The Global Fire Monitoring Center - GFMC

 

 

Georges-Koehler-Allee 75
D-79110 Freiburg
Germany

Email: [email protected]
Website: http://gfmc.online/
Director:  Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Johann Georg Goldammer
Co-Director: Dr. Oyunsanaa Byambasuren

Centre's host organisation:  Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. Under a cooperation agreement, GFMC is located at Freiburg University, Freiburg, Germany.

 

Structure

Founded in 1998, the GFMC is a subdivision of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and was established as a contribution of Germany to the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and its membership in the former UNISDR Inter-Agency Task Force for Disaster Reduction.

Under this mandate, the GFMC is serving as coordinator and secretariat of the Global Wildland Fire Network (GWFN) with its eight Regional Fire Monitoring / Fire Management Resource Centers, the UNISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group and the International Fire Aviation Working Group (IFAWG). Furthermore, GFMC is serving as secretariat of the International Wildfire Preparedness Mechanism (IWPM). The Tools of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) are aimed at advising / supporting nations and the United Nations in Capacity Building in Integrated Landscape Fire Management and Wildfire Disaster Risk Reduction.

In Europe, the GMFC is providing advisory support to Member States of the Council of Europe in developing fire management policies, notably through the Regional Fire Monitoring Centers for South East Europe (based in Skopje, North Macedonia) and Eastern Europe (based in Kyiv, Ukraine), both established by GFMC with support of EUR-OPA.

Furthermore, GFMC and the Regional Fire Monitoring Centers collaborate with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in developing cross-boundary cooperation in fire management, based on the Basel OSCE Ministerial Council Decision No. 6/14 on Enhancing Disaster Risk Reduction and the Stockholm Ministerial Council Decision No. 3/21 on Strengthening Co-Operation to Address the Challenges Caused by Climate Change.

Starting in 2023, the GFMC and its regional centres are integrated in the architecture of the Global Fire Management Hub (Secretariat hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO).

 

Objectives

In accordance with the decision of the former UNISDR Inter-Agency Task Force for Disaster Reduction of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the former IATF Working Group on Wildland Fire, the Global Wildland Fire Network (GWFN) and the UNISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group (WFAG) were created in 2004 under the auspices of UNISDR. The GWFN provides an umbrella of 14 independent Regional Wildland Fire Networks of different / individual origins and mandates. Its mission is to:

  • Reduce the negative impacts of landscape fires on the environment and humanity
  • Advance the knowledge and application of the ecologically and environmentally benign role of natural fire in fire-dependent ecosystems, and sustainable application of fire in land-use systems.

As a global facility serving the Science-Policy-Practitioners Interface (SPPI), the GFMC is providing the following services:

  • Offering scientific and technical advice to governments, regional entities and international organizations, notably the UN, for the development of Integrated Landscape Fire Management policies and strategies.
  • Secretariat of the International Wildfire Preparedness Mechanism (IWPM) and the International Fire Aviation Working Group (IFAWG)
  • Liaison capabilities for providing assistance for rapid assessment and decision support in response to wildland fire emergencies under a Cooperation Agreement with the Joint Environment Unit of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Within the Network of Specialised Euro-Mediterranean Centres of the EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement, the GFMC is focussing on cooperation with the European Centre on Forest Fires (ECFF) in Athens, Greece. GFMC has contributed to the European Centre for Disaster Awareness with the use of the Internet – BeSafeNet – by establishing the website

 

Main activities and latest achievements

GFMC and the Regional Fire Monitoring / Fire Management Resource Centers are cooperating with the FAO and partners in building the Global Fire Management Hub. Starting in 2023, activities included:

The First Technical Workshop laid the groundwork for the Fire Hub. Discussions revolved around integrating the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) into the Fire Hub and identifying its five key pillars – Knowledge and Data Sharing, Capacity Building, Fire Risk Reduction, Wildfire Resilient Communities and Policy Support (Statement  by the Executive Secretary of EUR-OPA).

The Second Technical Workshop focused on leveraging the expertise of the regional networks and centres of the Global Wildland Fire Network (GWFN), and other partners, to advance IFM globally (Statement by the Executive Secretary of EUR-OPA).

With seed funding from the Federal Republic of Germany through the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, FAO hosted three technical workshops and consultations in 2023 and 2024 to develop the Global Fire Management Hub (Statement by the Executive Secretary of EUR-OPA).

The first Plenary of the Global Fire Management Hub brought together the global Fire Hub community for the first time in one place. GFMC and the Regional Fire Monitoring Centers / Regional Fire Management Resource Centers contributed to several plenary sessions and side events, notably the plenary “International Interoperability”, which showcased showcased experiences, needs, and emerging visions for enhancing interoperability among fire management stakeholders from local to global levels.

Recent conferences organized and co-organized by GFMC


Publications

  • Complete list of GFMC publications (including media reports by and about GFMC)
  • Specific website with GFMC book volumes / monographs and other recent publications (including audio and video interviews and films)

 

Miscellaneous

Since 1985, the GFMC and its predecessor institution – the Fire Ecology and Biomass Burning Research Group of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Freiburg University – are cooperating with the United Nations. Within the UN family, a number of agencies and programs have sectoral responsibilities in fire management and related fields. Most of the UN agencies have cooperative agreements with the GFMC. For details – see the online repository on thematic activities of the UN Family in which the GFMC has taken responsibilities (ongoing and completed):