ArcResc Wildfire
Developing wildfire management expertise for safer Arctic communities
The Arctic region is known for its boreal forests. These forests provide important ecological habitats for many Arctic species, serve as a significant carbon sink, and support the livelihoods of many local people, including Indigenous communities. Climate change has major impacts on the Arctic environment. Temperature increases in the Arctic are two to four times higher than the global average. As snowy seasons shorten and extend dry periods occur climate change is expected to cause longer wildfire seasons. Warming climate also leads to a longer growing season, which in the long term means that more fuel becomes available for wildfires. More available fuel increases the likelihood of more intense wildfires.
The Interreg Aurora funded project ArcResc Wildfire strengthens the climate resilience in the Interreg Aurora programme area through the development of wildfire management excellence. The project combines lectures and field training sessions with the co-development of a shared mission management application. The rescue departments from Finland, Sweden, and Norway contribute with expertise on established practices, and exchange novel or tested ideas for the strengthening of expertise across the region. This ensures that civil protection authorities share a common understanding, can do knowledge-based decision and use firefighting capacities more efficiently, protect critical economic infrastructure, and utilize nature-based prevention strategies. A complementary mission management application will be developed, where national and European environmental data will be visualised, helping the rescue departments increase awareness of wildfires, and in planning the response.
The project responds to the above challenges by formalising the exchange of expertise between the organisations. It focuses on creating a framework for sharing knowledge, experiences and best practices, and pairs it with participation to live fire exercises for the transfer of operational knowledge. This allows personnel to gain first-hand experience of different incident command and technical response methods.
ArcResc Wildfire builds on available knowledge by using existing risk assessment and national strategies as a baseline for new interventions and organisational development. It will translate previous research and lessons learned into practical and standardised workflows. This ensures that the project moves from the identification of problems to the creation of tools and procedures that improve the work of civil protection organisations, while creating knowledge sharing practices.
Lead Partner EU
Kajaanin Ammattikorkeakoulu Oy
Lead Partner Norway
Tromsø brann og redning KF
Project Partners
Suomen Palopäällystöliitto – Finlands Brandbefälsförbund ry
Pohjois-Pohjanmaan hyvinvointialue
Kainuun hyvinvointialue
Lapin hyvinvointialue
Bodens kommun
Kiruna kommun
Luleå kommun
PRIORITY
Green and sustainable transition
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
Climate change adaptation
PROJECT DURATION
2026-09-01 – 2029-06-30
TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET
1 103 719 Euro
EU-FUNDING, INTERREG AURORA
637 919 Euro
NORWEGIAN IR-FUNDING
61 152 Euro
More information https://www.interregaurora.eu/approved-projects/arcresc-wildfire/
