The Syrian Future Movement is following with responsible concern the developments related to the Latakia fires, which have devastated vast areas of forest and agricultural land, causing displacement and destruction to the region’s environmental and societal infrastructure. In this context, we commend the European technical intervention through the activation of the Copernicus satellite program and rapid mapping service, which has set a successful model for climate diplomacy and effective institutional solidarity.
The Syrian Future Movement emphasizes that this step represents the beginning of a functional shift in Syrian-European relations, moving from a closed political sphere to structural cooperation on environmental issues, civil protection, and climate disaster response, within a humanitarian framework based on the values of integration and balanced development.
The Syrian Future Movement calls for transforming European intervention into a sustainable institutional partnership that goes beyond satellite imagery, but extends to include building national capacities in environmental response, disaster management, and forest land monitoring using artificial intelligence and early warning technologies.
The Syrian Future Movement welcomes the Syrian government’s response to the European Civil Protection Mechanism and emphasizes the importance of expanding the request for assistance to include specialized equipment, firefighting training, and the development of forest ecosystems based on successful Mediterranean models (Spain, Greece, Portugal).
The Syrian Future Movement calls for the involvement of local communities and Syrian environmental centers in the design and implementation of recovery projects. This enhances the “community response” approach, reduces the centralization of decision-making, and creates popular monitoring platforms for disaster-stricken areas.
The Syrian Future Movement emphasizes the need to exploit the moment of regional and international solidarity to establish a new Syrian policy for dealing with disasters. This policy goes beyond temporary responses and adopts models of civilized climate adaptation, linking the forest issue to food, water, and demographic security.
The Syrian Future Movement notes that the activation of technical channels with the European Union should not be viewed in isolation from ongoing political transformations, particularly the meeting between President al-Shara’ and representatives of the international coalition, and the accompanying arrangements related to state administration and internal integration.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that the Latakia fire is not only an environmental disaster, but also a test of Syria’s ability to embrace the tools of civil, participatory, and multi-level governance. It represents an explicit call to rebuild state institutions according to standards of efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
The Syrian Future Movement welcomes the European Union’s initiative to support firefighting efforts and considers it the beginning of a new phase of the Syrian-Mediterranean partnership based on the state’s role, not just its political position, and on the ability of Syrians to lead recovery projects, rather than relying on delayed institutional responses.
We call on all national and civil forces to demand the establishment of a national body for environmental protection and climate disaster response. This body should be administratively independent, operate according to international standards, and be designed with scientific and popular participation. This body should make every burned forest the beginning of a green policy, not a gray slogan.
