Juliane Baumann

Juliane Baumann is the recipient of the 2025 Firebreak Award for Excellence in Fire Management. From the time Juliane studied for her Masters at Eberswalde University in Germany she was interested looking at integrated solutions for fire management and addressed the theme of prescribed grazing for wildfire hazard reduction in forests in Germany. She took that approach to Spain where she worked for a decade in fire prevention and as a volunteer fire fighter. She returned to Germany with her visions for integrated fire management with an emphasis on wildfire hazard reduction at the interface between forests and adjoining flammable natural and cultural landscapes. When Juliane began to promote “new alternative” methods of wildfire risk reduction, she encountered strong resistance by almost all stakeholders concerned, ranging from forest and fire services, forest owners, state agencies responsible for environment or civil protection and “green politics”. For several years she has worked to convince local communities to work with her towards developing wildfire resilient WUI protection corridors.