The forest fires of 1997 and 1998 created enormous ecological damage and human suffering and helped focus world attention on what is an increasing problem.

This report is a follow-up to the WWF International Discussion Paper The Year the World Caught Fire which was published in December 1997. However, eighteen months after some of the worst forest fires in the modern era, which saw lush tropical forests
ended up as smouldering landscapes and millions of people affected by smoke, the fires started again.

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