Information toolkit

Understanding the Global Fire Management Hub


This Information Toolkit is designed to support partners, practitioners, technical organisations, and other stakeholders in understanding, explaining, and engaging with the Global Fire Management Hub. It brings together clear background information and practical reference materials to help users communicate what the Fire Hub is, what it does, and how it can support integrated fire management efforts globally. The toolkit can be used by those introducing the Fire Hub to colleagues and networks, by organisations considering whether to engage with the Fire Hub, and as a reliable reference point for media and others seeking accurate, up-to-date information about the initiative. 

For more information, please contact: 

Background

The Global Fire Management Hub – or the ‘Fire Hub’ – is a collaborative global partnership to scale integrated fire management (IFM), facilitate collective action, and reduce the negative effects of wildfires on people, landscapes, and the global climate. Serving as a ‘one-stop shop’, the Fire Hub is the central point of contact for governments and partners seeking to strengthen their fire management capacities and coordinate on IFM. 

The Fire Hub provides a global platform for the exchange of knowledge, experience, and technical expertise across the fire management community. Its unique value lies in “connecting capacities”: bridging gaps, aligning efforts, and enabling countries and partners to work together in ways that no single country or organization could achieve alone.

By linking scientific research, Indigenous knowledge, practical tools and policy guidance across the ‘5 Rs’ of integrated fire management – Review and analysis, Risk reduction, Readiness, Response, and Recovery – the Fire Hub promotes a holistic approach that ensures IFM strategies are both effective and sustainable across diverse landscapes.


At a glance

A collaborative global partnership to scale integrated fire management.

Supporting countries to reduce wildfire risk through integrated fire management.

A ‘one-stop shop’ for scaling action on integrated fire management.

Basic information on the Fire Hub

The Global Fire Management Hub brings together countries, networks and partners to strengthen capacities for IFM, seeking to reduce the many negative impacts of wildfires on livelihoods and landscapes.   

Wildfires and the hotter, drier conditions driving them do not stop at national borders.

Coordinated and collaborative approaches to planning, preparedness, and recovery are critical for effective response and the exchange of resources and expertise.

The Fire Hub seeks to “connect capacities”: bridging gaps, aligning efforts and uniting international partners.

Rather than merging initiatives, the Fire Hub connects them, delivering comprehensive, targeted support beyond the capacity of any single partner alone.   

The Fire Hub champions an IFM approach that rebalances the focus from reactive suppression toward proactive prevention and preparedness.

FAO champions this approach through the ‘5Rs’: Review and Analysis; Risk Reduction; Readiness; Response; and Recovery, which promotes understanding of the causes and factors driving increasing severity and frequency of wildfires and seek long-term, sustainable solutions.

The Fire Hub is a one-stop shop for countries and partners seeking to coordinate on IFM and strengthen fire management capacities.

As the central point of contact, it serves as a global platform for exchanging knowledge, experience, and technical expertise.

Fire affects many policy domains, from climate action and biodiversity conservation to human health, food security, economic security and disaster risk reduction.

The Fire Hub brings these interconnected dimensions together, enabling countries to scale up comprehensive IFM rapidly and effectively.

Basic information on wildfires

Fire is a natural part of many socio-ecological systems—but balance is key.

Fires have been part of the Earth's ecosystem for hundreds of millions of years, occurring naturally on every continent except Antarctica. For many Indigenous Peoples, prescribed burning has been an integral part of land management for millennia. Some ecosystems rely on fire for natural regeneration. Fire cannot and should not be eradicated, but instead, can be managed and its impacts mitigated. 

Extreme wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense, including because of climate change and land-use change, with approximately 127 million hectares of forest affected by fire annually (FRA 2025).

Wildfires are increasingly occurring in areas and ecosystems that had not previous or naturally experiences significant or frequent fire. Fire seasons can be longer, and fires are hotter and can move more quickly. These changes can create permanent damage, impeding natural regeneration post fire. By 2100, wildfires could increase by 50 percent, posing significant threats to people's health and livelihoods, biodiversity, and global climate stability (UNEP-GRID Arendal 2022).  

Indigenous-led and community-based fire management is central to integrated fire management.

 

Recognizing and supporting the leadership of Indigenous Peoples and other local knowledge holders ensures that fire practices are sustainable, and adapted to all social, cultural, and ecological contexts, and build on centuries of knowledge. 

FAQs

Integrated fire management (IFM) is a holistic, comprehensive and participatory approach to managing fire-prone landscapes. Rather than focusing solely on fire suppression, IFM integrates the ecological, social, cultural, economic and governance dimensions of fire: it brings together prevention, preparedness, suppression, controlled fire use (where appropriate), and post-fire recovery into a coherent strategy. 

IFM recognises both the risks and the potential beneficial roles of fire, for example, as a land-management tool in fire-adapted ecosystems, and seeks to balance fire’s ecological and human impacts. It encourages collaboration across sectors, inclusion of traditional and Indigenous fire knowledge, and long-term planning to reduce wildfire risk, protect livelihoods and ecosystems, and maintain ecosystem health.

The Fire Hub is a collaborative global partnership, and engagement from all sectors of the fire management community is extremely important to us. There are several ways to get involved. You can reach the team through the Fire Hub mailbox - [email protected] - or explore opportunities and resources on our website.

Our quarterly Fire Hub Bulletin shares updates, opportunities and resources. You can subscribe here.

For those interested in contributing to technical work, our thematic and technical working groups offer opportunities to engage more deeply, share expertise, and help shape guidance and tools that support countries in strengthening their fire management capacities. Please contact the Fire Hub Secretariat at the email address above.

 

Many organizations and initiatives around the world are doing important work on different aspects of fire management, and the Fire Hub collaborates closely with many of them. This is precisely where the Fire Hub’s unique value lies: bringing these initiatives together in a ‘one-stop shop’ for countries and partners seeking to coordinate on IFM and strengthen fire management capacities.

As a central point of contact, the Fire Hub provides a global platform for exchanging knowledge, experience, and technical expertise across the fire management community. The Fire Hub’s role is not to duplicate existing efforts, but to ‘connect capacities’ - bringing together data, expertise, and experience across science, Indigenous knowledge, policy, and technical operations.

By doing so, it helps countries more easily navigate the global fire management landscape and scale up IFM solutions more effectively.


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