Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and IGAC-BIBEX Contributed by Dr. Johann G.Godammer, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany A Note from the Chair Science Features 2 BIBEX 3 STARE, TRACE-A, and SAFARI 7 Satellite Fire Monitoring 9 EXPRESSO 11 Domestic vs. Wild Fires in Africa 13 Boreal Forest Fire Research 15 GFMC and BIBEX 16 SAFARI-2000 19 BIBEX in the Future The state of fire science (fundamental fire research, fire ecology) in most vegetation types, and the results of biogeochemical and atmospheric sciences research of the last decade provide sufficient knowledge for supporting decision making at fire policy and management levels. However, it is evident that in many countries of the developing world the state of scientific and technical information is neither known nor readily accessible for developing adequate measures in fire policies and management. The fire and smoke episode of 1997-98 in South East Asia was a good example that existing fire information systems or fire management expertise was utilized only to a limited extent. These circumstances led to confusion at national and international decision-making levels and led to delay response by a series of national and international entities, some of them even missing the targets. This can be explained by the lack of an information system which is accessible globally. Consequently, an information and monitoring system was needed which national and international agencies involved in land-use planning, disaster management or in other fire-related tasks can utilize for planning and decision making. In June 1998 the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) has been established at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Germany). Following the principles which were developed for a scientific Global Vegetation Fire Information System at the Dahlem Conference "Fire in the Environment" in 1992, the Global Fire Monitoring Center in its first phase will document archived and provide real-time or near-real time information related to fire. This will include the interlinking with other national, regional and international information systems. In the second phase the GFMC will integrate global fire inventory data with fire emissions research data. For its first phase the GMFC is sponsored by the government of Germany, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a German contribution to the UN International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). BIBEX is among the co-sponsors of the GFMC. The BIBEX homepage is linked to the GFMC website but can also be visited directly at the Max Planck Institute. The GVMC supports international organizations (UN and non-UN) in developing strategic plans and programs to address fire and fire-generated problems such as effects of pyrogenic smoke on human health. These programs and a large number of national and international projects are all included in the GFMC homepage.