This review summarizes findings from 25 articles published together in Tropical Forest Issues 61 (Pasiecznik and Goldammer 2022), including contributions from 100 co-authors. Following a call for abstracts reviewed by a seven-strong panel of experts, case studies were selected from 16 countries in tropical America, Asia and Africa, along with articles summarizing the ecology, management and concepts related to fire management. This overarching synthesis draws out common lessons and key recommendations.

Mapping the extent of fire-affected areas is very important for integrated fire management, especially for stakeholder communication and mobilization, rehabilitation of burned areas, and decision making. A prerequisite to planning fire response strategies requires accurate quantitative data on when and where fires occur. This article reports on a study carried out in 2021 over an area of 1,575 ha in and around Ankarafantsika National Park in northwestern Madagascar using satellite images, drone images and ground-truth data to assess the accuracy and usefulness of mapping in quantifying burned areas. During that year, 13,073 ha were burned in the park (about 10% of its total area). Based on the successful use of satellite mapping data, the REAFMRC geoportal is being extended to cover all East African countries. 

Understanding fire ecology is a primary consideration in planning and implementing fire management. Some high risk forests must be protected from wildfires, whereas fire plays an integral role in savanna ecosystems, so it is essential to better understand human use of fire. Guidelines for all stakeholders must be developed that align with their respective management priorities and implemented, and provide the required skills and equipment to key stakeholders to manage wildfire risk. Three overarching considerations are identified, as the country moves forward to developing, adopting and implementing an effective fire management strategy. These are the need to improve communication, collaboration, and coordination. 

In Ghana, wildfires are now annual occurrence, resulting in the loss of lives, property and biodiversity. The article documents experiences and lessons from the Collaborative and adaptative community fire management initiative, part of the Forest landscape restoration through a sustainable wood energy value chai” project. The approach was informed through local community consultations and a review of related fire management policies and regulations, leading to support and incentives for safe and effective fire use and management. It is hoped that these findings can inform fire management practices elsewhere, while acknowledging that collaborative and adaptive community fire management is an evolving process and so requires constant learning to improve future practices.

Human pressure and intensified drought have seen Ethiopia recurrently affected by severe wildfire emergencies since 2019. This article reviews the history, causes and impacts of wildfires in Ethiopia, identifies gaps, and discusses plans for improving fire management using an integrated approach at national, subnational and community levels. Not having a national wildfire management strategy undermines Ethiopia’s capacity for forecasting, preventing and suppressing wildfire, and fire management must be an integral part of land-use management policies and practices. These must consider cultural values, socioeconomic realities and ecological differences where fires occur, including rangelands, dry forests and woodlands, and requires multi-level governance and devolution of responsibility and increased support for local decision-making.

In many protected areas across Africa, information on fire regimes and land management has not been available at the required level of detail. Furthermore, it is challenging to compile information in a way that is useful for decision making and for tracking the effects of implementation. On the other hand, recent years have seen a rapid increase in free Earth observation data, computing power, network speed and web-based geospatial visualization and analysis technologies. This article describes a successful attempt to compile base information on fire regimes in Comoé National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, at different spatial and temporal scales. Data is made available through a system that supports fire management planning, reporting, and documentation and analysis, and that is used to implement management activities. 

The first 65 km of agricultural fuelbreaks in the country were established in Boeny Region, northwestern Madagascar in 2021 and 2022. Mostly in grassy savanna, these fuelbreaks limit the spread of fires, and have also create an additional 615 ha of farmland for crop production. This should reduce the cleating in the national park and so reduce future fire ignitions. Due to the benefits seen by local smallholders and decision makers, their use has already spread to more locations. The keys to success are territorial land-use plans that make it possible to create fire-resistant mosaic landscapes that combine forest and agricultural land. The goal is to find sustainable solutions to the problem of fire, while in parallel, creating agricultural, economic and social opportunities. 

Form Ghana is a forest plantation management company based in central Ghana that produces timber and carbon credits for local and international markets. From 2017, it has worked with communities to improve livelihoods in Tain II Forest Reserve, Bono Region, through the Forest Landscape Restoration Programme. Most community land is managed under the traditional authority of chiefs and their families, and farming is the main sole source of income. This article describes how a community based approach has reduced wildfire outbreaks by 78% between 2018 and 2021. From a situation in which wildfires were frequent, where nobody felt responsible and from which everybody suffered, people now make efforts to manage the risk and help to prevent wildfire outbreaks.

Nepal faces challenges in forest fire management that are aggravated by climate change, and there is an urgent need for financial, institutional and technological resources and for capacity development to effectively implement fire management. The problems of forest fires in the region are complex, and cannot be addressed at a single sectoral level. This article explains that to overcome the country’s limited capacity in fire management, there is a need to strengthen the human and technical resources of agencies and local communities that deal with fire prevention and response. In addition, transboundary cooperation in fire management is needed to share the most appropriate knowledge of advanced approaches in fire management. 

The FORCLIME supported the Provincial Forest Management System in West Kalimantan province and local stakeholders in fire prevention from 2017 to 2020. It empowered Forest Management Unit personnel to become competent facilitators, and to use technical approaches adapted from successful experiences that incorporated local innovations. Alongside fire prevention, the programme promoted dialogue with communities and assistance for them to establish permanent agriculture and agroforestry as a means of reducing the use of fire to clear land, which is the main cause of wildfires and smoke pollution. This article summarize lessons learned from this programme and offers recommendations for fire prevention in Indonesia and beyond.

Integrating community-based fire management and community water resource management provides a useful way to prevent the ignition and spread of forest fires in Thailand. This follows the Thai expression that “where is more water there will be less fire.” More water also means more ways to generate income, which will improve community livelihoods and help sustain a community-based approach to fire and water management. This article shows that communities can be supported to develop and maintain sustainable practices that reduce the risk of wildfires while improving water availability, air quality and income, and that with additional revenue streams, they can become self-sustaining.

In Indonesia, the use of fire as a land management practice is regulated by law to counteract its illegal and excessive use, which is often the cause of unwanted wildfires. However, it is often difficult to determine the exact origin of ignition. Perpetrators usually cover their tracks carefully, and judiciary processes by the police and other agencies take considerable time. This article shows how law enforcement has benefitted from the evolution of methods for monitoring fire incidents, using satellite imagery supported by field verification. This has helped to reveal the culprits behind fire incidents, who can then be sentenced to pay fines and compensate for the environmental losses they have caused. 

Although wildfires have been a recurring problem, the total number of fires and the annual of burned areas have both been declining in the past two decades. This article outlines the government policies and other factors and their respective roles in explaining the decrease in forest fires and the lessons learned from forest fire prevention and firefighting in Viet Nam. To put these policies into local contexts regarding fire trends, capacities and gaps, a survey of 28 staff members involved in fire prevention and firefighting from 28 organizations was undertaken. The survey information is reported for the first time in this article. 

During years with frequent fires in Indonesia, such as 2015 and 2019, Ketapang District in southwestern West Kalimantan Province received national and international attention. This article presents initial findings and lessons learned from Tropenbos Indonesia’s implementation of the Fire-smart landscape governance programme of the Working Landscapes Programme. The project area is Pawan-Kepulu-Pesaguan landscape in Matan Hilir Selatan sub-district of Ketapang, which covers almost 80,000 ha. The landscape consists of two peatland hydrological units with approximately 50,000 ha of peatlands in their core areas. The area has 20 villages, of which five to six are in peatlands affected by fires. 

Despite the clear threats from wildfires to biodiversity, until recently wildlife has not been seen as a priority in fire management. In Brazil, before 2000 there was no specific legislation to protect wild animals from the impacts of wildfires, nor any structured rescue programmes or response centres. This article looks at the effects of fire on fauna, along with an extrapolation to ecosystems and human health. Wildlife management must be integrated into wildfire protection and management policies. It must include multisectoral and interdisciplinary coordination that plans and implements strategies to minimize risks and vulnerabilities, and to maximize the quality of care for affected animals.  

This article presents an analysis of aspects guiding the management of risks associated with wildfires in territories governed by indigenous communities in Bolivia, and the crucial factors that contribute to responsive actions. These include: (i) indigenous worldviews regarding natural resources and the use of fire, (ii) strengthening of indigenous institutions for risk management, and (iii) autonomous, participatory and democratic indigenous community governance models. Using the Indigenous Territory of Lomerío of the Monkox nation as a case study, it also examines the advances, limitations and challenges in addressing wildfire threats, and the land management approach promoted by the indigenous territorial government. 

Between 2011 and 2020, there were an average of 3,184 wildfires per year in the Megalopolis region around Mexico City. This comprised more than 40% of all the reported fires in the country. This article incorporates a sociocultural component to understand and analyze cultural knowledge of the use of fire in the región, where many rural communities consider the use of fire to be indispensable. The arises from their view of fire as elemental in their way of life, and as an intergenerational legacy that is represented in social practices and productive processes. 

Fire has always been part of the dynamics of Bolivia’s forest landscapes. However, the increasing frequency and intensity of large fires is threatening the sustainability of ecosystems and the livelihoods of vulnerable communities, mainly in the Chiquitania region of Santa Cruz Department. Local communities are assuming an active and responsible role in fire management. However, stronger partnerships and technical assistance are still required to consolidate good practices, mainly those related to the use of and access to information and communication technologies. This presents an opportunity to target digital inclusion policies that provide incentives to local communities to strengthen early warning and risk-reduction mechanisms. 

After 20 years of implementing actions in Brazil, Bolivia and now Ecuador, the Amazonía sin Fuego Programme has had important impacts on improving fire management. One conclusion is that although forest fires cannot be prevented entirely, their frequency and impacts can be significantly reduced through integrated fire management. In Ecuador, there is now an increased understanding of the need to learn to live with fire, and to protect and manage landscapes at risk while improving livelihoods and the resilience of communities This article reports on work undertaken in Ecuador since 2017 using integrated fire management, and promoting alternatives to the use of fire in the country’s highland and coastal regions. 

In 2020, intense wildfires affected 487,000 ha in the Paraná Delta. The government responded by reinforcing fire suppression and control policies and tightening regulations that criminalized the use of fire. This negatively affected local communities and small livestock producers, who depend on the use of fire for their subsistence activities. This article summarizes for the first time the traditional use of fire in the area, and describes efforts to stimulate dialogue between local communities, environmental organizations and government agencies to share perspectives and come to a common agreement as to ways forward. Results indicate the islanders’ complex knowledge of the role of fire in the maintenance of the various grassland ecosystems, and show that dialogue can lead to effective and workable solutions. 

Communities in Chiapas are pioneers in fire management; for example, land users have to request burning permits from village organizations, following customary environmental management practices. This article reports on the cultural management of fire by indigenous Antelá and Tziscao communities in and around Lagunas de Montebello National Park, Chiapas, Mexico. It addresses territoriality, memory, regimes and management, and the integration of cultural knowledge and perspectives, with global relevance for all Indigenous peoples. This is the first published reference to the term “Pyrobiocultural” that the authors of this article (among others) have been developing over recent years. 

By including local knowledge, integrated fire management is sustaining an ancestral practice for reducing forest fires and conserving ecosystems. In private areas, however, it is necessary to develop programmes that include land owners, and to evaluate ways of expanding the proposed system. Reintroducing integrated fire management in the Cerrado has brought new tools and technologies that improve planning and implementation. Investment in research and development must be continuous, in order to advance technologically, and to train technicians, traditional communities and land owners. And it remains essential to reconcile new technologies and methodologies with traditional knowledge about fire management 

Climate change and governance conditions have made wildfires a critical issue that transcends academic and technical issues and enters socio-political arenas. In Latin America, indigenous peoples, peasant communities, peri-urban populations, firefighters, biodiversity and ecosystems are all vulnerable and threatened. This article describes the advances, challenges, limitations and progress in the development of a new paradigm of integrated fire management with an intercultural vision in Venezuela, from its beginnings in Canaima National Park to its later convergence with government actions and those of firefighters. The use and value of fire as a land management tool and the reintroduction of traditional indigenous practices must be incorporated into a national integrated fire management plan with an intercultural vision. 

This article provides a basis for understanding fireinduced processes, and for the need to develop adequate fire management concepts and implementation strategies, highlighting basic processes, phenomena and solutions. These are challenges for decision makers, while the complexity of interactions between land use and other human activities, tropical vegetation characteristics, climate and climate change may also mean that decision makers require expert assistance in capacity building for fire management at local and national levels. 

There will undoubtedly be more large-scale wildfires if the status quo prevails. This article assesses what can be done by land managers, communities and politicians to make better decisions that reduce fire risk and impacts. It does so by discussing the ‘how’ and the ‘who’ of fire management – organizations (institutions or agencies, formal or informal) and people (impacted by fire or those working in of such organizations). This review proposes three fundamental requirements for improved fire management: (i) evaluate the natural and ecological aspects of fire in the landscape, (ii) look at the institutions in charge of fire management, for prescribed fires or wildfires, and (iii) work with communities, listen to them and understand how they interact within the landscape before developing engagement methods. 

Globally, the role of natural fire in ecosystems, and of cultural fire in land management, has been explored widely. This article provides an overview of the many roles and impacts of fire in different environments in and around tropical forests, and while not exhaustive, it shows that fire management solutions and decision making must be based on historic and contemporary scientific and technical evidence. There has been substantial progress in understanding the application of fire management approaches in which local communities act in their own interest to maximize the benefits from the appropriate use of fire and to avoid damage caused by wildfires. Unfortunately, only a few countries have put in place fire management policies and practices that address the underlying causes of the excessive and harmful application of fire where it is not appropriate.