At COP30, focus on wildfire prevention amid record destruction

• Wildfires led to record tropical forest loss in 2024
• Destruction expected to worsen with global warming, degradation
• At COP30, communities put at centre of fire prevention

BELÉM, Brazil - As high temperatures and forest degradation fuel record-breaking wildfires, dozens of governments and organisations meeting at the COP30 climate summit have pledged to boost prevention efforts and funding to fight the stronger, more frequent blazes.

Government environment and forest agencies from Ecuador, Peru, Ghana and Kenya along with nearly three dozen environmental and Indigenous groups worldwide signed an agreement to secure $100 million in funding by 2030 to strengthen wildfire prevention and response.

The initial focus of the pledge, called the Wildfire Action Accelerator, will be the Amazon Basin, the world's largest tropical forest, located mostly in Brazil.

Research shows forests in South America and other humid tropical areas are growing more flammable, with fires flaring up in areas that once would not have been likely to burn.

Last year was the world's hottest year on record, and wildfires caused unprecedented tropical forest loss, according to more than 20 years of data released in June by environmental NGO World Resources Institute (WRI).

"We need to be ready for the next extremely dry year," said Emanuel Lins, government advisor at the Biodiversity Division of Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs at COP30.

"Fire doesn't respect borders, and we need cooperation", he told Context.

Nations also signed a separate call for action proposed by Brazil to incorporate more Indigenous knowledge into efforts at preventing and managing wildfires, with more than 60 signatures, according to Lins.

"It's the first time wildfires are tackled on a stage of this magnitude," Lins said.

Indigenous knowledge

According to the Wildfire Action Accelerator pledge, "fire is fast becoming a defining feature of the global climate crisis," requiring more focus on prevention than on emergency response.

Wildfires are projected to increase globally by 14% by 2030 and 30% by 2050, according to a 2022 report co-written by the United Nations Environmental Programme.

While much of the damage has taken place in tropical forests in developing nations, wealthy nations including the United States, Canada and Greece also have had more intense wildfires in the past year.

With South America hit by widespread drought and fires, Brazil accounted for 42% of the record 6.7 million hectares of forests lost in 2024, according to WRI data.

Communities can help prevent wildfires through measures such as creating firebreaks and preemptively burning dead vegetation ahead of the dry season, Lins said.

The pledge aims for countries with large tropical forest areas to formally recognise by 2030 traditional fire knowledge from forest and Indigenous groups, placing local communities at the centre of wildfire prevention and response.

"Our peoples have lived with fire for generations, we know when to burn, where to burn, and when not to burn," said Selvyn Perez, Maya indigenous leader and president of the Guatemalan Community Forestry Association.

"This pledge finally recognises that Indigenous fire knowledge is not a relic of the past, but a key to the planet’s future resilience," he said in a statement.

In Brazil, Indigenous and other local communities are key to the country's new fire management law passed last year, making up about half of the more than 4,000 firefighters hired for federal natural areas during this year's fire season.

As part of their wildfire prevention efforts, Indigenous groups in Brazil are analysing satellite imagery and using drones for data gathering and early intervention.

At COP30, Indigenous groups are also demanding more funding to better respond to wildfires.

"We require direct access to funds so we can act more quickly, without having to send reports to authorities and wait for them to respond," said Tabea Coronado, Peruvian Indigenous leader and national secretary of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest.

Research shows ever more damaging wildfires release carbon and reduce the ability of forests to function as carbon sinks, crucial to stem global warming.

Once forests burn, they are more vulnerable to further fires due to loss of shade and the abundance of dead trees, said Ane Alencar, senior researcher with Brazil's IPAM Amazônia, the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, which signed the wildfire action pledge.

However, taming the flames is possible, as in most cases wildfires do not occur naturally but are started by people, typically small- and large-scale farmers clearing forest or burning pastures to clear undesired vegetation, she added.

Keeping people from starting fires in the first place could help protect the forests even under hotter and drier climate conditions, she said.

"We shouldn't feel hopeless because we can stop fires starting," she said.

(Reporting by Andre Cabette Fabio; Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst.)