The team of the national project Plantando Cara al Fuego and the international project Facing Fire took part in the conference Fire Ecology Across Boundaries: Connecting science and management, an international event aimed at the communities that work with the issue of wildfires. It took place in the Italian city of Florence between October 4 and 7, 2022.
The team attended workshops and made oral presentations. In addition, together with several international experts, we also participated as panelists in the session Connecting educational projects on fire ecology and management.
Overall, the conference focused on sharing the most recent advances in fire ecology, international research and different management applications recently developed. In addition, other topics such as indigenous and local ecological knowledge for fire prevention, rehabilitation, ecological restoration or fire management also played a key role.
Special mention should be made of the educational aspects since, this time notoriously, they had a relevant role in the conference. In this occasion, education was oficially included in the agenda in terms of space, but also in terms of transversality, since many sessions and discussions emphasized the role of education as a fundamental tool to improve the global perception, understanding and management of forest fires.
After some difficult years for these type of meetings, we were very happy to be able to meet again (physically) to share and discuss aspects that motivate us, excite us and contribute to create a better society. We would like to thank the Fire Ecology Association, the Regione Toscana, the University of Florence, but especially the Pau Costa Foundation for their work and effort (also their smiles) throughout the event. We felt at home!