Forest fires, or wildfires, are uncontrolled fires that burn natural vegetation, including trees, buildings and infrastructure. They can grow very large, because they are difficult to contain, and spread easily with wind.

Fires happen in areas with readily available ‘fuel’, including dry forests, grasslands, and bushes. The majority are started by humans being careless: letting off fireworks, not putting out bonfires, or dropping lit cigarettes. 

Higher temperatures, less rainfall, and more drought can increase the amount of ‘fuel’ for a possible fire. As a result, the climate emergency is increasing the length of fire seasons (when dry conditions make fires more likely) in some regions by up to seven months every year. The climate emergency can also increase the likelihood of a natural spark by increasing the frequency and intensity of storms and lightning.

Poor land management practices, such as unsafe land burning, make wildfires more likely. However, some natural fires can be important to healthy forest ecosystems, as they clear out dead organic material, so poorly managed fire suppression can lead to worse fires. 

Sustainable land and forest management practices, including controlled burns, are necessary to maintain healthy forests. All of us need to put out bonfires, cigarettes, and other flames and check local fire risks and precautions. Building homes and cities carefully, with spatial planning, fire breaks and protection can help reduce damage when fires do happen.

The player with the lowest Ecological Resilience removes 1 Tree and adds 1 Carbon to Recent Emissions per Temperature Band.

They can reduce these effects by 1 for each Ecological Resilience token in their player board.

For example: 3 Temperature Bands – 2 Ecological Resilience = remove 1 Tree and add 1 Carbon to Recent Emissions.

Resilience tokens are not discarded.

• Wildfires (National Geographic)

• Spreading like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires (UN Environment Programme, UNEP)

• Look into whether there is a drought plan for your local area to check there are strategies in place to prevent and end wildfires, and to understand what action you should take during a drought to help preserve water - or campaign for a drought plan to be put in place if one doesn’t exist.

• Volunteer to support wildfire prevention efforts or join a mutual aid network to help people in your community displaced from fires.