Report on the French – Australian/New Zealand Collaborative Research Exchange

Australia and France represent two of the most fire prone regions in the world. Each country faces challenges associated with climate change and subsequent increased bushfire risk and longer fire seasons; increasing political and public scrutiny of fire incident management; increasing fuel loads in forested regions; and increased scrutiny on levels of training, capability development and organisational learning. Whilst the challenges are similar in both countries, the respective strategies employed are quite different.
These different approaches are shaped by historical, cultural, political and economic factors specific to their countries of origin. At the initiation of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, in July 2012 an Australian/New Zealand contingent travelled to France to achieve a number of research aims.