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Abstract

This concept note contains the expert recommendations resulting from discussions at the international workshop on Forecasting Emissions from Vegetation Fires and their Impacts on Human Health and Security in South-East Asia, which was hosted by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), Jakarta, from 29 August to 1 September 2016. The workshop was organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Interdisciplinary Biomass Burning Initiative (IBBI) in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction/International Wildfire Preparedness Mechanism (UNISDR/IWPM), United Nations University (UNU), Global Wildland Fire Network (GWFN) through the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Project. Arising from the keen interest of WMO Members in several impacted regions, the note provides guidance for addressing the issues of vegetation fire and smoke pollution. It also proposes the establishment of a Vegetation Fire and Smoke Pollution Warning and Advisory System (VFSP-WAS) and to support the potential foundation of regional centers on the topic. Although most of the examples described here focus on the South-East Asian region, the concepts remain applicable to other regions (e.g. for Africa, Latin America, Northern Asia). “South-East Asia” as referred to in this note includes WMO Members from both Regional Associations II and V (Asia and South-West Pacific).