Targeted management of the UK's fire prone landscapes will be crucial in enabling the country to achieve its commitments both to reach net zero by 2050 and to halt species decline by 2030. Many of our fire prone landscapes represent nationally significant carbon (C) stores and provide key habitats for unique species, but are threatened both by a changing UK wildfire regime and by policy changes and uncertainties around management tools aimed to mitigate this risk. Trade offs exist between the impact of episodic severe wildfire events and ongoing long term management practises, as well as between the positive and negative impacts of management tools on different prioritised ecosystem services; notably between habitat management and associated C storage and biodiversity provisioning. These trade-offs and the associated best management practices will vary between landscapes, thus selection of the appropriate land management needs to be very carefully considered at different locations. The evidence base to make this complex choice, however, is currently weak, undermining the ability of decision makers to assess the consequences of different wildfire management tools. IDEAL UK FIRE will address this urgent need, by determining the environmental costs and benefits of widely applied fuel management tools on habitat quality, biodiversity and the carbon balance in fire prone UK landscapes.

The project is formed around four areas led by different organisations and members of the project teams. ​​​​