Fire Is the Real Forest Killer Now: How to Manage It

Imagine you're a forest manager in Canada, and it's July 2023. The air is thick with smoke. You've got a map of your district, and the red dots of active fires are multiplying by the hour. By the end of the year, your country will have lost five times as much tree cover to fire as the year before—the worst season on record. This isn't a hypothetical. It's the new reality. And it's not just Canada.

For decades, we've focused on deforestation—the chainsaws and the bulldozers. But the data now shows a different threat is rising: fire. In 2023, global tree cover loss jumped 24 percent, from 22.8 million hectares in 2022 to 28.3 million hectares, driven almost entirely by fire in Canada. The rest of the world actually decreased its tree cover loss by 4 percent. Fire is now a primary agent of forest loss, and if we're serious about conservation, we need to manage for it.

Why Fire Is Different from Deforestation

Deforestation is human-caused, permanent removal of forest. It's what we've been fighting for years. And we've made some progress: gross deforestation slowed to 10.9 million hectares per year in 2015–2025, down from 17.6 million in 1990–2000. But fire is different. It can burn through primary forests, plantations, and everything in between. It's not always human-caused, and it's not always permanent—but it can be devastating.

Fire already affects an average of 261 million hectares of land annually, nearly half of which is forested. That's a huge area. And it's not just a one-off: fire seasons are getting worse. Canada's 2023 fire season was its worst on record, with a five-fold increase in tree cover loss due to fire. That's not a fluke; it's a trend.

The Numbers You Need to Know

Let's put this in perspective. The world's forests cover 4.14 billion hectares, about 32% of global land area. That's a lot of trees. But we're losing them. Net forest loss is still 4.12 million hectares per year (2015–2025), down from 10.7 million in the 1990s, but still huge. And primary forests—the most valuable for biodiversity and carbon—are declining. Naturally regenerating forests declined by 324 million hectares between 1990 and 2025, with the most significant recent declines in Africa and South America.

Now, fire is adding to that loss. In 2023, tropical primary forest loss totaled 3.7 million hectares—that's about 10 football fields per minute. But that's actually a 9 percent decrease from 2022. The big story was fire-driven loss in Canada, which alone accounted for the global increase. So while we're making progress in the tropics, we're losing ground to fire elsewhere.

What Forest Managers Can Do

So what do you do if you're a forest manager in a fire-prone area? First, you need to understand that fire is a natural part of many ecosystems. Some forests need fire to regenerate. But the fires we're seeing now are often more intense and more frequent than historical norms, driven by climate change and decades of fire suppression that built up fuel loads.

One approach is to use prescribed burns—deliberately setting small fires under controlled conditions to reduce fuel loads. This is a common practice in many regions, but it's not always popular. Another is to create fuel breaks—areas where vegetation is thinned or removed to slow a fire's spread. And you can also focus on managing the landscape as a whole, not just individual stands.

But here's the thing: we can't just manage our way out of this. We need to address the root causes, including climate change. But that's a global issue. In the meantime, there are practical steps you can take on the ground.

The Role of Protected Areas and Indigenous Management

Interestingly, some of the best fire management might come from Indigenous practices. In the Amazon, scientists have found that territories managed by Indigenous peoples have far less deforestation than even official parks. And Indigenous communities have long used fire as a tool for managing the land. In Australia, for example, Indigenous fire management has been shown to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.

But it's not just about Indigenous lands. We know that protected areas work—about 20% of forests are in legally protected areas. But protected areas alone aren't enough if they're not managed well. And with fire, management is key.

We also need to think about what we're planting. Planted forests now cover about 312 million hectares, about 8% of total forest area. But planted forests are often more vulnerable to fire than natural forests, especially if they're monocultures. So when we're restoring land, we need to think about fire resilience.

What I'd Actually Do

Here's my recommendation: Don't just count hectares saved. Manage for fire. If you're a forest manager, your job isn't just to protect trees from chainsaws—it's to protect them from fire. That means implementing active fire management, including prescribed burns, fuel reduction, and creating a mosaic of forest ages and types that can resist large, intense fires.

If you're a policymaker, support Indigenous-led fire management and invest in fire prevention. The Bonn Challenge aims to restore 350 million hectares by 2030, and we've already pledged 210 million. But restoration projects must consider fire risk. Don't plant a single-species plantation that will go up in flames. Plant a diverse mix of native species that can survive a fire.

And if you're a citizen, support organizations that work on fire resilience. The data is clear: fire is a major threat, and it's only going to get worse with climate change. We can't afford to ignore it.

Sources

• FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 - https://www.un-redd.org/post/global-deforestation-slows-forests-remain-under-pressure-fao-report-shows
• FAO Newsroom: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 - https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/global-deforestation-slows--but-forests-remain-under-pressure--fao-report-shows/en
• WRI Global Forest Review: 2023 tree cover loss - https://gfr.wri.org/global-tree-cover-loss-data-2023
• NASA Earth Observatory: Tropical Deforestation - https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Deforestation
• IUCN Bonn Challenge press release - https://iucn.org/press-release/202511/germany-and-iucn-celebrate-15-years-bonn-challenge-worlds-largest-restoration