Dubrovnik, November 20, 2015
Agrometeorological Seminar "Protecting our forests against fire"

More and more we are witnessing a catastrophic fire in the open air that destroy our forests, agricultural land, olive groves and vineyards, threatening biodiversity and distort the landscape, and often endanger settlements and people's lives. All this may adversely affect the development of our economy, especially tourism. System implementation of preventive measures to protect forests from fire is interdisciplinary and requires a high level of expertise and the application of all previous knowledge. However, this knowledge cannot remain in narrow professional and scientific circles. Therefore it is necessary to reach out to the public, especially to young people who are more inclined to accept new ideas and implement them.

 Therefore, the Croatian Agrometeorological Society (HAgMD) in the framework of the program Agrometeorology in the service to the users organized agrometeorological seminar "Protecting our forests against fire" in Dubrovnik on December 20th 2015. The host was again the University of Dubrovnik. The seminar was held in the beautiful surroundings of the university hall. In organization of the seminar, in addition to the University of Dubrovnik, were involved Firefighting association of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, the Public Institution for the Management of Protected Natural Values of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, and eight secondary schools: Medical School, Tourism and Hotel School, Craft and Technical School, Gymnasium, Dubrovnik Private High School, Diocesan Classical Gymnasium Ruđer Bošković, Economic and Trade School and the Maritime Technical School.

 Welcoming speech was given by the president of HAgMD, Dr. Višnja Vučetić, in which she thanked all co-organizers. She especially emphasized that despite all our desires and efforts, this gathering could not take place without the financial support of the City of Dubrovnik. The funds were approved in the framework of the competition "The protection of the environment and nature." We are grateful to the City of Dubrovnik, which recognized for the third time our selfless dedication in bringing closer the issues related to the protection of forests against fire to various users.

Agrometeorological seminar was intended for high school students, university students, professors and employees of the University of Dubrovnik. We gathered about 150 students in overall number of 195 participants. Within agrometeorological seminar, four lectures were held with following subjects:

 - The most recent research on global climate change - Prof. Branko Grisogono, Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb and a member of the Steering Committee of the HAgMD
- How climate changes affect the potential risk of forest fires in our country and which weather situation and extreme weather events are particularly favorable to the emergence and spread of wildfire – Dr. Višnja Vučetić, Meteorological and Hydrological Service and president of HAgMD
- Experience with the firefighting of large forest fires on the Pelješac peninsula and the island of Korčula this summer - Ivo Franušić, president of the Firefighting Association of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County
- Management of Mediterranean forest and its restoration after the fire with an aim to alleviate the effects of fire, nature protection, micro-climate and biodiversity - Prof. Damir Barčić, Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb and a member Supervisory Board of the HAgMD.

 At the end, a lively discussion was led about climate changes and how human activities affect the climate change.

 Višnja Vučetić, PhD

Translated: Petra Sviličić

Participants of the Agrometeorological seminar "Protecting our forests against fire" held in
Dubrovnik, November 20, 2015.

 Speakers during the discussion on the agrometeorological seminar "Protecting our forests
against fire" held in Dubrovnik, November 20, 2015.

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