FRED project kick-off

RGO is pleased to report that we have been awarded a subsidy grant within the Interreg Euro-MED Programme for our project - FRED, a test project applied under the natural environment and heritage mission. Out of 263 project applications, total of 56 projects were selected for funding.

The Fire Free MED – FRED is a project developed and submitted with the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka and other eight partners from the Mediterranean, supported by 10 associated partners.

The FRED project overall objective is to implement advanced ICT/UAS (drone) tools for climate change adaptation, disaster risk prevention and mitigation in the wildfire segment at 6 public authorities in 6 MED countries (HR, SI, IT, BA, ME, EL, PT). By doing so, the project technical solutions will prevent and mitigate wildfires, strengthen resilience of the EU wildfire hotspot - MED and result in reducing risks to human lives, ecosystem degradation, habitat/biodiversity loss.

The common territorial challenge that will be tackled by the FRED project is adaptation to/ mitigation of climate change impacts, the particular impact being the rapid growth of destructive and catastrophic wildfires. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean has become a wildfire hotspot, particularly in the sense that climate change is conducive to greater capacity to create what is called extreme wildfire events that harm and displace millions every year. The nature of wildfires has changed drastically. To illustrate that, in 2022 alone over 600 000 hectares of this programme’s ecosystems has been destroyed by fires, whereas the annual average for 2006 - 2021 period was around 297 000 he.

RGO is happy to work with the scientific partners and public authorities on the development of tools that are to support relevant wildfire/search and rescue authorities in prevention and mitigation; and subsequently have these tools tested in six separate pilot actions in: Kras karst area in Slovenia, Rocca di Cerere UNESCO Geopark in Italy, Una National park in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ulcinj municipality in Montenegro, Mali Lošinj Island in Croatia and Baixo Alentejo region in Portugal.

The kick-off event was held in Opatija, Croatia on 28-29^th February 2024. With total budget of 2.380.000,00 EUR, project activities are to be implemented by the end of September 2026.