Different ecosystems have different responses to fire. In addition, largely as a result of human actions, fires are behaving differently now than they have throughout history. Our fire ecologists use science-based, collaborative assessments to set conservation priorities and to improve our understanding of the role of fire and the underlying causes of fire regime alteration.

Working with partners, we are conducting fire assessments at a variety of scales, from global to site-level:

• In partnership with WWF, the University of California Berkeley's Center for Fire Research and Outreach, and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), we have completed a second Global Fire Assessment, building on the first assessment completed in 2004. The report documents fire’s changing role in Earth’s ecosystems, and identifies needed actions.
• We have completed fire assessments for the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and a portion of Honduras and are presently working on assessments in several other countries involved in the Latin American and Caribbean Fire Learning Network.
• In the United States, The Nature Conservancy is a major partner in LANDFIRE, a $40 million, five-year partnership with the USDA Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. LANDFIRE is developing maps and a host of other information that will revolutionize the way agencies and communities allocate scarce resources and set priorities for treating fire-dependent landscapes.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Mark Godfrey (fire specialists, Mexico); Photo © Mark Godfrey (Red-backed Fairy Wren).