In 2000, for example, in the United States the forest surface set afire more was registered great from 1960, equivalent one to 3.4 million hectares, with a cost for the contributors of 1,400 million dollars, to only extinguish the fire, without telling to the damages to the properties nor the loss of lives. In 2003 there was national emergencia because of fires in Guatemala and Nicaragua. In this year, enormous fires devastated the region of Mato Grosso, in Brazil. On the other hand, in Canada, annually an average of 2.5 million hectares because of the fire is lost, and the cost of extinguishing it oscillates between 300 million and 500 million dollars to the year. The defending communities of the forests For the FAO the participation of the local communities in the management of the forests is decisive to reduce the incidence of wild fires and to facilitate the control workings, since, according to this organization the 95 percent of registered wild fires at world-wide level is caused by diverse human activities. " If the humans are the main people in charge of wild fires, the prevention and control must involve to the communities locales" , it maintains the FAO. And it adds: " The traditional approach to invest in expensive equipment and to reinforce the legal measures is not sufficient.

The local communities that participate in the management of the forests and that obtain benefits of their existence first are interested in coming up and controlling incendios". In so distant countries to each other as Gambia or the United States, the practices of communitarian management of the forest and the increase of the sensitization campaigns have given like result the drastic reduction of wild fires. A greater access to the Earth and the management of the forest has allowed to better practices of prevention and fire suppression in the African country, whereas in North America the communitarian activities for the fire control man have been much successful.