According to the 2025 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2025), global wildfires caused about USD 106 billion in total economic losses.

What is Wildfire?

• Any unplanned and uncontrolled vegetation fire that, regardless of ignition source, may negatively affect social, economic or environmental values, and require suppression response or other action according to agency policy (FAO).
• They play a natural ecological role by linking land ecosystems with the atmosphere, recycling nutrients, supporting soil health, and aiding plant regeneration. 
• Adverse impacts of Wildfire:
  • Environmental: Massive CO2 emissions, especially from peatlands and rainforests; Climate feedback loop: fires -> warming -> more fires; loss of biodiversity; etc.
  • Human and Social: Respiratory and cardiovascular disorders; displacement of communities; etc.

Why is Wildfires increasing?

• Climate Change: Hotter temperatures, prolonged droughts, dry lightning leading to longer and more intense fire seasons.
• Land-Use Change: Deforestation, monoculture plantations, peatland drainage further drives the Wildfire risk.
• Human activities: Fires are often started accidentally or intentionally through agricultural burning, land clearing etc., can rapidly turn into wildfires under extreme weather conditions.
• Fuel Availability: large amounts of dry, fine, and continuous fuels such as grasses, leaves, and shrubs enable rapid fire spread, high intensity, and reduced effectiveness of suppression efforts.