Community-based projects: Empowering Communities for Landscape Fire Management

Within the Landscape Fire Management in the Western Balkans (LFMWB) Programme, community engagement represents a cornerstone for achieving sustainable and effective landscape fire management. Through the community-based component, the Programme supports local initiatives that put knowledge into practice, combining innovation, collaboration, and local experience to reduce fire risks and strengthen landscape resilience.

The community-based projects are implemented in areas identified as particularly vulnerable to fires, ensuring that the efforts are directed where they are most needed. These projects promote a holistic approach to landscape fire management—one that connects science and practice while integrating social, ecological, and economic dimensions. By empowering local actors, the Programme enables communities to play an active role in protecting their environment, livelihoods, and cultural heritage.

The initiatives under this component provide tangible, evidence-based results that contribute to shaping national and regional guidelines for landscape fire management. They also serve as practical examples of how communities, institutions, and organizations can collaborate to implement adaptive and inclusive fire management measures.

Through the Community-based Competitive Fund, the LFMWB Programme provides financial and technical support to innovative local projects across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. A total of 12 national projects and 2 cross-border initiatives are currently being implemented, all aligned with sustainable LFM principles and continuously monitored to ensure learning and impact.

These community-based actions demonstrate how empowering people on the ground can lead to meaningful, lasting change—creating safer, more resilient landscapes and building a shared culture of fire management across the Western Balkans