Forest Fires, Conflict and Disrupted Landscapes

This research paper chapter examines how wildfires act as catalysts that expose social, environmental, and power-based conflicts within landscape governance, specifically challenging the perception of landscapes as neutral spaces.

• Wildfires cause both physical and emotional disruptions to landscapes, affecting access, memories, and emotional ties for those connected to the land, while revealing power asymmetries and contested values in planning processes.
• Analysis of two cases in Sweden demonstrates that forest fires can unveil historical conflicts and create new tensions, such as clashes between local landscape values and national or regional conservation efforts, and the marginalization of Sámi herding communities' values by forestry interests.
• Since the mid-2010s, the global increase in the frequency and severity of forest fires has made it essential for landscape planning to research extreme events to uncover embedded tensions and complexities.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2025). Forest Fires, Conflict and Disrupted Landscapes. https://www.sei.org/publications/forest-fires-conflict-and-disrupted-landscapes/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Forest Fires, Conflict and Disrupted Landscapes. 2025. https://www.sei.org/publications/forest-fires-conflict-and-disrupted-landscapes/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Forest Fires, Conflict and Disrupted Landscapes |date=18 June 2025 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/forest-fires-conflict-and-disrupted-landscapes/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2025forest, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Forest Fires, Conflict and Disrupted Landscapes}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/forest-fires-conflict-and-disrupted-landscapes/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }