0Having trouble reading this email? Download the PDF. September 2010 Home Subscribe Archive Contact Thematic Focus: Resource Efficiency, Harmful Substances and Hazardous Waste, Disasters and Conflicts,Environmental Governance, and Ecosystem Management

Satellite images record how wildfires have destroyed one million hectares of forests in western Russia Why is this issue important? Some types of forest ecosystems in Russia are adapted to wildfires and fire-tolerant trees such as pine (Pinus) can withstand high temperatures. Such forests regenerate quickly after fires have swept through. The summer of 2010 was the hottest in Russia in 130 years, however, and frequent temperatures as high as 40°C dried trees that are not fire-tolerant (such as birch), other vegetation, and peat bogs, making them a fire hazard. The heat wave began in June, and by August, fires started by lightning or careless human activity had burned more than 15 million ha of vegetation, including forests and crops (Gilbert 2010). Heat waves and forest fi res can also destroy crops: Russia produces about eight per cent of the world’s wheat (Hernandez and others 2010), so any threat to its harvest has global repercussions. In addition,smoke, ash and dangerous gases from wildfires affect air quality, with impacts on human health, while forest fi res can consume homes and other infrastructure and cause human casualties. Why are the findings and implications? Recent satellite images show that the summer fires in 2010 destroyed more than one million hectares o