Prevention Over Cure: How Defra Must Rethink Funding to Protect Our Landscapes from Catastrophic Wildfire

The UK is facing a wildfire crisis. In 2025 alone, an unprecedented 46,000 hectares of land burned, with an estimated national cost of £460 million.

As the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee considers wildfire risk and response, one question matters above all: how should Defra funding schemes help land managers adapt to the growing risk of wildfire?

For the Moorland Association, the answer is clear: Defra must urgently pivot its funding from reactive, restrictive policies to proactive, practical land management. We can no longer afford to wait for our hills to catch fire before taking action.

The time for bureaucratic micromanagement has passed. We need common-sense funding that empowers the people who work the land to protect it.

The Economic Reality: Prevention vs. Cure

To understand why Defra funding must change, we must look at the sheer financial scale of the problem. Our research reveals that the true cost of a severe wildfire is around £10,000 per hectare. When you factor in the cost of the emergency response, the destruction of carbon-rich peat, infrastructure repairs, and the severe health impacts of wildfire smoke, the bill climbs rapidly.

During 2025, wildfires cost the UK £460 million. To put that into perspective, that is the exact same amount the government committed in its Autumn Budget to strengthen the entire country’s pandemic preparedness and health protection infrastructure.

We cannot keep spending hundreds of millions of pounds fighting catastrophic summer infernos when a fraction of that cost could prevent them from ever taking hold.

Defra's Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes must recognize this economic reality. Funding proactive land management costs tens to hundreds of pounds per hectare.

Paying for the aftermath of a wildfire costs tens of thousands. Funding schemes must reward land managers for actively mitigating fire risks, treating their preventative work as a vital public service that saves the taxpayer millions.

Funding Fuel Load Management: Tackling the "Fuel Debt"

Defra funding must actively support the reduction of this fuel debt. Schemes should financially back:

• Controlled "Cool" Burning: The skilled practice of using low-intensity fire during the wet winter months to clear away surface vegetation without harming the peat or soil beneath.

• Mechanical Cutting: Mowing vegetation where the terrain safely allows it, creating necessary firebreaks.

• Targeted Livestock Grazing: Supporting traditional upland sheep farming to naturally keep flammable vegetation at safe levels.

When we fund the reduction of the fuel load, we replace continuous tinderboxes with a resilient "mosaic" of different vegetation heights that naturally slows or stops the spread of summer wildfires.

Backing the "Boots on the Ground"

When a fire breaks out on remote moorland, the first people on the scene are rarely city-based fire crews. They are the local gamekeepers, estate workers, and upland farmers.

These individuals are the UK’s unpaid first responders. They possess an intimate knowledge of the terrain, understand how fire behaves in the wind, and own specialized all-terrain vehicles.

Defra funding schemes currently overlook this vital resource. To adapt to increased wildfire risks, funding must be directed directly to these local stewards.

Effective wildfire prevention cannot be achieved from a desk in Whitehall. It relies entirely on equipping, trusting, and empowering the rural communities who steward the land every day.

We are calling for Defra grants to explicitly cover:

• Accredited Wildfire Training: Funding for standardized courses, such as the Vegetation Fire Operator course, ensuring rural workers can safely conduct controlled burns and assist emergency services.

• Specialist Equipment: Subsidies for essential firefighting gear, including all-terrain vehicles fitted with water "fogging" units, leaf blowers, and proper personal protective equipment (PPE).

By investing in the people who live and work on the moors 365 days a year, Defra can build a highly effective, decentralized wildfire defense network.

Beyond Rewetting: The Need for a Hybrid Toolbox

In recent years, government policy has heavily favored "rewetting" - the process of blocking old drainage ditches to raise the water table and restore peatlands. While rewetting is a valuable conservation tool, Defra must stop treating it as a standalone silver bullet for wildfire prevention.

The devastating fire at the Danes Moss Nature Reserve proved that even wet bogs can burn fiercely if the surface vegetation is allowed to grow too long and dry out in the summer heat. Furthermore, science shows that simply flooding unmanaged, overgrown vegetation can cause massive spikes in harmful methane emissions.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, Defra schemes must fund a "hybrid" toolbox. Recent studies confirm that a "burn-to-rewet" strategy - where controlled fire is used to safely remove the heavy surface fuel before the ground is rewetted - cuts methane emissions by 95% and creates a much safer, more resilient habitat.

Time to Act

The changing climate means our summers will only get hotter and drier. Wildfire is no longer a seasonal anomaly; it is a persistent national threat. Defra has a unique opportunity through its funding schemes to turn the tide.

By financially supporting practical fuel load management, empowering our rural workforce, and embracing a balanced, evidence-based approach, we can protect our iconic moorlands for generations to come. It is time to prioritize prevention over cure.

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