Wildfire
13 cases in 7 countries, 1981–2023. Most cases: United States (4), Russia (4), Ukraine (2), Kazakhstan (1), Brazil (1).
Semey Ormany forest fire, Kazakhstan
A fire burned part of the Semey Ormany pine reserve in Abai region, Kazakhstan, from 8 June to 13 July 2023; 14 employees of the reserve died. Courts convicted four people in 2024, and the Ministry of Ecology valued the damage at more than KZT 165 billion.
California homeowners' insurance retreat
Large insurers stopped writing new home policies in California from 2022, citing catastrophe exposure and costs. Policies on the state's insurer of last resort grew from about 271,000 to about 684,000.
Wildfires in Ukraine's war zone and on the Kinburn Spit, 2022–2025
Satellite-based counts put the area burned in Ukraine at about 500,000 ha in 2022, 226,000 ha in 2023, 965,000 ha in 2024 and 660,000 ha in 2025, with fires concentrated along the front line. On the Kinburn Spit, under occupation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection reported over 5,000 ha of a national park affected by 131 fires by 11 May 2023.
Chornobyl Exclusion Zone: Russian occupation of 2022 and fires, 2022–2026
Russian forces held the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone from 24 February 2022 until the end of March 2022. Ukrainian agencies reported looted laboratories and lost machinery, and a peer-reviewed satellite study found about 70 km² burned in March 2022; further fires followed in 2024 and 2026.
Yakutia wildfire season of 2021: burned area and emissions
Fires in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) burned a total area of 9.4 million ha in 2021, the largest in almost four decades of satellite observation, according to Avialesookhrana figures cited in a peer-reviewed paper. Copernicus CAMS estimated that Sakha and Chukotka fires released 806 of Russia’s 970 megatonnes of CO2 from June to August.
California forest offsets buffer pool and wildfire
California's forest offsets programme sets aside credits in a buffer pool to cover losses such as fire. Researchers estimate that fires have used up almost 40% of the pool, against 20% allocated for 100 years of fire risk.
Alter do Chão and Dia do Fogo fire allegations
After the 2019 Amazon fires in Brazil, an allegation circulated that NGOs had set fires to attract donations. The Federal Police found no culprit among them. Two investigations into the separate "Dia do Fogo" were closed in 2024 without an indictment.
Russian forest-climate projects: RUSAL fire-protection units and Sakhalin larch planting
RUSAL Krasnoyarsk's aerial fire-protection project on 504,986 hectares earned Russian carbon units, and units from it were sold to a UAE fund in October 2024 in the first foreign transaction in Russia's registry. Registry operator, forestry agency and scientists have questioned forest-project quality in general, and one registered project plans to plant larch on bogs on Sakhalin.
Siberian wildfire season of 2019: Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Yakutia
In July and August 2019 fires burned across Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast and Yakutia while regional authorities left most of the burning area unfought under the control-zone rule. The Accounts Chamber later gave 10 million ha burned and RUB 13.5bn in reported damage for the year.
PG&E wildfire settlement, tax deduction and Fire Victim Trust
After the 2018 Camp Fire, PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, settled with the California regulator for about US$1.8 billion and funded a victims' trust about half in its own stock. California customers fund half of a state wildfire fund.
Russia's forest-fire control zones and federal fire-service funding
Since 2015 Russian rules have let regional commissions stop or suspend suppression of forest fires in designated control zones when forecast suppression costs exceed forecast harm. The Accounts Chamber put the zones at 534.4 million ha in 2020 and found burned area up 2.2 times and reported damage down 3 times between 2017 and 2021.
Canaima National Park: fire suppression for the Guri catchment, mining pressure and the UNESCO decisions
The state power utility has run a fire suppression programme in Canaima National Park to protect the forests that feed the Guri dam. A Landsat study measured 106,000 hectares burned in 2015–2016, the State Party reported 204 hectares for a later period, and the World Heritage Committee has recorded recurring fires and mining inside the park.
California forest carbon projects burned (Verra buffer pool)
Wildfires burned forests enrolled in carbon-offset projects in California. Credits for the burned carbon were replaced from the registry's shared buffer pool, which the records reviewed say was largely used up.