Climate change and decades of fire suppression are increasing the risk of wildfire in many rural and remote communities across Canada. Yet limited research has been done to better understand how these communities experience wildfire risk.
Forests are vital life-preserving assets, essential for biodiversity, human health, climate change mitigation, and economic stability. Yet, they are increasingly threatened by forest fires, which undermine these benefits.
Increasing wildfires are causing global concerns about ecosystem functioning and services. Although some wildfires are caused by natural ignitions, it is also important to understand how human ignitions and human-related factors can contribute to wildfires.
Although half of Earth’s population resides in the wildland-urban interface, human exposure to wildland fires remains unquantified. We show that the population directly exposed to wildland fires increased 40% globally from 2002 to 2021 despite a 26% decline in burned area.
The social diversity of human populations living in or near wildfire-prone lands are an important influence on the scale at which wildfire mitigation action can occur among residential populations at increasing risk from wildfire.
Communities can face significant risk from wildfire, often compounded by climate change and legacies of industrial forest management.
Dangerous fire weather is increasing under climate change, but there is limited knowledge of how this will affect fire intensity, a critical determinant of the socioecological effects of wildfire.
The frequency, severity, and scale of extreme wildfire events is increasing globally, with certain regions such as the western United States disproportionately impacted. As attention shifts toward understanding how to adapt to and recover from extreme wildfire, there is a need to prioritize where additional research and evidence are needed to inform decision-making.