the past few years, the Western Balkans and Turkey suffered from several natural disasters. In the next future, such events, also triggered by climate change, will likely become more frequent, unpredictable and significant in magnitude. Acknowledging these challenges, relevant authorities in the region are increasingly putting their efforts into improving capacities to prevent, reduce the impact of and respond to such events.

The 3-year EU-funded IPA Floods and Fires program aims at improving capacities for flood and forest fire risk management in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.

The Program is structured into two components:  Component 1 – Floods and  Component 2 – Forest-fires

By fostering regional cooperation and exchange of good practices, the IPA Floods and Fires implementing Consortium collaborates with the local authorities of civil protection and other relevant local agencies and institutions to improve the legal and institutional framework related to the EU floods directive (EUFD), and institutional coordination among all the actors involved in the EUFD implementation, and to improve prevention, preparedness and capacity to respond to forest fires at central, regional and EU level.

Activities will include workshops, trainings, table-top and field exercises, exchange of experts, procurement of ground forest firefighting equipment and awareness raising campaigns.