1. Forest Fire Protection in Poland and Europe

2. Forests occupy 9,14 milion hectares of polish surface.
10 thousand fires occur forests on average per year, which results in about 6 thousand hectares of burned woods. Because of number of fires and size of forest surface Poland along with Spain and Portugal are european countries in which fires erupt most often.

3. Most of these fires are caused by people
Most of these fires are caused by people. Just 1% of them as a result of lightning discharges. Previailing ones are the soil cover fires (85,5%). Rest are total fires (12,7%), subsurface fires (1,4%), and fires of single trees (0,4%). Most dangerous are total fires which cause 24% burned surface.

4. Organization of the fire protection system in the National forests is governed by Forest fire protection instruction which was introduced by General Director 1st january 2012.
Classification of forest areas in terms of fire risk is done according to regulation of the Minister of the Enviroment of March 26th 2006 on the detailed rules for fire protection of forests.

5. Assignments to the forest fire risk category are made on the basis of the following criteria:
The average annual number of forest fires over the last 10 years, per 1000 ha of forest area;
Percentage of tree stands growing on habitats of: dry forests, fresh forests, mixed forests, damp forests and riparian forests; 
Average relative humidity and percentage of days with litter humidity less than 15% at 9:00 a.m.;
Average number of residents per hectare of forest area.

6. According to the forest fire risk category, the forest inspectorates and regional directorates of the national forests (RDLP) are obligated to follow the organizational and technical rules for preparation for forest fire extinguishing.

7. These preparations mainly concern:
organization of the observation network and patrolling forests for fire detection 
creating alarm and disposition points, 
Establishing an alarm-disposable communication network, 
Establishing communication network in forest complexes, 
creating firefighting equipment bases, 
origanization of forest aviation bases, 
development of forest fire fighting methods, 
appointment of plenipotentiaries in the superintendencies for the organization of firefighting operations

8. Forest fire protection is governed by EU and national regulations
Forest fire protection is governed by EU and national regulations. EU legal acts: - Council Regulation No 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on the protection of the Community's forests against fires - Regulation No 2152/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 concerning the monitoring of forests and the environment in the Community (Forest Focus). - Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

9. Council Regulation No 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on the protection of the Community's forests against fires
- Applying EU member countries the obligation to classify their territories according to the risk of forest fire - The classified area must correspond to an administrative division, at least equal to the subregion,
-Depending on the magnitude of the fire risk, differentiated co-financing of Member States fire protection activities - Commitment of Member Countries to create a forest fire data bank (National Forest Fire Information System)

10. Regulation No 2152/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 concerning the monitoring of forests and the environment in the Community (Forest Focus).
- Ensure continuity of regulations and achievements in forest fire protection of the Community
- Continuing and further developing the information system on forest fires and undeveloped land at Community level
- Imposition of the obligation to collect and transmit to the EU (Ispra Community Research Center, Italy) data on forest fires

11. Sources: www.up.poznan.pl/dotacje/akty/ochrona_przeciwpozarowa.ppt

12. Dawid Bialik
Wojciech Bogdański
Adam Wielogórski
Klasa 1TLi
Zespół Szkół nr 23 - Technikum nr 12
we Wrocławiu