Preserving the Tradition of Fire in Europe

The European Prescribed Fire Association - Nodfyr Portugal (NODFYR) emerged as an innovative and necessary response to the challenges discussed during the European Fire Meeting, held in Paredes de Coura in October 2023. This meeting was an important milestone, where experts, technicians, scientists and politicians recognised the urgency of applying prescribed and institutional fire and reintroducing the use of traditional fire in Europe's landscapes (beyond the European Union), respecting the various ancestral uses that have marked people's relationship with fire throughout history.
Inspired by the Prescribed Burn Associations (PBA's) in the United States, NODFYR is the first association of its kind to be set up in Europe. Our mission is clear: to offer a proactive response to the needs of local communities in the ecological management of habitats and landscapes, using fire in a conscious and responsible way.
To this end, we have brought together a diverse group of technicians and users of prescribed fire, both from Portugal and Galicia, who have taken the first step in defence of the use of traditional and technical fire. This initiative comes in an Europe that, over the last few centuries, has become increasingly distanced from nature and ancestral practices, forgetting the crucial ecological role that fire has played for thousands of years. Today, many regions of Europe associate fire only with devastating rural fires, ignoring the benefits of the ancestral use of fire.
NODFYR is not just an association of technicians specialised in prescribed fire. We advocate the responsible use of fire by everyone, be they technicians, operatives, shepherds, farmers, hunters, environmentalists, or anyone else who understands and respects the value of fire for maintaining biodiversity and local culture. We believe that prescribed fire, whether of technical or traditional origin, is also a cultural expression that is unfortunately almost extinct in Europe today.
Our commitment is to rescue and promote knowledge about the use of prescribed fire, reaffirming its role as an essential tool for the sustainable management of ecosystems, the preservation of cultural landscapes and the reconnection of communities with their ancestral roots.
Join us in this mission to rediscover and valorise the use of fire as an ally of nature and the culture of the Peoples of Europe!