The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) became operational in 2000. It monitors the EU and neighboring countries. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Directorate General for Environment (DG ENV) of the European Commission (EC) founded EFFIS to support the services in charge of the protection of forests against fires as well as to provide information on forest fires in Europe to EU institutions, such as EC services and the European Parliament. During the main fire season from June to September, the following products are released: daily emails including maps of forecasted fire danger to forest services and civil protection services of the EU, quarterly fire statistics for the ongoing season and monthly newsletters. EFFIS also conducts specific assessments in response to ad hoc requests due to major forest fire crises. For longer-term purposes, EFFIS maintains an EU fire database and prepares annual reports. EFFIS provides: fire danger forecast, active fire detection, rapid damage assessment, fire damage assessment, daily MODIS and fire database access.

EFFIS follows a comprehensive approach, providing EU level assessments from pre-fire to post-fire phases, supporting fire prevention, preparedness, firefighting, and post-fire evaluations. The EFFIS scientific and technical infrastructure at the JRC does research on forest fires and operates the web-based platform. A network of experts from 22 EU countries supports the work of EFFIS. Main users of EFFIS are the services in charge of the protection of forests against fires in the EU and neighbor countries as well as EC services and the European Parliament.

References:
EFFIS Website (http://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/, accessed on February 24, 2012)
V. Grasso and A. Singh, UNEP (Dec 2011, forthcoming): Early Warning Systems: State-of-Art Analysis and Future Directions.