A two-day conference in Nir Etzion called "Climate Change and Forest Fires in the Mediterranean Basin: Management and Risk Reduction" took place in Nir Etzion, Israel on 24-26 January, as per the Jerusalem Post. Yeshayahu Bar-Or, deputy director-general of the Environmental Protection Ministry, took the opportunity to make a call for disaster prevention: "The name of the game is risk management, and we want to reduce the risk. As long as there is a forest, there is a risk for fire."
Bar-Or also believes that homes, villages and cities should not be built in the Carmel region for instance, as it is a place in which woodlands resemble those of Angeles National Forest in Southern California, that has a lot of fuel for fire. "But they often are [built there]– as you know the entire city of Haifa is built in one of these ecosystems [...] I believe very much in education and enforcement together. We have a lot to do in terms of the education of the public at large, and the army in particular, in order to prevent such fires." he added.