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Fire, People and Ecosystems

Fire is an essential force that has shaped life around the globe. But in many ecosystems today, the role of fire is severely out of balance, threatening to devastate both human and natural communities.

The Role of Fire in Ecosystems
For people and for nature, fire can be beneficial, benign or destructive. Different ecosystems have developed different responses to fire, which determine whether fire is usually helpful or harmful.  

Fire-dependent ecosystems are resilient to the repeated fires that tend to be part of these ecosystems. Many plants and animals in these landscapes depend on fire to reproduce. Examples of fire-dependent ecosystems include the boreal forests of North America, Europe and Asia, the pine forests of the American West and Mexico, and the vast plains, grasslands and savannas of North America, Africa, Australia, South America and East Asia.

Fire-sensitive ecosystems evolved without the influence of major fires. In these ecosystems, most plants and animals lack the ability to rebound after wildfire. Many examples are in tropical environments, such as the rain forests of the Congo and Amazon Basins, Southeast Asia and Australia.

In fire-independent ecosystems, fire is largely absent because of a lack of vegetation or ignition sources, such as in Africa's Namibian Desert or the tundra ecosystems on the coast of Antarctica.

 

 

Altered Fire Regimes: A Global Conservation Threat

But in many places the role of fire is changing dramatically, often as a result of human actions, and often with a detrimental impact on the surrounding landscape and human communities.

In the fire-sensitive Amazon Basin, initial fires open up the forest canopy, making it easier for them to reburn during the next dry season, and triggering a cycle of ever-increasing and more destructive wildfires in what was once considered a near fire-proof forest.

Conversely, many fire-dependent ecosystems have been fire-starved through policies of fire suppression. One serious result has been the unnatural buildup of dense stands of flammable trees and thick carpets of dead wood and leaves that have led to unnaturally intense fires like those in Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon in 2002.

Allowing fire to play a role in places where it is ecologically beneficial, and keeping fire out of places where it does not belong will reduce the impacts of altered fire dynamics.

Changes in fire dynamics are closely linked to global climate change, invasive species introductions, forest management and grazing practices, and a host of other issues. Therefore, finding solutions that are socially acceptable and affordable requires integrating fire-related concerns into land management efforts, including agriculture and forestry practices, protected areas management, land use planning and policy.

Because different ecosystems respond differently to fire, there is no blanket prescription available for managing fire worldwide. Solutions must be innovative, collaborative, ecosystem-specific and based on sound scientific knowledge.

The Nature Conservancy launched the Global Fire Initiative to counter these threats to global conservation. Our framework for addressing fire-related threats to both biodiversity and people is called Integrated Fire Management.