MAKING PROGRESS
CHINA ACCELERATES PREVENTION EFFORTS
BY EUGENE GERDEN
China is accelerating efforts to prevent and mitigate wildland fires.
The country’s vast territory and an extremely rich variety of forest resources and plant species requires a well-developed system of prevention.
In 2025, the situation was generally better than in 2024, although the country experienced a number of wildland fires in the northern region in the summer of 2025 after the Qingming Festival. There were also several large-scale wildland fires in southern China during the winter – which is generally dry and peak season wildland fires – in the cities of Jiangmen and Zhaoqing (both Guangdong Province).
In general, according to senior state officials, for the most part, wildland fires are wildland fires are better managed, thanks to new state prevention and mitigation efforts.
Before 1988, China’s approach to wildland fire fighting was largely underdeveloped, however the situation changed in 1987 after the Black Dragon fire (also known as the Daxing’anling wildfire), the deadliest wildland and forest fire in the modern history. The fire broke out in May in Daxing’anling Prefecture, Heilongjiang, and spread into the Soviet Union. The burning lasted almost a month; it was finally stopped on June 2, 1987. The fire covered about 10,000 square kilometres, of which 6,500 square kilometres was forest; it destroyed 7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) of forest, including one-sixth of China’s entire timber reserves.
The Black Dragon fire forced the Chinese government to approve a package of measures and regulations to prevent new large-scale wildland fires. In 1998, legislation called the Forest Fire Prevention Regulations was adopted; it was based on the Forest Law of the People’s Republic of China and underwent several revisions. At the time, most of the state bodies responsible for wildland firefighting in China had been established in their present form, including the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the Office of the National Forest and Grassland Fire Prevention, and the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Since 1998, all Chinese provinces have been required to issue and refine local regulations based on their respective wildland fire prevention conditions, characteristics, and patterns. With the arrival to power in 2013 of the current head of China – general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping – the level of state control has tightened and has led to some good results.
Overall, due to China’s vast territory, natural conditions such as topography and climate vary significantly across different regions; this leads to regional variations in the frequency of wildland fires. In the last decade, wildland and forest fires were mainly concentrated in central and southern China with Hunan, Guangxi, and Guizhou provinces being particularly fire-prone, with each experiencing more than 3,500 fires each year between the mid-1990s through 2016-2017. Western provinces experience fewer fires and a lower risk due to the relative scarcity of forest resources.
China’s progress in wildland fire management is confirmed by analysts.
Yue Chao, a wildland fire researcher at Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, said China has established a comprehensive system for wildland fire prevention and control, which has contributed to a significant improvement in wildland fire damage.
“Since the devastating Daxing’anling forest fire in 1987, China’s fire prevention and control policies have been remarkably effective, with major indicators of forest and grassland fires nationwide showing a significant decline and remaining stable at historically low levels.”
According to the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management, over the past 60 years, both the total area burned and the size of individual wildfires in China have declined significantly. The average annual total area burned and the size of individual fires decreased by 92.5 per cent and 80.7 per cent, respectively, from 1988 to 2024.
Despite the progress, ongoing climate change and other challenges may create risks of major wildland fires. In addition, China is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Zhao Jie, a lecturer at Linyi University and one of China’s leading experts in wildland fires, said global warming presents increasingly severe challenges for China’s wildland and forest fire management.
The most significant risks, Jie said, are in the more economically developed Northeast China provinces (in contrast to poor agrarian provinces in Western China). Natural specifics of these regions and climatic conditions add to the risk.
“This is particularly true in Northeast China, where the accumulation of fuel understory is a key factor contributing to the increased fire risk,” Jie said.
“In addition, long-term fire-prevention efforts have led to excessive accumulation of litter under forests in Northeast China, increasing the risk of extreme forest fires. Furthermore, the unique climate and topography of Northeast China complicate forest fire prevention, control, and fire fighting, including difficulties mobilizing resources, providing comprehensive support, conducting firefighting operations, and managing the whole situation.”
Chinese authorities are aware of the challenges and are considering the adoption of more scientific and precise measures in the field of wildland forest fire management with the aim to better prevent and mitigate wildland fires. According to an official spokesman of Wang Xiangxi, the Chinese Minister of Emergency Management, as part of these plans, particular attention will be paid to the most “problematic” provinces and areas of the country.
Plans include continuing to strengthening the existing system of forest-fire monitoring and early warning, improving command training, optimization of firefighting methods (using aviation firefighting techniques and tactics), and strengthening cross-departmental collaboration.
In general, according to data from the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration, over the past decade – since the introduction of prevention and mitigation measures – China has experienced more than 2,000 forest fires annually, although the intensity of the fires has decreased.
According to state data, since 2015 the total area burned by forest fires in China has reached only about 500,000 hectares, and the affected forest area reached 193,000 hectares. In comparison, in 2010, the affected forest area peaked at more than 40,000 hectares. Current figures range between 8,000 and 10,000 hectares annually.
The year 2010 was also a peak in terms of the number of destroyed young trees, which numbered more than 10 million; this data has also declined significantly in recent years.
According to some Chinese media reports, in addition to a further strengthening of wildland fire management, particular attention will be paid to technical re-equipment of the entire service with high-tech equipment for Chinese firefighting brigades, including helicopters. According to reports in some Western and South Korea media, the lack of equipment has been a major contributor to numerous fatalities, both firefighters and civilians.
These reports, however, have been denied by the state, which says both damage and fatalities caused by wildland fires have declined. Official Chinese statistics shows that over the past decade, wildland fires have caused 607 fatalities. According to data of the Ministry of Emergency Management of China, every year, no more than 20 people die in forest fires annually. The latest statistics also shows that since the beginning of the decade, the number of such cases has declined.
The general improvement in wildland fire management in China is also confirmed by the data of China Forestry Statistical Yearbook; it says the number of rescue operations has decreased from almost 1 million in 2019-2020 to 300,000 in 2024.
The annual forest firefighting costs and other losses from fires were estimated at only 100 million yuan in 2023-2024, compared to 500 million yuan in 2014.
The Chinese government plans to further tighten responsibility for wildland fires and hold people accountable for their actions. Human-caused forest fires in China account for a larger proportion of fires than natural causes such as lightning. Burning wasteland for charcoal is the most common source of forest fires in China.
Eugene Gerden is a freelance writer who can be reached at [email protected].
