United Nations Environment Programme Frontiers report says wildfires to be more frequent and intense in future.

February 23, 2022

Why in news?

On 17th February 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the ” 4th edition of Frontiers report titled “Frontiers 2022: Noise, Blazes and Mismatches -Emerging Issues Of Environmental Concern” which predicts that wildfires will worsen in the upcoming years and decades. The report states that wildfires are becoming more frequent, larger, and more intense due to climate change.
The report has attributed this to climate change and human activities.

About Frontiers

The Frontiers reports of UNEP identify and draw attention to the emerging issues of environmental concern.
The Frontiers report was first published in 2016.
The Frontiers 2022 report has identified the 3 most important environmental issues that have emerged due to climate change: wildfires, noise pollution, and shifts in the biological life cycles of plants and animals.
The 3 chapters of Frontiers 2022 are,
Listening to Cities: From Noisy Environments to Positive Soundscapes
Wildfires Under Climate Change: A Burning Issue
Phenology: Climate Change Is Shifting the Rhythm of Nature
Wildfire affected region:
Between 2003 and 2016, a total of 13 million individual fires (lasting for 4-5 days) have occurred. The Savannah (mixed woodland – grassland) ecosystem accounts for 77% of these.
Between 2002 and 2016, an average of about 423 million hectares (4.23 million square km) of the earth’s land surface was burnt every year.
According to the report, around 67% of the annual global area burned by all types of fires was in Africa.