On Friday 1 March 2024, at 14:00, the conference entitled ‘Rising from the ashes? Consequences of the Karst fire of 2022 and prospects for future ecological management’ will take place in the Main Hall of the Santa Chiara Campus at the University of Udine, on Via Santa Chiara 1 in Gorizia.

Several studies have highlighted how ongoing climate change may alter the way fires naturally develop and as a direct consequence also trajectories for the development of forest ecosystems. In fact, the increase in global temperatures and droughts recorded in recent decades is creating ideal conditions for the occurrence of these concerning phenomena, and it is likely that by the end of this century their severity and duration will have increased. This will entail negative consequences not only for ecosystems, but also the general public and infrastructures. The fire that struck the Karst in the summer of 2022 is an example of this; in just a few days, more than 4,100 hectares of forest area between Italy and Slovenia were destroyed.

A year after this event, the Department of Agrofood, Environmental and Animal Sciences of the University of Udine in collaboration with the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste have organised the conference ‘Rising from the ashes? Consequences of the Karst fire of 2022 and prospects for future ecological management’. The conference will educate both sector experts and the general public about the effect the fire of 2022 had on Karst ecosystems, citing the measurements and data collected by researchers from the two regional universities during this period. Officials from the Forest Service and the Biodiversity Service of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region will also present new approaches to forest fire management and prevention, while also discussing conservation. The event in Gorizia has been organised as part of the outreach activities of the National Biodiversity Centre funded by the NRRP and the Horizon Europe programme ‘Wild Card’.