Experts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations also highlight that in many cases fires start on agricultural land or pastures, where people burn rubbish or agricultural waste, and they spread quickly to nearby forests. Therefore, in recent years many countries have experienced increased frequency and size of wildfires due to lack of adequate management policies.

For this reason CPF stresses that frequency and intensity of forest fires could be reduced by including fire management in broader landscape management strategies and through more integrated approaches to fire management, e.g. not only fire suppression but also fire prevention, controlled burning, early warning and preparedness, which all require increased investment worldwide. Moreover, countries should also invest in research on the social and economic drivers of fire to be able to improve the way they are addressing the underlying causes of fires.

As a concrete step in this direction, FAO is now forming a multi-donor trust fund program aimed to increase funding to respond better to member countries' demands. The fund is expected to be finalized by November this year and, amongst others, the program has been endorsed by the executive Director of the International Tropical Timber Organization.
The latter published the guidelines on fire management in tropical forests in 1997, providing the basis on which policy-makers and managers at various levels can develop programs and projects to address specific national, socioeconomic and natural problems related to fire in natural and planted tropical forests.

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