FAO.org

This global overview of fires in vegetation is based on 12 regional working paper submitted mainly by representatives of the UN-ISDR Global Wildland Fire Network in late 2005.

Although many of the countries concerned aknowledged that the reliability of the information may not be hight, it is nevertheless the best estimate of the forest fire situation to date and gives a good indication of the scale of the impact of vegetation fires on society, on the economy and on the environment. The study in fact presents information on fire incidence, impact, and management in different regions of the world.The study also recognises that not al fires are destructive and that fire management is an essential part of sustainable forest management.