Building Wildfire Management Capacities to Enhance Adaptation of the Vulnerable Mountain Forests of Armenia - Lessons from Recent Experience

This publication captures lessons learned from the UNDP-supported initiative, “Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts in Mountain Forest Ecosystems of Armenia”, which is financed by the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund’s Strategic Priority for Adaptation (SPA).  Against the backdrop of increasing risk of climate change induced impacts in the unique mountain forest ecosystems of Armenia and especially the intensifying forest fire problem under the aridifying climate conditions, this publication presents the approaches chosen by the project to build the capacities of relevant stakeholders to address the forest fire risk from the national to the local level.  By exploring the success factors of the wildfire component and sharing the challenges and barriers the project has encountered in the implementation of the wildfire management activities, the publication aims to advocate improved wildfire prevention and control to enhance the resilience of forest ecosystems under climate change. This aims to ensure the provision of ecosystem services by healthy forests to enable ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in rural communities.  By providing illustrative examples in improved wildfire management, this publication aims to enable replication of the presented activities, which in the Armenian context were found to be especially successful in increasing preparedness in the forest and protected area sectors to include climate change risks into forest management planning and practise.