Hawassa University

Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources Successfully Hosts an International Dialogue ,"African Fire Dialogue" ***//*** September 17, 2026 The second day of "African Fire Dialogue: From Balem to Addis Ababa — Building an African Agenda for Fire-Resilient Landscapes," was conducted at Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources (WGCFNR) on 16 September, 2026. This high-level multi-sectorial dialogue, which was officially began a day before this event continued today with important and engaging activities. The first activity of the event included visit to the forest and areas of wild fire-prone sites in WGCFNR compound. The trip aimed at looking at the infrastructures available on the ground in line with fire management, including the forest roads that serve to access the forests, the fire breaks that are used to suppress the transmission of fire, and the towers that are used to detect fire incidence. After the visit, a discussions on the causes, impacts, and the strategies the college put in place to manage fire along with experience sharing by participants from African countries including Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Nigeria and other countries and also Focus Group Discussions with communities from surrounding Kebeles were conducted one after another. The main points of discussions with the communities were on causes, impacts and indigenous fire management activities practiced by the community. In the afternoon, there was a general discussion and reflection sessions held at SIDA Hall of the College. The session was chaired by Mr. Joost van Montfort, Dr Motuma Tolera, and Dr Teshale Woldeamanuel. Participants reflected on the activities and events they participated over the past two days. While some of the participants appreciated the College for its commitment in forest management and community engagement, others suggested ways of scaling up best practices and strong collaboration at local and international level. The initiative, according to organizers, aims to build an African Agenda thorough creating space to learn from community experiences and identify what is needed to strengthen locally led prevention, which connects landscape-level fire management with national climate commitments, restoration agendas and regional forest and climate platforms. The event brought together participants from various African, South American, European and Asian countries and representatives of international organization and government agencies.