“COVID-19 Lockdowns Cut Global Wildfires by 12%, But Some Fires Intensified Without Human I” — what this page in the network covers. Global wildfire incidents dropped by more than 12% during the first half of 2020 as COVID-19 lockdowns halted human activity worldwide, according to a new study in Cell Reports Sustainability. The research highlights the complex role humans play in fire dynamics—not only as igniters but also as suppressors of natural fire regimes.
While reduced human movement led to fewer fire starts in many regions, the absence of routine land management and fire suppression allowed some wildfires to burn larger and more intensely, particularly in ecosystems adapted to frequent, low-severity burns. The study underscores how pandemic-era restrictions inadvertently created a global experiment, revealing that simply reducing human presence does not uniformly lower fire risk. This listing links straight to the original page, where the content is available in full.