1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
The objective of this cooperative project is to assist in advancing the services for the civil protection of the residents of the Azores, as part of the Azores Cooperative Initiatives Program (ACIP), as jointly decided in May 2003 by the ACIP Technical Working Group held by the United States Government and the Regional Government of the Azores. ACIP, or rather the requirement to engage in cooperative initiatives with the Azores, Portugal, is mandated in the 1995 US-Portugal Agreement on Cooperation and Defense and further defined in the Final Minute to that agreement. ACIP was created and has been implemented through Department of Defense (DOD) financial resources and relationships with civilian federal agencies and other non-governmental institutions as part of the U.S Government's commitment to the agreement. DOD has requested and funded the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS) to serve as the lead civilian agency and facilitator for ACIP.The agreement calls for the strengthening of the economic and social development of the Azores; the identification of areas within which cooperative activities and programs can promote this development; and this cooperation shall be in various areas outlined in the Final Minute, such as agriculture, education, environment, tourism and cultural exchange, civil protection, and social security and health. This cooperative project directly meets these objectives.

1b.Approach (from AD-416)
In order to advance the services of the Azorean Civil Protection, the following areas will addressed: .
1)Assistance in methods to better provide information to the Azorean public about a natural disaster prior to, during, and after an event through a variety of channels, such as schools, media, government, and community organizations;.
2)Improve the ability of those who provide information about possible natural disasters to predict, accurately model, and monitor individual events, and then to provide their results to civil protection authorities;.
3)Improve the capability of civil protection authorities to respond to natural and human-caused disasters; and.
4)Improve the existing medivac system.This would be accomplished through a variety of training and collaborations, in the following areas:.
1)Fighting of large ship fires, aircraft fires, and storage of large amounts of liquids (hazardous materials);.
2)Pre-hospital response to natural disasters;.
3)Improvement and maintenance of the skills of emergency technicians (i.e., the proper use of advanced technological aids, such as defibrillators);.
4)Inter-islands patients medivac; and.
5)Assistance in the identification of geological hazards and geotechnical investigations, geologic mapping, and geotechnical assistance.

3.Progress Report
This report serves to document activities conducted under a specific cooperative agreement between ARS and the Direction of Civil Protection of the Regional Government of the Azores (RGA) under the Azores Cooperative Initiatives Program (ACIP), as mandated in the 1995 U.S.-Portugal Agreement on Cooperation and Defense and further defined in the Final Minute (95 ACD-FM) to that agreement and funded by Department of Defense. Although the RGA had identified two areas of interest for further development in 2004—Shipboard Fire Training and Incident Command System, no action had been taken to establish this training in almost three years apparently due to a lack of needed equipment and training in hazardous material and hydrocarbon fire control. To address this, the Civil Authority re-evaluated their needs and arranged to acquire the appropriate equipment and training during CY-2007. At this point, training will be focused on teams in Sao Miguel and Terceira, the two largest, most populated islands with the largest fire fighting teams, and also with the greater likelihood of encountering fires requiring this type of control. This capacity will also be very useful to Lajes, the air base on Terceira.