The Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) is a national public establishment of a specific nature, endowed with legal personality and financial autonomy. It was created with the head of government by presidential decree n ° 02-48 of January 16, 2002.
As part of its activities, and in a context of climate change, ASAL has integrated the project: “MedFire Wise: Resilience to forest fires: Exploiting nature-based solutions to mitigate fire risks”.
This project is part of an innovative approach to strengthening the resilience of Mediterranean territories to forest fires. Its main objective: to harness nature-based solutions (NbS) to mitigate risks, restore ecosystems, and better coexist with fire rather than systematically combat it.
The project is part of the Nextmed program (Euro-Mediterranean cooperation program). It aims to understand fire dynamics, adapt land use planning, and promote sustainable management practices.
The MedFire Wise project began on June 18, 2025, and will end on June 17, 2028, a total duration of 36 months.
Asal is the instrument for designing and implementing the national policy for the promotion and development of space activity.
Its main objective is to make the space tool a powerful vector for the country’s economic, social and cultural development and to ensure the safety and well-being of the national community.Algeria is considered as one of the most promising countries for space activities in Africa.
In addition to ASAL, the partners involved are: National Observatory of Athens – NOA Beyond / Greece; Pau Costa (Forest Fire Management and Prevention Foundation) / Spain; General Directorate of Forests / Turkey; DREAM (Cooperative Enterprise, oriented towards supporting sustainable territorial development) / Italy; INRGREF (National Institute for Research in Rural Engineering, Water and Forests) / Tunisia and University of Balamand / Lebanon.
In this project, twinning activities will be developed to bring together organizations from two countries and their expertise to work together on planning nature-based solutions for fire risk reduction for future exploitation.
The Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) is a member of the International Astronautical Federation. ASAL is responsible for developing space programs in Algeria and gaining independence in satellite design.
Algeria has a recent history in space activities. The Algerian space agency which was founded in 2002, is the organization in charge of the Algerian space program. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Algeria has successfully launched into orbit two satellites. As a matter of fact, ALSAT 1 was launched in November 2002, from the Plesetsk space center in Russia, and ALSAT 2-A in 2010 from the Space Centre SHAR (Chennai) in India.
In 2002, Algeria went from an observer status at the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outter Space (COPUOS), to a permanent member in the UN Committee. And that led to Algeria being entrust for the presidency of the Scientific and Technical Committee in 2008 and 2009 and at the head of the Committee for the year 2014-2015.
According to the space agency, this twinning between Greece and Algeria will be structured around two main components:
- Seasonal fire risk forecasting and identification of most exposed areas. In this task, each partner will collect fire data, including satellite images, meteorological data, and fire histories over a period of 5 to 10 years. The National Observatory of Athens (NOA), in collaboration with ASAL, will implement machine learning models for seasonal fire forecasting.
- Simulations of wildfire spread:
In this task, the predictions from Task 1 will serve as initial ignition points. Each partner will then conduct simulations of wildfire spread, taking into account various environmental conditions (wind, fuel typology, etc.). These simulations may include hypothetical scenarios, including those incorporating prescribed fire techniques for risk mitigation.
The testing, evaluation and validation of the simulations and models developed will be carried out in close collaboration with the Algerian institutions responsible for forest fire management, in particular the General Directorate of Forests and the General Directorate of Civil Protection.
There is definitely a young generation of space enthusiast and talents in Algeria who are willing to embrace the challenge. Hence amongst some of our aims and objectives, is to strive to educate many Algerians about space, its related applications and peaceful use. SGAC offers a good foundation for young professionals and students interested in this field from an increasing global community of talented professionals who share a common vision about space. Interested persons could also benefit from activities which bring together experts from all over the world to discuss events and issues that influence our global world, and we have no doubt that it could be useful to Algeria.