Forest fire near Dubrovnik (© Fraser Takes Photos/Shutterstock)
Last year, the Croatian coast was hit by an intense wave of forest fires, one of the worst in recent years. But Croatia has begun to equip itself to deal with extreme fires, also thanks to funding from the European Union
The summer of 2022 was one of the most dramatic ever for the Croatian coast. An intense wave of forest fires, which turned out to be one of the worst in the last decade, devastated the region, burning more than 30,000 hectares of land. As they passed, the flames destroyed houses, businesses, woods, and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists. If the area burned in 2022 remains lower than that burned in 2012 or 2017 (other terrible years), the number of single fires that broke out on the coast has instead exceeded all records. Even Istria, usually spared from the flames, saw the number of interventions by the firefighters rise considerably compared to previous years.
Source: EFFIS
Global causes and specific causes
What are the causes of this crisis? As he explains in a recent studio the Institute for the Environment and Human Security of the United Nations University, the climate crisis – aggravated by uncontrolled human development and an unconscious management of forest fires – have made it easier for them to degeneration into what are defined as “extreme fires”, i.e. events that escape any possibility of human control. But if global warming is mainly responsible for the worsening of the situation, in Croatia there are some pre-existing specificities that increase the risk of extreme fires.
Stanislava Odrljin is a Zagreb-based landscape architect who has dealt with extreme wildfires. According to her, before we can talk about the territorial specificities of Croatia, it is necessary to keep in mind the concept of “secondary ecological succession”. “It all begins in bare ground, without vegetation and uncontaminated by human intervention. Very resistant plants grow first in this soil, which we would call ‘weeds’, and then other species gradually arrive. This happens because the first plants make the soil more welcoming and fertile, allowing the more delicate species to grow there, thus expanding the biodiversity of the area. This phenomenon is known as secondary ecological succession and is a cycle that occurs naturally and regularly in the Mediterranean ecosystem“explains Odrljin, who adds “usually, this cycle ends (and therefore a new beginning) when a fire wipes out the vegetation, and the succession can start over“.
The events of the last hundred years have changed the environment and landscape of the Croatian coast, making it more susceptible to the occurrence of extreme fires. “Dalmatia was once rich in vineyards and terraced fields”, continues Stanislava Odrljin, “the mosaic of different crops, which had a positive impact on biodiversity and played an important role in fire prevention, has been lost over time. Over the years 1950s agriculture went through a serious crisis and many fields were abandoned”. In abandoned fields, the cycle of secondary ecological succession does not work as it should“because these are lands whose characteristics have been ‘altered’ by human intervention“.
“The plants that have grown in the now former agricultural lands of Dalmatia have grown close to each other, and have created a dense network of vegetation where dead plants, dry leaves, and so on accumulate. This is a large amount of highly flammable material which, combined with climate change and other factors, makes the area more susceptible to extreme bushfires, such as those that hit the coast last summer.”, conclude Odrljin.
Cleaning up abandoned fields might seem like a rather easy and immediate solution – but it comes up against another problem typical of the Croatian countryside: the fragmentation of property. “Some areas of the coast, such as natural and national parks, are under state management and are cared for with constancy and attention. Abandoned fields, on the other hand, are mostly in private hands and the owners are almost always more than one, sometimes residing abroad. This means that the areas most at risk are the same ones that are more difficult to take care of”, says the architect with regret.
Solution attempts
Despite these territorial and social characteristics that make Croatia more prone to extreme fires, much has been done in recent years to improve their prevention and management.
Dijana Vuletić is scientific adviser at the Croatian Forest Research Institute. Between 2013 and 2016, within the South-Eastern Europe Division for International Scientific Cooperation (EPHISEE ), of a large European project whose purpose was precisely the prevention and management of extreme fires and other natural disasters. This project, known as the HOLISTIC (Adriatic Holistic Forest Fire Protection) and financed by the EU-funded Adriatic cross-border cooperation programme, has allowed, among other things, the installation of cameras along the coast and the purchase of modern equipment to improve the operational capabilities of the brigade of Croatian fire.
“The HOLISTIC project was so called because it was not concerned with tackling only one aspect of the phenomenon, such as fire prevention or response, but intended to seek solutions for every aspect, and sought to involve all interested parties, from individuals to communities local, passing through schools. One of the objectives was to educate the population about forest fires”, explains Dijana Vuletic. “For example, we have carried out various communication campaigns to encourage citizens to adopt responsible behavior from an early age. On the other hand, most of the fires in Croatia have an intentional origin, so changing our attitude towards nature is one of the main objectives”.
“Unfortunately, a significant amount of waste is still found in the woods and individuals do not care for it. They light bonfires and organize barbecues without considering the potential risks – and if something goes wrong they tend to leave the area without taking responsibility. To really change the situation, continuous awareness and education campaigns are needed, temporary projects are not enough”, concluded Vuletić.
New projects
The HOLISTIC project was in fact followed in 2021 by new European projects, including FIRE-RES e SILVA . The latter – whose full name is Integrated technological and information platform for vegetation fire management – also directly involves Croatia.
“SILVANUS is a very large project, which has a budget of 24 million euros, largely provided by the European Commission. The consortium includes 49 organizations, some even from outside Europe”, says Lovorko Marić, responsible for communication and dissemination of the project. Still adopting a holistic approach – addressing prevention, as well as fire response and recovery and adaptation – the SILVANUS project has the ambition to “create an innovative technology platform that helps manage forest fires”.
“The cameras already installed during the HOLISTIC project have been joined by new ones. As regards emergency response we are trying to develop an augmented reality program to train firefighters, but we are also deploying drones, ground robots, sensors and other technological tools to better manage fires”, goes on Lovorko Marić. These new technologies will be field-tested through eleven pilot projects in different countries. “Each pilot project will respect the specificities of the country. In Portugal, for example, it will address in particular the effect that fires have on power plants and the consequences that the community has to face if they are compromised”, adds Marić.
The pilot activity in Croatia it took place in April 2023 not far from Rijeka. Also among the participants was Željko Cebin, a member of the Croatian Fire Brigade Association since 2019. “We received a budget of 160,000 euros for the pilot project,” says Željko Cebin. “We tried various technological tools: for example, there was an exercise which involved the containment and extinguishing of fires by firefighters with the help of various land and air vehicles, while in the second part of the exercise it was the robots that took care of the flames,” concludes Cebin.
This summer, which is already shaping up to be one of the hottest ever, will be an opportunity to test not only these new tools, but also to increase citizens’ awareness – which unfortunately continues to be the responsibility of most fires in Croatia.
This material is published in the context of the project FIRE-RES co-financed by the European Union. The EU is in no way responsible for the information or points of view expressed within the framework of the project; the responsibility for the contents lies solely with OBC Transeuropa. Go to the FIRE-RES page
Have you thought about a subscription to OBC Transeuropa? You will support our work and receive preview articles and more content. Subscribe to OBCT!
Comments, as far as possible, are screened by our staff before being made public. The time required for this operation can vary. Go to our policy