On 25th of April in Sabadell, near Barcelona city, a meeting was held on ‘Windstorms in the Mediterranean Area: integration with Wildfire Risk’, in the frame of the 25th Catalan Forest Talks. The Catalan Forest Consortium organized the Forest Talks and the Pau Costa Foundation, as a collaborative member, organized the meeting.

  
photos: Jordi Vendrell
Last December, the central area of Catalonia was affected by a windstorm, causing about 26.000m3 in timber loses and affecting about 500 ha. This figures, even being something minor in terms of the average surface affected by windstorms in Central Europe, has a lot of importance in the Mediterranean area, because their impact in the media and their exceptionality. This episodes of windstorms have had some recurrence last years, and the interest from the technicians has been increased as well among the public, forest owners, etc.

The meeting was enriched by the presence of Yves Lesgourgues from the CRPF Aquitania, who gave the excellent vision about the strategies taken in France against this phenomena after the storm Klaus and provided advices to the technicians with his professional experience in France.
Yves contribution was key to understand the administrative approaches, and strategies of how forest owners were associated among them.
FRISK GO covered the travel costs for Yves Lesgourges, supporting those who serve the forest!

Backround information: Case study from Catalonia