European Forest Institute Project Center on Fire Ecology and Post-Fire Management

In May 2005, the European Forest Institute (EFI) approved the creation of theRegionalProject Centre PHOENIX(2005-2009), a consortium of EFI member institutions and other relevant partners carrying out specific research on fire ecology and post-fire management. The consortium currently includes 20 members from five Mediterranean countries.

Theobjectivesof the consortium are: (1) to obtain a sound database gathering the state-of-the-art of existing scientific knowledge concerning the fire characteristics of the different forest types and respective species; (2) to develop a set of criteria which can be used to classify forest types in terms of the associated fire hazard and resilience; (3) to define the potential and limitation of the various post-fire management options; (4) to help developing the transfer mechanisms needed between research and its application by end-users in this specific issue.

The coordination of PHOENIX is carried out by the Centro de Ecologia Aplicada "Prof. Baeta Neves", a research centre within the Institute of Agronomy, Lisbon, Portugal. The core funds for the coordination activities come from the Portuguese Government (Ministry of Agriculture) through the project "Recuperação de áreas ardidas"). Specific research projects within the PHOENIX partnership are sought to support activities and increase effectiveness.