Fire

Across northern Australia, from Cape York to the Top End and across the Kimberley, the fire management of Traditional Owners has historically helped the north become a stronghold for Australia's unique wildlife. 

However, the movement of Indigenous people off country and into regional centres in recent decades has seen a decline in traditional fire management and a resulting shift in fire patterns. The mostly small-scale, low-intensity fires managed seasonally by Traditional Owners have been replaced by frequent landscape–scale, intense, ‘hot’ fires that scorch thousands of square kilometres. 

These fires are often started by lightning strikes in the ‘build-up’ (at the end of the long, dry season and before the wet season) when the landscape is tinder-dry. In the absence of traditional small-scale, ‘cool’ fires, significant fuel loads of dry grass, dead sticks and leaf litter develop. The landscape explodes into flame, many animals become trapped or lose their homes, and the biodiversity impacts are devastating.

Fire is not just an issue for threatened species in Australia, it is also a major driver of species loss across the Asia-Pacific region. ‘Slash and burn’ methods are still used in Asia to clear forested land for other uses, such as to plant crops, as it’s fast and cheap. But the fires can often spread out of control, having major impacts on biodiversity and human health.

Much of Southeast Asia is frequently blanketed in thick haze due to forest fires in Indonesia. Large areas of Indonesia’s lowland forests, especially in Sumatra and Borneo, sit on carbon-rich peat swamps, which have been drained over many years for oil palm and pulp plantations. This has left the landscapes dried, degraded, and prone to fire.

In 2015, fires destroyed more than 2.6 million hectares across Indonesia. Economic costs are estimated to be more than US$16 billion (double that of the 2004 tsunami), while some 500,000 people suffered respiratory disease. Orangutan are the species most commonly associated with fires in this region, but many others are also left homeless and hurt, including tigers, rhinos and elephants.

WWF has been working to protect Asia’s forests for more than 50 years, by helping to establish protected areas, combat illegal logging, promote certification for responsible forest management and restore degraded landscapes.