report (exchange visit to the us)ioe-firelab.balamand.edu.lb/wildfire/documents/proceedings.pdf ·...

WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS

3/7/2013 Editor: George

Mitri, Ph.D. Workshop on wildfire research in Lebanon, 26-June-2013

The workshop was organized by the Biodiversity Program at the Institute of the Environment,

University of Balamand, and came within the framework of the project "Towards a better

assessment and management of Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface in Lebanon: gaining

from the US experience" of the Program Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER),

sponsored by USAID.

Workshop on wildfire research in Lebanon, 26 June 2013

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Table of content

SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................... 2

AGENDA ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

OPENING ..................................................................................................................................................... 4

SESSION 1: USE OF CLIMATIC DATA FOR WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT .................................................... 6

SESSION 2: MODELING SOCIO-ECONOMIC DATA TO UNDERSTAND WILDFIRE RISK ............................... 7

SESSION 3: ASSESSING AND MANAGING WILDFIRE RISK IN LEBANON: PRESENTATION OF PRELIMINARY RESULTS ............................................................................................................................... 7

SESSION 4: NATIONAL INITIATIVES ON CLIMATE CHANGE ....................................................................... 9

SESSION 5: IMPORTANCE OF WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT WITHIN THE CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE NATIONAL DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND MANAGEMENT UNIT ........................................... 10

SESSION 6: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE COUNCIL FOR DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION FROM THE ADELNORD PROJECT ................................................................................................................................ 11

SESSION 7: ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ................................................................................................... 12

ANNEX 1: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................................................ 15

ANNEX 2: USE OF CLIMATIC DATA FOR WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT .................................................... 17

ANNEX 3 MODELING SOCIO-ECONOMIC DATA TO UNDERSTAND WILDFIRE RISK ................................ 32

ANNEX 4 ASSESSING AND MANAGING WILDFIRE RISK IN LEBANON: PRESENTATION OF PRELIMINARY RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................................... 44

ANNEX 5 THE NEED OF CLIMATE-BASED MODELING IN WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT .......................................................................................................................................... 58

ANNEX 6 IMPORTANCE OF WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT WITHIN THE CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE NATIONAL DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND MANAGEMENT UNIT ................................................ 72

ANNEX 7 FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANS A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT AND FOREST FIRE PROTECTION ........................................................................................................................ 87


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Report A N O V E R V I E W O F T H E M E E T I N G

SUMMARY

The Biodiversity Program (BP) at the Institute of the Environment (IOE), University of Balamand (UOB)

organized a workshop entitled “Research on managing wildfire risk in Lebanon” on the 26th of June

2013 at Holiday Inn – Dunes in Beirut.

This workshop came within the framework of a new project entitled: “Towards a better assessment and

management of Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface in Lebanon: gaining from the US

experience” managed by the BP-IOE-UOB and funded by the US Agency for International development

(USAID) in agreement with the US National Academies of Science (NAS), and within the Programme

Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER). It aimed to showcase the most important

preliminary results of the project’s ongoing wildfire research, and to discuss accordingly a framework of

cooperation for improved wildfire decision making.

Dr. George Mitri who is the Director of the Biodiversity Program and the Project’s Principal Investigator

indicated that the length of the fire season in Lebanon has been increasing over the past decade. It was

statistically found that the current average start date of the fire season was June 14, while the average

end date of the fire season was November 12, and the average peak month was September. He also

discussed how the danger from the increasing number of relatively large and recurrent fires will be

posing a serious threat to human lives, private properties, infrastructure, environmental quality, and

natural resources. It was highlighted that thirty one percent of the Lebanese territory is threatened by

moderate to high risk of wildfire. Climate and socio-economic changes are expected to significantly

increase wildfire risk in the country.

Representatives from different institutions, ministries, and organizations involved in wildfire management

participated throughout the workshop in a productive discussion about the main needs and solutions in

wildfire management within Lebanon’s National Strategy for forest fire management (Decision No.52 –

2009). The participants (list of participants in Annex 1) highlighted different possibilities for use of the


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project’s results within ongoing local and national initiatives taking into account current challenges and

opportunities in wildfire management. Also, they discussed how the ongoing wildfire research is one of

the necessary steps to help in developing the capacity of stakeholders in assessing and adaptively

managing wildfire risk in Lebanon.

AGENDA

Time Subject Speaker(s)

9:30–10:00 Registration -

10:00–10:10 Opening/welcoming Manal Nader

George Mitri

10:10-10:30 Use of climatic data for wildfire risk

assessment

Mireille Jazi

10:30-10:50 Modeling socio-economic data to

understand wildfire risk

Edward Antoun

10:50-11:20 Assessing and managing wildfire risk in

Lebanon: presentation of preliminary

results

George Mitri

11:20-11:40 Coffee break

11:40-13:00 Assessment and management of wildfire risk in a changing world

- National initiatives on climate change:

the need of climate-based modeling in

wildfire risk assessment and

management (20 mins)

Vahakn Kabakian

(UNDP/MOE)

- Importance of wildfire risk assessment

within the current and future plans of

the National Disaster Risk Reduction and

Management Unit (20 mins)

Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine

(AFDC/National Disaster

Unit)

- The need of wildfire risk assessment

maps wildfire management in

intervention plans: the experience of

CDR from the ADELNORD project (20

mins)

Christian Rake - Team

Leader of the Technical

Assistance of ADELNORD

CDR-Lebanon

Discussion

13:00-14:00 Lunch break

14:00-15:00 Round table discussion:

- Use of the project’s results for improved

decision making: from local to national

level

- Identification of practical steps for

establishing partnerships and

collaboration that can benefit from the

developed tools and maps

All participants

15:00-15:30 Wrap up and closing George Mitri


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OPENING

Dr. Manal Nader (the Director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Balamand) and Dr.

George Mitri (the Director of the Biodiversity Program at the Institute of the Environment and the Project’s

Principal Investigator) welcomed the guests and participants who were a mix of stakeholders,

policymakers, researchers and experts in the field of forestry and wildfire. They both showed confidence

that the exchanges between participants during this one day workshop would raise some important points

on opportunities for improving wildfire risk reduction in the future based on on-going science and

research. Also, they both took the opportunity to sincerely thank the USAID-PEER for funding the project

on wildfire research which is managed by the Biodiversity program at the Institute of the Environment,

University of Balamand.

After the welcoming note, George Mitri indicated that the Biodiversity Program is assembling the puzzle

in assessing and managing wildfire risk through conducting a number of up-to-date and innovative

research activities. The research team at the Biodiversity Program has been successful in managing a

number of projects relevant to monitoring the forest cover and wildfire and responding to the urgent

needs and challenges of researching fire related issues. He added that the workshop has been designed

to 1) present the preliminary findings of the USAID-PEER wildfire project, 2) address the importance of

the subject from local to National level, and 3) discuss risk reduction possibilities and consider a decision

framework for improved wildfire risk management.

The participants were briefed about the agenda of the workshop which covered a wide range of

aspects. In addition, the participants were encouraged to consider critically both the problems and

possible solutions being presented by the research team and, accordingly, to provide their

recommendations for improved management of wildfire risk in Lebanon.


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Figure 1. The workshop’s main banner

Figure 2. Rollup banners displaying maps of wildfire risk, hazard, and vulnerability


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SESSION 1: USE OF CLIMATIC DATA FOR WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT

Ms. Mireille Jazi (Research Assistant at the Biodiversity Program) presented the subject “evaluating the

role of climate on wildfire risk in Lebanon”. Her presentation included the following: 1) Background

information, 2) Climatic data of Lebanon, 3) Climate-based fire potential index, 4) Preliminary results,

and 5) Future work.

The presentation highlighted the processing of spatial climatic data for producing a fire potential index

of Lebanon. The fire potential index helped in producing the wildfire hazard map of Lebanon.

Mireille Jazi’s presentation is included in Annex 2.

Figure 3. Mireille Jazi giving a talk about conducted research on climate and wildfire risk


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SESSION 2: MODELING SOCIO-ECONOMIC DATA TO UNDERSTAND WILDFIRE RISK

Mr. Edward Antoun (Research Assistant at the Biodiversity Program) presented the subject “Modeling

socio-economic data to understand wildfire risk”. His presentation included the following: 1) Background

information, 2) Socio-economic data of Lebanon, 3) Preliminary analysis and results, and 4) Future work.

Edward Antoun showed how urban sprawl, agricultural activities and livestock were considered as

statistically significant factors influencing wildfire risk at the caza level.

Edward Antoun’s presentation is included in Annex 3.

SESSION 3: ASSESSING AND MANAGING WILDFIRE RISK IN LEBANON: PRESENTATION OF PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Dr. George Mitri (the Project’s Principal Investigator) started his presentation by presenting the context of

the workshop. It was highlighted that the workshop came as part of the project: “Towards a better

assessment and management of Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) in Lebanon: gaining

from the US experience” (2013-2014) funded by USAID within the framework of Partnerships for

Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER). The project has established collaboration with the Department

of Earth Sciences Montana State University. More specifically, the primary goal of the project’s research

was to improve knowledge and understanding among land managers, university students, local community

groups, and municipalities about the nature and risks of wildfire in Lebanon's WUI. The main research

objective was to investigate the feasibility of developing a wildfire-climate model for Lebanon that

simulates the interactions among climate change, expansion of human development into wildland areas,

and wildfire risk in the WUI; while the main educational objectives were 1) to develop the capacity of

the community of interest to assess and manage wildfire risk in the WUI under alternative climate change

and residential development futures, and 2) to incorporate the research results into educational products

that increase understanding and knowledge of wildfire risk to the broader community.

George Mitri’s presentation included the following: 1) Background information, 2) Fire danger in

Lebanon, 3) Preliminary results, and 4) Future work. Mitri presented a simplified flowchart of the followed

methodology explaining each of the conducted steps and indicating future work in relation to the work. In

brief, it was highlighted that 32% of the Lebanese territory is classified as moderate to high risk of

wildfire

A short version of the presentation is included in Annex 4.


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Figure 4. A session of questions and answers followed George Mitri’s presentation


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SESSION 4: NATIONAL INITIATIVES ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Mr. Vahakn Kabakian (United Nations Development Programme/Ministry of Environment project

manager) presented “the need of climate-based modeling in wildfire risk assessment and management”.

He presented three questions in mind: main questions in mind: 1) How might climate change impact

wildfire, 2) How current management can be altered to mitigate climate change, and 3) How adaptation

strategies can be developed to reduce future social and ecological losses to wildfire. The focus in this

presentation involved mainly question 1.

Vahakn Kabakian indicated that future changes due to climate change in temperature and precipitation

should be integrated whenever planning for long-term wildfire risk assessment and management.

Vahakn Kabakian’s presentation is included in Annex 5.

Figure 5. Vahakn Kabakian presenting climate change issue and wildfire risk


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SESSION 5: IMPORTANCE OF WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT WITHIN THE CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE NATIONAL DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND MANAGEMENT UNIT

Mrs. Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine (Director General of the Association for Forests, Development and

Conservation and consultant to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Unit) focused in her

presentation on the following: 1) Wildfires Current Status & Main Challenges, 2) National Strategy for

Forest Fire Management, 3) Wild Fires Risk Assessment & Fires Early Warning System and 4) Lebanon

National Disasters Response Framework: Forest Fires.

Bou Fakhreddine indicated that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been supporting

the Prime Minister’s Office in developing the National Response Framework (NRF) for Lebanon since

2010, within the framework of the project “Strengthening Disaster Risk Management Capacities in

Lebanon”. The main objective of the NRF is to bring all national efforts together to increase the efficiency

of Response Agencies (preparedness, intervention, early recovery). The NRF identifies: 1) Direct response

agencies, 2) Support agencies, 3) Roles and responsibilities, 4) Levels of alert and role of different

operations rooms (national, regional, local and sectoral), and 5) Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs)

for all involved agencies.

Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine’s presentation is included in Annex 6.

Figure 6. Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine addressing the audience


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SESSION 6: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE COUNCIL FOR DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION FROM THE ADELNORD PROJECT

Mr. Christian Rake (team leader, Technical Assistance to the Council for Development and Reconstruction)

presented “Forest management plans A tool for sustainable forest management and forest fire

protection”.

Christian Rake presented the project Projet d’Appui au Développement Local dans le Nord du Liban

(ADELNORD) and discussed the objectives, inventory, and planning of forest management plans. In

addition, he presented the implementation of a forest management plan giving examples from the forest

in Akkar (North Lebanon) and discussed possible activities for converting the forest from the current

degrading situation into a more productive, diverse, and stable forest ecosystem.

Christian Rake's presentation is included in Annex 7.

Figure 7. Christian Rake talking about forest management plans in Lebanon


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SESSION 7: ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

George Mitri started this session by presenting Lebanon’s National strategy for forest fire management

which was endorsed by the Lebanese Council of Ministers in 2009 (Decision No. 52/2009). The National

strategy was needed because of 1) Lack of coordination among concerned ministries and institutions, 2)

Lack of unified database on forest fires, 3) Lack of interest in the economic benefits of forests, 4) Lack of

awareness within local communities neighboring forested areas , 5) Lack of a forest policy, 6) Fighting

fire as a direct reaction during a fire event without looking at the main causes leading to this, 7) Lack of

law enforcement, and 8) Lack of human and technical resources at the concerned ministries. The aim of the

strategy was reducing the risk of intense and frequent forest fires whilst allowing for fire regimes that

are socially, economically and ecologically sustainable.

Decisions about fire management within this Strategy are made within a risk-management framework,

known as the 5Rs: (1) Research, information and analysis; (2) Risk modification, including fire vulnerability

reduction and prevention of harmful fires; (3) Readiness, covering all provisions intended to improve

interventions and safety in the event of fire; (4) Response, including all means of intervention for fire

suppression; and (5) Recovery, including the rehabilitation and ecological restoration of healthy forest

conditions, and the support to individuals and communities in the short- and medium term aftermath of the

fire.

The USAID-PEER project results came in line with the second component of the strategy: Risk Modification

(Fire Vulnerability Reduction and Prevention of Harmful Fires). The strategic objective of this component is

to develop effective measures intending to reduce fire vulnerability, to increase ecological and social

resilience to fire, and to prevent the occurrence of harmful fires and unsustainable fire regimes.

Administrations and bodies in charge include Ministries: Agriculture, Environment, Interior and

Municipalities (General Directorate of Civil Defense and General Directorate for councils and local

administrations), Education, Justice, Information, Social affairs, Finance, Council for Development and

Reconstruction, Municipalities, NGOs, CBOs, Media (Press, TV and Radio stations...), Private sector, and

Religious land committees (waqf) among others.

In reference to the Strategy, some of the activities that should be undertaken in close collaboration

among all concerned stakeholders included 1) developing and implementing a Fire Danger Rating System

and risk mapping at national and municipality level, 2) identifying opportunities and needs to allow land

owners/users adopt the identified fire resilient land uses, 3) modifying risk through a number of means

(i.e. traditional farming practices with some controlled and enforced livestock grazing in forests;

encouragement of sustainable fuel wood collection; Incentives for farmers/herders not to burn crop

residue and pastures during ‘fire danger times’; encouragement of Non-Wood Forest Products which can

play a role at reducing risk; encouragement of ‘green fuel breaks’ across the landscape; incentives for

farmers to have ploughed fuel breaks around the perimeter of fields), 4) Developing preventive

silviculture and fuel management aiming at reducing the highly flammable biomass and management of

the forests to increase their resistance to fires (or reduce their susceptibility to fires); this includes but is not

limited to grubbing and pruning, tree thinning, brushwood crushing, prescribed burning, controlled

grazing and species selection, 5) reviewing legislations, including revision of current legislation, drawing


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new laws, empowerment of law enforcement authorities: forest law, land zoning and classification law),

and 6) considering higher involvement of municipalities in all levels of forest management, including

incentives and income generating activities, among others.

In this context, the experts discussed possibilities of integrating the presented results in ongoing local and

national initiatives. Such possibilities included the integration of the produced wildfire risk map in the 1)

development of 1) a National Forest Policy, 2) National action plans for introducing wildfire infrastructure

within forested areas (e.g. the Green Plan activities, the Council for Development and Reconstruction

intervention in different areas across Lebanon), and 3) current Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) within

National environmental observatories for the gathering and homogenization of scattered data, among

others. The necessity of collaboration was emphasized in the process of data collection from different

products and agencies. The development of a real-time Decision Support System (DSS) which helps in the

decision making and implementation of solutions was also suggested. In addition, the importance of

empowering local units within high risk municipalities to manage wildfire, specifically in fire prevention

and suppressions, was discussed.

Participants indicated that the private sector can play a very important role in providing support to

municipalities in managing wildfire risk areas. In addition, the produced maps can help in providing an

inventory of municipalities with urgent need of insight firefighting equipment and tools. Moreover,

identifying the location of existing facilities such as roads, hill lakes and terracing might increase the

effectiveness of response and intervention for fire suppression in high risk municipalities. Overall, the

participants highlighted the need to have one operational National institution/organization in charge of

coordinating efforts among the different players for improved and sustained management of wildfire

risk.

Finally, the participants urged the USAID-PEER research team to make the project’s scientific and complex

results available to end-users through a user friendly interface. It was communicated to the participants

that the research team at the University of Balamand will make the project’s results available to

stakeholders for use in improved wildfire management plans and activities upon their finalization.

It is to be noted that the project’s preliminary results which were presented during the workshop included

1) the biophysical/climate based wildfire hazard map of Lebanon, 2) the overall vulnerability to wildfire,

and 3) the wildfire risk map which is the product of wildfire hazard and vulnerability. Future work will

include a new version of the overall wildfire risk map taking into account the socio-economic factor. Also,

an overall wildfire risk map will be produced using projected climatic data.


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Figure 8. Plenary discussion about the best use of the project’s results

Figure 9. The participants were involved in plenary discussions throughout the workshop


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ANNEX 1: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

In alphabetical order

Participant Institutions/organization Mode of registration E-mail

Adel Serhal United Nations Development Programme

online [email protected]

Chaker Noon

baldati.org online [email protected]

Chrsitian Rake

ADELNORD/CDR Email [email protected]

Dietmar Ueberbacher

Italian Development Cooperation Office


Edward Antoun

University of Balamand Organizer [email protected]

Elie Choueiri

FAO - [email protected]

Garo Haroutunian UNDP-Ministry of Environment


George Mitri


Imad Sleiman

UN ESCWA online [email protected]

Janine Somma

USJ - [email protected]

Jaoudat Abou Jaoude

CDR Email [email protected]

Joseph Bechara

LRI online [email protected]

Lara Samaha

Ministry of Environment online [email protected]

Laurent drapeau

Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère

Email [email protected]

Manal Nader


Michel Bassil

Ministry of Agriculture online [email protected]

Mireille Jazi


Myoung Su ko

UN ESCWA online [email protected]

Naji Chamieh

SES Lebanon Email [email protected]

Nancy Awad

CDR Email [email protected]

Nathalie Karam

Ministry of Environment online [email protected]

Raymond Khoury

Green Plan online [email protected]

Sawsan Bou AFDC Email [email protected]


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Fakhreddine

Tamara Hanna

Bentael Nature Reserve online [email protected]

Vahakn Kabakian UNDP - Ministry of Environment


Zeina Tamim

Ministry of Agriculture online [email protected]


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ANNEX 2: USE OF CLIMATIC DATA FOR WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT

Mireille Jazi – Research Assistant


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ANNEX 3 MODELING SOCIO-ECONOMIC DATA TO UNDERSTAND WILDFIRE RISK

Edward Antoun – Research Assistant


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ANNEX 4 ASSESSING AND MANAGING WILDFIRE RISK IN LEBANON: PRESENTATION OF PRELIMINARY RESULTS

(Reduced version of the presentation)

George Mitri – Principal Investigator


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ANNEX 5 THE NEED OF CLIMATE-BASED MODELING IN WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Vahakn Kabakian – UNDP/MOE project manager


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ANNEX 6 IMPORTANCE OF WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT WITHIN THE

CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE NATIONAL DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

AND MANAGEMENT UNIT

Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine – General Director of the Association for Forests, Development and

Conservation and Consultant at the National Disaster risk reduction and management unit


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ANNEX 7 FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANS A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT AND FOREST FIRE PROTECTION

Christian Rake – Team leader, technical assistance (Project ADLENORD)


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Workshop organizing members: George Mitri, Ph.D. Manal Nader, Ph.D. Mireille Jazi, M.Sc. Edward Antoun, M.Sc. Contact: George Mitri, Ph.D. Email: [email protected] Website: www.balamand.edu.lb/wildfire

www.balamand.edu.lb/wildfire Project Reference: Project: "Towards a better assessment and management of wildfire risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) in Lebanon: gaining from the US experience". This project is managed by the Biodiversity Program (BP) at the Institute of the Environment (IOE), the University of Balamand (UOB) and funded by the Agency for International development (USAID) in agreement with the US National Academies of Science (NAS) within the Partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER). "This document is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the Biodiversity Program at the Institute of the Environment and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government"

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.balamand.edu.lb/wildfire

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