Fire and Conservation

Help Support Fire-related Conservation!

With your help we can restore the natural role of fire in our landscapes.

Go Deeper

Over half of the world depends on fire to maintain healthy ecosystems. (Click map for larger view.)

Learn more about our Global Fire Assesment.

Learn more about the relationship between fire and people.

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.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Ron Myers (Mpumalanga National Park, South Africa); Photo © Charlie Ott (the fire-dependent ecosystem of the Boreal Forest, Alaska ).