Modernizing wildfire management in China | Science

For more than 70 years, China has managed forest and grassland fires through total fire suppression (1). This policy has been mostly successful, reducing the annual burned area from nearly 3 million ha in the early 1950s to less than half a million ha in 2008 and decreasing the number of wildfires from 60,000 to less than 10,000 during the same period (2). However, fire suppression is likely to become less effective as the climate changes and the population leaves rural areas. To prepare for changing conditions, China should adopt a more balanced wildfire management strategy.