On 30 January 2026, CEPF Vice-President, M. António Paula Soares, took part in a high-level roundtable on integrated wildfire risk management, co-chaired by Commissioners Jessika Roswall and Hadja Lahbib. The meeting brought together a broad range of stakeholders, from first responders and scientists to landowners and Member State representatives, to feed into the upcoming Commission Communication on wildfire risk management, expected before summer 2026.
M. Soares used its intervention to make a clear case: with private forest owners managing around 60% of Europe's forest area, active sustainable forest management is not a technical detail, it is the foundation of wildfire resilience. The key change needed in the next five years is making it economically and structurally viable across all of Europe, through support for forest-based bioeconomy value chains, removal of regulatory barriers, and ensuring that EU environmental and climate objectives actively support fuel management rather than hinder it.
The discussion showed strong and widespread support among participants for a shift from response-driven to prevention-driven approaches, with active forest management emerging as one of the most prominent themes of the day. CEPF will continue to push for it to be explicitly recognised as a cross-cutting priority in the Commission's forthcoming Communication, and in the policy dialogue that follows.
Our full position on integrated wildfire risk management is laid out in our position paper which can be found HERE.
