While emergency firefighting operations remain essential, they are no longer sufficient as fires become more intense, simultaneous, and difficult to contain, the organisation warned.
“Every summer we witness the same scenario: devastated territories, evacuated communities, destroyed biodiversity, and enormous economic costs,” said Edoardo Nevola, forestry manager at WWF Italy.
“We can no longer simply chase fires and prioritise suppression; the real challenge is to prevent fires from becoming uncontrollable by intervening before they develop,” he added.
The report outlined 10 priorities for authorities, including increasing prevention funding, strengthening coordination between agencies, improving risk monitoring, tightening territorial surveillance, and incorporating wildfire prevention into climate-adaptation policies.
WWF said human activity was responsible both for the climate change intensifying extreme fires and for almost all individual wildfire outbreaks, stressing that structural investment was necessary to make landscapes more resilient.
