Weather forecasts in a context of climate change point to an increase in average temperatures that, in general, will imply a prolongation of the forest fire season worldwide. In high-risk areas of Europe, such as the Mediterranean, this scenario raises the need to develop new forest fire prevention strategies that are more adapted to current and future realities. But also in areas of northern Europe, where forest fires have so far had a more token presence, it will be necessary to significantly increase investment in fire prevention, including educating and raising awareness of this problem among future generations.

In this context, the European project EduFireToolkit, coordinated by the Pau Costa Foundation and with the participation of the Higher Institute of Agronomy of the University of Lisbon, the city council of the Irish city of Leitrim and the CareNet group of IN3-UOC, has emerged. The main objective of EdufireToolkit is to develop, test and disseminate a set of educational resources for secondary schools in Europe on the issue of forest fires in the current climate change scenario.

These resources will be developed from a multidisciplinary perspective (STEAM), based on a Project Based Learning methodology and oriented towards community participation. Through a series of activities connected to educational curriculum, tools will be offered to teachers and students between 12 and 16 years old to identify, analyze, understand and propose actions on local and real challenges related to the risk of forest fires and their relationship with climate change. These activities will also include strategies aimed at involving the community environment of the educational centers, thus favoring intergenerational learning and the impact of the project at the local level, beyond the educational center. 

 The tools will be developed based on an analysis of previous international experiences and will be tested through different pilot tests in educational centers in the three countries participating in the project (Portugal, Ireland and Spain), which will also participate in the co-design and evaluation process. Once these experiences have been tested and the necessary improvements have been incorporated, the final version of the Toolkit will be disseminated and published openly through events aimed at the educational and academic community in Europe, together with other specific communication actions. All this with the aim of promoting its implementation and adaptation to the different local realities by those schools and/or communities that want to be better prepared to face the global challenge of forest fires.