The wildfires that tore through parts of Israel recently, fanned by unseasonably hot and dry conditions, were another stark reminder that nature is not just a backdrop to our lives – it is a force with which we are increasingly at odds. Wildfires in Israel are not new, but their intensity, frequency, and destructive reach are accelerating, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) – the areas where human settlements meet or intermix with forests and brushlands.
Globally, and in Israel, the WUI is a known high-risk zone for fire disasters. Fires in these zones can result in the loss of life, destruction of property, and severe strain on emergency response systems.
While Israel has developed certain guidelines and local policies regarding construction near forests and brushlands, there is still no comprehensive, binding national framework specifically dedicated to WUI risk management.
International best practices, such as those from California, Australia, and southern Europe, recommend actions such as creating buffer zones, using fire-resistant construction materials, and restricting new development in high-risk areas. These should be mandatory in Israel – not aspirational ideals selectively applied depending on circumstances.
This brings me to my doctoral research on disaster preparedness, which showed that mitigating hazards must be embedded not only in policy but also in how institutions, businesses, and residents’ understanding of their environment.
Preparedness must be homogenous
In Israel, it seems that preparedness levels for wildfire hazards vary widely depending on the identity of the administering authority. As a result, significant work is needed to achieve a harmonized high level of preparedness across regions.
Preparedness is not just about firefighting equipment or emergency drills. It involves addressing the systemic risks that make such disasters more frequent and destructive. This includes improving land-use planning, restoring degraded ecosystems, and actively managing forests – especially those overseen by regional and local councils.
The research results illustrate how important it is for the government to allocate funding for preparedness, raise public awareness, and support training programs. Crucially, institutional silos must be bridged. Environmental regulators, planning authorities, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL), and emergency services must work together to address risk in an integrated, coordinated way.
Today's fragmented approach has also influenced how the public interprets causes. Many point to climate change as the primary driver of the damage. While climate risks indeed contribute to extreme events, we need to widen the lens. What we witnessed last week was not only a climate risk – it was a nature risk.
Locally driven nature risks
Nature-related risks refer to the physical, social, and financial threats stemming from our dependencies on, and impacts on, the natural world.
These risks go beyond greenhouse gas emissions and global warming to include land degradation, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and ecosystem collapse.
According to the Climate Financial Risk Forum (CFRF), climate change is just one of five primary drivers of nature loss. The others – land-use change, overexploitation of natural resources, pollution, and invasive species – are often more immediate and locally driven.
Despite their importance, nature-related risks receive limited attention in sustainability discussions, especially in Israel. Unlike climate risks, nature risks are often localized, multifaceted, and harder to quantify. But they are no less existential.
In fact, the two are complementary and deeply interconnected. Climate change accelerates environmental degradation, while damaged ecosystems weaken our ability to adapt to and mitigate climate impacts. When wildfires destroy forests, we don’t just lose carbon sinks, we also lose biodiversity, pollination systems, and soil integrity. Each fire depletes our natural capital and leaves us more vulnerable to future disasters. Climate risks are therefore often embedded within broader nature risks.
This understanding has reshaped global thinking. After the success of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a parallel framework – the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) – was launched.
The TNFD provides tools to assess both impacts and dependencies on nature, recognizing that economies are vulnerable to climate instability and to broader environmental degradation.
Facing lasting damage
Nature-related risks become especially urgent after wildfires. While the trigger – e.g., heat or drought [or arson] – may have passed, the area often faces lasting damage: habitat loss, invasive species, soil erosion, and biodiversity collapse. These ecological impacts quickly translate into economic ones – lower property values, higher insurance premiums, reduced tourism, and expensive restoration.
In agriculture, soil loss and disrupted water cycles can cut productivity for years. Infrastructure may need to be relocated or rebuilt with stronger ecological safeguards. In short, nature loss is economic loss. The World Economic Forum estimates that over half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature. Preparedness must therefore be redefined to address not just climate risks, but nature risks as well.
Another point to consider is that climate change often drives natural disasters, leading us to feel that coping means merely adapting to their impacts. However, reframing the issue as nature risk highlights our role in degrading ecosystems and creating those risks. It reinforces a key truth: We’re not just passive victims of climate and nature crises – we’re responsible for them.
Nature is not just a victim of our policies, it also determines our safety.
If this is not recognized, and forests continue to be treated merely as recreational spaces rather than risk zones, the consequences will worsen. In recent years, it has been my observation that the forests of the Judean Mountains and around Jerusalem face a high likelihood of being wiped out by wildfires – a concern which, in my view, is equally relevant to areas such as the Peloponnese in Greece.
The wildfires of the past week must serve as a wake-up call to rethink how we approach risk, responsibility, and resilience.
The writer is an economist and risk strategist specializing in sustainability, climate and disaster risk management, and green finance, and is a member of Forum Dvorah.