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Ecosystem-based approaches

Ecosystem-based approaches reduce wildfire risk by protecting, restoring and managing landscapes in ways that strengthen their natural resilience to fire.

Healthy forests, wetlands, grasslands and other ecosystems can help limit the spread and intensity of wildfires by reducing the build-up of combustible vegetation, maintaining moisture in the landscape and supporting more diverse, fire-adapted ecosystems. Measures such as ecological forest restoration, prescribed or cultural burning where appropriate, sustainable grazing and the conservation of natural firebreaks can lower wildfire risk while maintaining ecosystem health.

These approaches also provide benefits beyond wildfire risk reduction. Healthy ecosystems protect biodiversity, store carbon, improve water security and support livelihoods, making communities more resilient to the growing impacts of climate change. Ecosystem-based wildfire management is most effective when combined with risk-informed land-use planning, resilient infrastructure, community preparedness and Indigenous Peoples' and local knowledge, creating an integrated approach that addresses both the causes and consequences of wildfire risk.

Southern California fires incident analysis report thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report examines the conditions, decisions, actions, and systems that influenced Southern California Fires and community conflagration outcomes before and during the fires.

UL Research Institutes
Update
Drones, AI and robots in wildfire response

Federal agencies in the United States already use drones to map wildfires and detect hotspots. The Forest Service is now testing ground robots, and researchers are training machine-learning models on drone imagery to predict how fast a fire will spread.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The
Aerial shot of a wildfire raging through a forest in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Research briefs
Australia's bushfire crisis linked to colonial land-use change

Forest expansion and thickening after British colonization has created landscapes more prone to burning, amplifying the influence of climate change and propelling Australia’s bushfire crisis, a new study has found.

University of Melbourne
Climate change amplifies surface fire hazard in the tropical Andes: high-resolution FlamMap simulations in southern Ecuador thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study evaluates the sensitivity of wildfire hazard to climate change in Molleturo Parish, Azuay Province, using high-resolution (20 m) spatial simulations with the FlamMap modeling framework.

Natural Hazards (Springer)
Aerial shot of a wildfire near White River, South Africa, creating dramatic sunset scenery over the landscape.
Update
Australia: Satellite tool can help better prepare for bushfires

A satellite-based tool maps vegetation moisture across Australia, helping track bushfire risk in near real time. The data can support local monitoring, preparedness and prescribed burning decisions as conditions evolve.

Conversation Media Group, the
Update
Portugal: Ecosystem restoration community is regenerating water cycles

Certain invasive species from climate regions comparable to Portugal could be incorporated into a biodiverse planting plan that includes their removal once the other species are established.

Resilience.org
Atmospheric aerial view of a green forest with planet Earth
Update
Forest resilience bonds strengthen communities

A decade after the idea took shape, Forest Resilience Bonds are helping partners finance and fund projects across the western U.S., reducing wildfire risk while enhancing the water supply and supporting local jobs.

World Resources Institute
Future projections of burned area in Europe highlight the importance of human action thumbnail
Documents and publications

This research article explores future projections of burned area in Europe by assessing the influence of climate change and human actions.

Global Change Biology (Wiley)
Climate-amplified wildland–urban interface disasters create persistent internal metal mixtures associated with pulmonary impairment thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study suggests that wildland-urban interface (WUI) disasters create a distinct post-disaster exposure regime characterised by persistent internal metal mixtures associated with pulmonary impairment months after the event.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
Cover
Documents and publications

This study examines fire governance from fire-prone countries and transdisciplinary practitioner knowledge to propose ten principles for aligning fire policy with social-ecological realities.

Communications Earth & Environment (Nature)
Firefighting aircraft extinguishing a forest fire in Sever do Vouga, Portugal.
Update
USA: Effective wildfire strategy needs a system of actions

The issue with how America deals with wildfires is thinking there is one primary strategy to end the wildfire crisis. But effective wildfire strategy in worsening fire seasons demands a system of actions – interconnected pieces that reinforce one another.

Conversation Media Group, the
Update
America is losing its war against wildfire

Wildland firefighting is increasingly facing an intractable reality: We’re stuck in a vicious cycle. A doom loop.

Grist Magazine
Rapid soil moisture depletion during flash droughts accelerates wildfire spread in the United States thumbnail
Documents and publications

Study finds that rapid root-zone soil moisture depletion during flash droughts is more strongly linked to accelerated wildfire spread than conventional drought conditions across the United States.

Nature Communications (Nature)
Research briefs
Amazon: Human-driven fires have shaped the forest for 10,000 years

New research is dismantling the long-standing myth of the "pristine" Amazon. A reconstruction of 10,000 years of Amazonian pyrogeography shows that fire in the rainforest is almost exclusively a human-driven phenomenon, not a natural one.

EurekAlert
Wildfire smoke and childcare: How do licensed providers adapt? thumbnail
Documents and publications

Seattle-based study is one of the first to examine wildfire smoke risk in childcare environments by studying how providers access information, perceive risks, implement protective actions, and if preferred strategies differ from current practices.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Community-led co-design in disaster recovery: Enabling conditions for practice thumbnail
Documents and publications

Using a case study involving residents, First Nations communities and local organisations, this paper explores how community-led co-design was enacted in local recovery across four wildfire-affected regions in Australia.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Aerial shot of a forest after a wildfire, with a river winding through the charred landscape.
Update
Putting out every forest fire could make future wildfires worse

Polish researcher warned putting out every forest fire could paradoxically increase the risk of catastrophic wildfires by allowing combustible vegetation to build up, arguing that controlled burning should be considered as part of fire protection.

Science in Poland
Research briefs
Fast-moving wildfires leave forests less able to recover, study finds

Research shows that fast-moving forest fires burn more severely, making it harder for forests to recover.

Colorado State University
Update
Canada’s wildfire season is taking a heavy toll on First Nations

Homes had burned. Photographs, memorabilia, and Salish baskets had disappeared with them. More than 30 band members had lost their homes, naspəpʕásəs Dan Wilson said, along with around 200 homes and other structures belonging to non-band members.

Grist Magazine
A forest fire burning in a woodland area with a person managing the controlled blaze.
Update
USA: Community-led beneficial fire continues to grow

The Community-Based Beneficial Fire Data Project compares statewide data from 2024 and 2025, documenting a movement that is growing, strengthening, and expanding to care for California’s landscapes through cultural and prescribed fire.

Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network
Cover
Documents and publications

This paper presents the results of the ICARIA Horizon Europe risk-assessment framework and web-based Decision Support System (DSS) that were applied in the Southern Aegean Region (Greece)

Sustainability (MDPI)
Wildfire myths debunked
Update
Wildfires: five myths debunked

Wildfire misinformation spreads fastest in the hours right after a fire breaks out — checking a claim against a credible source before sharing it is the simplest way to slow it down.

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Research briefs
USA: Lessons from the 2025 California wildfires—why DRR falls short

A paper published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences in April 2026 uses the 2025 California wildfires as a starting point to discuss broader systemic failures in disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Climate Adaptation Platform (CAP)
Many people wear facial masks on June 7, 2023 because of bad air quality brought in by smoke of Canadian wildfires
Research briefs
USA: Wildfire smoke is now a big prenatal threat

As regulations have reduced prenatal exposure to harmful emissions from vehicles and industry in recent years, smoke from climate-fueled wildfires is erasing air quality gains.

Inside Climate News
40 firemen/women were at Cilgwyn Mountain with police helicopter helping the fighters to survey the area.
Update
Britain needs a wildfire-resilient society beyond aircraft

Places with established preparedness programs experience fewer accidental ignitions, detect fires earlier, and evacuate people effectively. UK therefore needs to complement future national wildfire service with a comprehensive community-based program.

Conversation Media Group, the
Update
US: How to reduce community wildfire risk for a resilient California

Effective wildfire mitigation requires coordinated action across homes, communities, and landscapes, with community-scale action playing a leading role in reducing overall risk.

Environmental Defense Fund
Firefighters amongst a brush fire
Update
Canada: Climate change means extreme fire seasons are here to stay

More than 3 million hectares have burned to date in Canada (August 2016) prompting a Level 4 National Preparedness response.

World Weather Attribution
Update
USA: Why the Spokane wildfires became so catastrophic

Three large wildfires raced through neighborhoods in and around Spokane, Washington, the weekend of Aug. 1, 2026, destroying at least 600 homes and other structures and threatening many more.

Conversation Media Group, the
Update
US: Climate change increases wildfire risks in national parks

UC Berkeley-led research indicates that continued climate change could severely increase wildfire above natural levels in Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Lassen Volcanic National Parks.

University of California, Berkeley
Update
Switzerland: How to prevent wildfires

With risk levels high across much of Switzerland, an expert explains why the wildfire season started early in Europe this year and what can help the situation.

swissinfo.ch - International Service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation
Burning pine forest in the smoke and flames
Update
Climate change increases likelihood of drivers of severe wildfire

In France, the fires originated near the Atlantic coast on 22 and 23 July but have since spread inland, becoming particularly destructive in the Gironde department around Bordeaux.

World Weather Attribution
Spanish Civil Guard vehicle assisting at a summer wildfire near a roadside.
Update
France, Spain: why the wildfires are off the charts

This region is no stranger to fire, analysis shows these wildfires are off the charts. A very hot summer primed many areas for fire. When they ignited, they spread ferociously. The area of land burned in France is 40% larger than the previous record year.

Conversation Media Group, the
Smoke, fire and glowing embers in the forest
Update
Australia: Fire can destroy peatlands. But can also help protect them

Peatlands are crucial carbon stores. When peat dries out and burns, the consequences can be disastrous: incinerated soils, smouldering wetlands, air pollution and massive carbon emissions. Surprisingly, peat fires in dry Australia aren’t always a problem.

Conversation Media Group, the
Research briefs
USA: The best way to save giant sequoias may be more fire

When two major wildfires burned through the Sierra Nevada in 2020 and 2021, they took thousands of giant sequoia trees with them. Without prescribed burns, thousands more would have died, according to a new study from the University of California, Davis.

University of California, Davis
Update
Canada: Leaders of First Nations received no wildfire alert

Chiefs in Ontario say they were left to self-evacuate before homes burned to ground, after being told there was no imminent threat.

Guardian, the (UK)
California wildfires, July 2021
Update
New technologies that could spark change in wildfire risk reduction

The impacts of climate change are escalating, compounded by urban expansion into fire-prone areas. Eight cutting-edge technologies have the potential to revolutionize wildfire risk reduction strategies.

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Satellite view of the wildfires in a field
Update
Canada: Thousands flee as First Nations bear the brunt of wildfires

More than 900 wildfires are burning throughout Canada, with devastating impacts for First Nations. Thirteen Nations remain under evacuation orders that have forced 2,182 people from their homes.

Grist Magazine
Bushfire, Australia
Update
Can humanity regain control over fire?

For millennia, fire was humanity's greatest tool. Today, it’s one of our greatest threats. Recovering control will require learning from the past while confronting the political choices of the present.

World Resources Institute
First Nations women, cultural fire knowledge, wellbeing and memory thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report reveals that supporting First Nations women in fire and land management is a critical, yet untapped, strategy for protecting Australian communities from escalating climate disasters.

Natural Hazards Research Australia
Update
Why the Pan-Amazon needs prevention

As El Niño intensifies, evidence from across the Amazon basin shows why Amazon wildfire prevention depends on Indigenous knowledge and fire governance built from the territories up.

Forest news
Sahara desert in Algeria
Update
Algeria: From fighting fires to managing fire risk

In the summer of 2021, the hills of northeastern Algeria disappeared behind walls of smoke. Wildfires swept through Béjaïa, El Tarf, and Tizi Ouzou with a speed and ferocity that overwhelmed communities and firefighters alike.

World Bank, the
First Nations women in fire: a vital opportunity to boost the workforce and increase community safety thumbnail
Documents and publications

The report draws attention to Australia’s workforce of First Nations women in fire and land management, and highlights the profound positive impacts that culturally responsive professional development programs can have on this cohort.

Natural Hazards Research Australia
Burning pine forest in the smoke and flames
Research briefs
High-severity fires burn 30 times more acreage than 40 years ago

Forest fires now burn ten times more acreage annually than in 1985, while wildfire severity has gotten even worse. In California, 30 times more acreage burned from high-severity, forest-killing fires, according to new UCLA research.

University of California, Los Angeles
Aerial view of forest grass being burned
Research briefs
Prescribed fires can cut smoke pollution for years

A Stanford-led study based on two decades of satellite data finds California could cut deadly pollution from wildfire smoke by 20% in active fire years by expanding use of prescribed fire in conifer forests each year.

Stanford University
Practical guide to forest fire preparedness thumbnail
Documents and publications

It contains advice on how to organize preparedness days, community events to prepare for the risk of forest fires, with a special emphasis on dialogue between residents of these risk areas, public authorities and emergency services.

Open University of Catalonia - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Forest in California with panoramic aerial wildfire is burning trees smoke fire dry grass
Opportunities
Visualising fire science

Invitation for researchers, students, and practitioners worldwide to contribute compelling, high-resolution photographs that advance the visual communication of wildland fire science and management across all relevant disciplines.

University of Coimbra
International Association of Wildland Fire
Update
AU: Teaching event legacy of the NSW 1952 bushfires

The 1952 bushfires in New South Wales (NSW) stand as one of the most significant events in Australia’s bushfire history, not for their death toll, but for the enduring lessons they offered in fire management and mitigation.

Timberbiz
Understanding cross-sectoral wildfire risk governance: Lessons from mix-method analysis of the wildfire risk governance in Italy, Greece, and Land Brandenburg thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper aims to enhance understanding of wildfire risk (WFR) governance, by identifying patterns and characteristics of cross-sectoral collaborations, and to inform integrated WFR governance strategies across Europe.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Update
Prescribed fire, other fuels treatments net major savings

It’s well-established that prescribed fire and other fuel-reduction treatments can create significant ecological benefits and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

NPR
Assessing the impact of wildfires on the Swedish housing market: a case study of the 2014 Västmanland wildfire thumbnail
Documents and publications

The study investigates how the largest wildfire in Sweden's recent history, the 2014 wildfire in Västmanland County, affected nearby housing prices and time-on-market.

Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (Springer)
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