What's driving the increase in forest fires?

Sep 7, 2023

Forest fires have a devastating impact on people and the environment since they can cause air pollution, damage infrastructure, and displace people. Image: Unsplash/Michael Chacon

James MacCarthy

Research Associate I, Global Forest Watch, World Resources Institute

Jessica Richter

GIS Research Analyst, Global Forest Watch, World Resources Institute

Alexandra (Sasha) Tyukavina

Associate Research Professor at the Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland

Mikaela Weisse

Director, Global Forest Watch, World Resources Institute

Nancy Harris

Research Manager, Global Forest Watch, World Resources Institute

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Forests is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Forests

Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about climate change?

Forest fires are a major threat to biodiversity.

Trees are cleared and burned in the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation and agricultural expansion are driving increased fire activity in the tropics, where intentional burning can sometimes spread and spark forest fires. Image: Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock

A large wildfire blazes near Barcelona, Spain in 2022. The country saw extreme fire activity that year, fueled in part by record-breaking heat and drought conditions. Image: Antonio Macias/iStock

In 2021, forest fires caused an alarming 9.3 million hectares of tree cover loss globally

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.