfire statistics within the Mediterranean Basin area (Meddour-Sahar et al. 2013a). In the period from 2006 to 2010, for example, the total number of fires recorded in Algeria was 12 230 compared with 6 996 in Greece. The total burnt area in Algeria during the same period was 147 685 ha, representing about 8% of the total burnt area in Mediterranean countries (including forests, OWLs, and agricultural lands); this percentage was greater than for Bulgaria (3%), Turkey (3%) and France (3% -FAO 2013).Fire management challenges are not currently an object of great interest in North Africa, where recent literature on wildfires is rather scarce and mainly oriented towards fire ecology studies . Moreover, the Community-Based Fire Management (CBFiM) approach to fire management (FAO 2011) adopts similar tools, such as the Participatory Rapid Appraisal, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of projects. We consider expert analyses to be a potential and practical tool for developing a deeper understanding of fire management issues in Algeria, which provides a highly useful and relevant case study for exploring some of the challenges related to wildfires (i.e., fires are a permanent threat

Fire Activity in Mediterranean Forests (The Algerian Case)

“…However, if the scientific literature has produced a considerable amount of knowledge and models dealing with wildfires of the northern rim of the MB [2][3][4], wildfire issues remained largely disregarded in the southern part [5]. Despite recent progress in the investigation of fire causes [6], fire science and policy in Algeria still lack operational models explaining the drivers of fire occurrence [7]. In addition, fire databases are not always managed in a relevant manner [5,6], and fire danger indices are not used to assess the daily fire hazard across the country.…”

Wildfire risk and its perception in Kabylia (Algeria)

“…The most recent available statistical data (1985 to 2014) report an average of 1,912 fires and 36,205 hectares of area burned annually, rather exclusively as a result of negligent or malicious anthropic activities (Meddour-Sahar 2015). The number of wildfires exhibits an increasing trend, whereas burned surfaces follow a rather stable or slightly decreasing one.…”

Decision making model in forest road network management

“…Very rarely, the objects of the SWOT analysis were management issues regarding forest roads. In those cases, forest roads were analysed mainly from the wider perspective, as part of forest infrastructure (Meddour-Sahar, 2015), or from the investment perspective (Jarský et al, 2014), but not as a final aim of the SWOT analysis.…”