Land, food, energy, environment, biodiversity and water are critical systems to people, ecosystems and landscapes. Too often decisions are made in one domain without consideration of the effects in another. This narrow focus imposes costs and risks on all, but especially on the vulnerable in poor countries and on biodiversity.

Caring for our ecosystems and conserving biodiversity threatened by climate change and other environmental stress factors such as land clearing is a challenge facing land managers and policy-makers throughout the world. Fires contribute greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and therefore have an effect on global warming. The effect of global warming on the fires themselves is also an important research area. This nexus also encompasses carbon sequestration at landscape scale.