It’s much needed, as wildfires are rapidly increasing in intensity, frequency and duration due to the climate crisis and changes in land use, said Amy Duchelle of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “Historically there has been very strong attention on suppression but much more intention and investment need to be on prevention,” she told UN News’s Dianne Penn this week.

FAO’s Senior Forestry Officer and Team Leader on Forests and Climate explained how the UN agency is helping countries to boost integrated fire management and why everyone must play a part.

UN News: Do we know how much of the world is affected by wildfires, and what are some of the implications?

Amy Duchelle: An estimated 340 to 370 million hectares of the Earth’s land surface is affected by fire annually, and that includes approximately 67 million hectares of forested areas. Oftentimes the public’s attention on wildfires is a situation like we have currently in Los Angeles, where the images of the devastation are absolutely horrifying. I think, and many are saying, that we are in a new era in terms of climate change-fuelled wildfires, catastrophic wildfires, and so the approach to dealing with these wildfires needs to be different.

Historically, there has been very strong attention on suppression but much more intention and investment need to be on prevention, so really dealing with the wildfire issue before the fires even began to burn. Many of these aspects have been put into place by many countries, but much more work is needed.

UN News: You mentioned the role of climate change in wildfires. The UN’s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), just confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record. And, as you said, we’re in a new era.

Amy Duchelle: The projections show substantial increases in the intensity, frequency and scale of wildfires in in the coming years and it’s of enormous concern, also because wildfires are not only fuelled by these warmer conditions but they also release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing further to the climate crisis, and then this actually becomes a vicious cycle that is tough to get out of.

UN News: Tell us about FAO’s work on wildfires.

Amy Duchelle: FAO has a long programme on promoting integrated fire management and we’re trying to do exactly what I was speaking to before: supporting countries in increasing their capacities for integrated fire management with a focus much more on prevention than on only suppression and response. We promote through what we call the five R’s. The first is a review and analysis of the fire situation in a given country or place. The second is risk reduction, and that’s really understanding how to reduce the risks of devastating wildfires.

The third is readiness, so being prepared with protocols and procedures to deal with wildfires when they do happen. The fourth is response. Wildfires will continue to burn, and there needs to be good firefighting, good response mechanisms, and teams in place.

The fifth is recovery, not only of all of the infrastructure and devastation of urban areas, but also ecosystems. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), which we’re in now, is really a vehicle to also promote restoration post-fire.