Public and private institutions coordinate to prevent and respond to forest fires

"The safety and protection of people's lives, their property, and the forest is everyone's responsibility. That is why CONAF, forestry companies, and Firefighters are strengthening our coordination to face the periods of highest occurrence of these emergencies during the 2026-2027 season," stated CONAF's Executive Director, Aída Baldini Urrutia, during the inter-institutional coordination meeting aimed at advancing preparations for the coming months in areas such as strategic and operational coordination among participating institutions.

"These meetings will continue to be held in the coming months, because we seek for the different response systems to work in a coordinated manner and for common procedures to be adopted, so that all involved actors can act more efficiently and safely," added Baldini.

For the coming months, the institutions agreed to continue developing technical working groups to advance the updating of protocols, capacity building, system interoperability, and joint planning. The purpose is to face the 2026-2027 forest fire season in a coordinated manner.

Participants in the meeting included: from CONAF, Executive Director Aída Baldini; the Manager of Forest Fire Protection, Mauricio Vejar, and other prevention and control professionals from the Corporation. From CORMA, Natalia Droguett attended. From Arauco, Ramón Figueroa, Rodrigo Montecinos, and César Ponce participated. From CMPC, Cristián Obreque and Erick Gajardo attended. And from Bomberos de Chile, Liliana Magaña.

Main topics addressed

Strengthen coordination in forest firefighting using the Incident Command System (ICS) methodology, with special emphasis on the application of Unified Command among participating institutions.

1. Continue advancing joint work between CONAF, forestry companies, and Bomberos de Chile, promoting a common technical language, uniform procedures for all, and better coordination during emergency response.
2. Reinforce the efficient and safe use of resources for firefighting, with special emphasis on coordinating aerial operations and the air-ground relationship, seeking to better utilize aircraft, machinery, and ground resources.
3. Promote that the systems and procedures used by CONAF and forestry companies enhance each other, and more actively incorporate Bomberos de Chile into these processes.