The BPI, the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, and the Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, announce, in a statement, the creation of the BPI | ‘la Caixa’ Foundation Chair in ‘Forests and Fire Management’ by Tiago Oliveira.
According to the same source, the Chair’s central objective is to produce new knowledge and disseminate it in a manner that mobilizes communities and the involved stakeholders, as well as inform debate guided by public opinion.
The Chair in ‘Forests and Fire Management’, led by Tiago Oliveira, will begin by addressing, in the first year, processes and outputs that stimulate fire prevention, compare regional and European indicators, and undertake prospective national and international dialogues.
Tiago Oliveira, an internationally renowned specialist in fire risk assessment and management, brings a 30-year track record in the management of operations, policies and public and private administration. He is recognized for his contribution to defining the national strategy post-2017 and for incorporating the concepts of integrated fire management into policies at a global scale, having chaired the Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management, I.P. (AGIF), since its creation in 2018 until May this year.
The Chair will include an Advisory Scientific Council to support planning and management of the initiatives, and to support the recruitment and selection of the team that, over the coming years, will develop the following initiatives:
- Produce and disseminate new technical and scientific knowledge as a public service on territory, forest and governance of rural fires, stimulating dialogue among stakeholders (i.e., institutions and public and private actors), and promoting the adoption of holistic approaches (i.e., “whole-of-government“);
- Stimulate and promote informed public debate on territorial and forest strategies and policies, contributing to strengthen the scientific evidence on governance of rural fires centered on active territory management, prevention and risk mitigation;
- Contribute to the advanced training of decision-makers in the formulation, design and implementation of policies, projects and activities in forests and fire management in Portugal and Europe.
In a context where the economic, environmental, and social importance of forests is growing, as is the risk of fires, this Chair also aims to mobilize coherent public policies with aligned incentives to realize good agro-silvo-pastoral practices that reduce the fire hazard and improve the quality of strategic and operational decisions through access to scientific knowledge, technical notes, capacity building, and informed debates.
The BPI | ‘la Caixa’ Foundation Chair in ‘Forests and Fire Management’ by Tiago Oliveira will be hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Técnico and by the Center for Studies in Innovation, Technology and Development Policy (IN+) of the Instituto Superior Técnico, integrated into the LARSyS Associated Laboratory.
