A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire that burns in wildland vegetation. It can start with a natural occurrence-such as a lightning strike-or a human-made spark. According to the European Space Agency, “wildfire affects an estimated four million square kilometres of Earth’s land each year.”
Impact of wildfires on the ecosystem

• Drives natural selection: Certain species of plant and animal life depend on fire and help in the evolution process by creating a disequilibrium that gives them new opportunities to become stronger and more resilient. Hence, fire becomes the disruptor driving the process of natural selection.
• Hurts biodiversity: They tend to hurt the biodiversity within the region they occur in. Many species become endangered or closer to extinction as a result. For instance, the Australian Bushfire in 2020 impacted critical habitats of more than 800 native species.
• Affects health: It can have other indirect health impacts, due to smoke and other particulate matter, leading to respiratory issues such as asthma, bronchitis, reduced lung function, as well as skin problems, eye irritation, and in some cases even premature death.
• Climate change: Wildfires release carbon dioxide and their emissions can prove to be significantly high resulting in increased climate change.
• Affects air quality: Particles from smoke and the burning of hazardous chemicals can also travel long distances, further reducing air quality.
• Affects soil quality: Following a wildfire, the soil’s capacity to absorb water is significantly compromised, increasing probability of post-fire flooding.
• Affects water quality: Watersheds may retain higher levels of nitrogen and dissolved carbon dioxide for 15 years after a wildfire, reducing drinking water quality within surrounding communities.
• Economic impacts: It threatens livelihood of people who are directly/indirectly dependent on forest ecosystems; loss of personal property, public infrastructure etc.

As per United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) analysis, the number of extreme wildfire events will increase up to 14% by 2030. By 2050, the increase will climb to 30%. However, the direct responses to wildfires received over half of related expenditures, while planning and prevention received just 0.2 per cent of the total budget for wildfires. In this context, the UNEP called on global governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula’.

• The Formula envisages 66% of spending to be devoted to planning, prevention, preparedness, and recovery and the remaining 34% to be spent on response.
• In general, it’s a shift away from investing only in the response and more into prevention, planning and recovery.
• The changing scale and intensity of wildfires may especially impact achievements in developing countries, across several of the SDGs that impact human health and well-being. Thus, preparedness and prevention is more important.
• Since the true cost of wildfires – financial, social, and environmental – extends for days, weeks, and even years after the flames subside, investment in pre-disaster period into adaptation and prevention would help minimise such cost.

Further, in future it may pave the way for development of international standards for wildfire management and establishing an integrated fire management approach considering the vagaries of climate change.