Forest fires in the Lazio region: governance initiatives and good practice

From being an instrument used by man to manage his ecosystems and own life, fires have become a “social aggression”. Fresh outbreaks have been occurring for years now in woodland areas but not only. The Lazio Region (Italy) represents a peculiar case, occupying fourth position in the national ranking of the regions most greatly hit by fires. Arson has been found to be the cause in most of these cases. Interactive cartographies or cartograms, put together with the data obtained from the Civil Protection and ISTAT, have made it possible to outline the trend of the last twenty years for the five provinces of Lazio and the predisposing factors. The proper use of these instruments is proving to be increasingly fruitful in understanding the devastating consequences of the upsurge of outbreaks of fire and to assist the stakeholders in the identification of more efficient planning, government initiatives and good practice. This paper highlights the educational impact of the use of such technologies and the identification of interventions for the forecasting, prevention and active fight against this phenomenon, with the aid of the Forest firefighting Plan (drawn up by the region) and the lQ (framework law) 353/2000, in order to achieve positive results, considering that the actions put into place so far have not given appreciable results.