Fueled by extreme heat and drought in a changing climate, the devastating impacts of wildfires are being increasingly felt in many parts of the world. Argentina is no exception. Since 1970, wildfires in the country have damaged crops on more than 11 million hectares of land, required evacuation of more 20,000 people, and destroyed thousands of education centers. In early 2022, raging wildfires, including in the provinces of Corrientes, Córdoba, Misiones, and Río Negro, prompted the government to declare a national one-year fire emergency.

Drawing on the support of GFDRR, the government has been working to understand and address the threat that intensifying wildfire risks pose to the country’s economy, public health system, and environment. A key priority of the support has been the development of analytical work that has enabled a much deeper understanding of these wildfire risks while laying the groundwork for renewed efforts to address the problem in partnership with the World Bank.

A technical team has analyzed the historical distribution of fires in various provinces. A key contribution of the analysis is classification of these provinces based on the occurrences of fires and the size of the areas affected by fires. The team found, for example, that although the largest average affected area per season has been in the province of La Pampa, the province of Buenos Aires has the most fires annually. The team also considered the impacts of climate change on these trends and found that provinces in central and northern Argentina are the most likely to face high wildfire risk.

Subsequently, the team assessed Argentina’s fire safety management system at the national and provincial levels, covering topics such as the legal framework, financing, technical capacity, and institutional arrangements. The assessment revealed that Córdoba Province has developed relatively sophisticated institutional arrangements at the subnational level. For instance, coordination between provincial and municipal authorities has enabled the creation of volunteer firefighting systems that are now considered the backbone of fire safety management in Córdoba Province.

The team also documented actions at the national and provincial levels in each phase of wildfire risk management, commonly known as the 5Rs: review and analysis, risk reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. Drawing on international best practices, the team developed recommendations for strengthening those actions and the country’s fire safety response more generally. The analysis has highlighted the urgency of ensuring that the National Fire Management Plan encompasses all aspects of the 5Rs rather than focusing solely on response. It has also highlighted the need to better coordinate emergency management efforts at the national and subnational levels, perhaps under the structure of a single emergency system.

Findings from this analytical work are already beginning to drive and inform dialogue with provinces and the national government on Argentina’s wildfires. Specifically, the findings have shaped the design of a program to support a holistic approach to wildfire management, including development and update of fire management plans at the national and provincial levels, construction of wildfire training and response facilities, and procurement of wildfire fighting equipment and operation of camera- and drone-based wildfire early warning and detection systems in selected provinces.