In the context of climate change’s detrimental effects on agricultural production and food security, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) strategies constitute a promising approach to reduce vulnerability and boost adaptation capacity and resilience within farmers. However, CSA strategies should address gender dynamics to reach their full potential. This study analyzed the barriers and opportunities for the implementation of gender-sensitive CSA strategies in rural Guatemala, a low-latitude country with a high gender gap index, through the perceptions of agricultural extensionists. For this purpose, we conducted an online survey among Guatemalan agricultural extensionists who attended a series of Climate Services for Agriculture workshops between May and July 2021 and analyzed the results using a qualitative approach. Results suggest that women in rural Guatemala are frequently excluded from climate information access, agricultural training, and decision-making spaces in which agricultural resource management strategies are defined. We argue that this exclusion represents a barrier to the improvement in adaptation capacity and resilience and that gender inequity should be addressed to implement successful gender-sensitive CSA approaches. Generating gender-sensitive indicators and training extensionists against gender bias could be a starting point, but further research is necessary to understand gender dynamics in rural Guatemala.

Temperate regions around the world are experiencing longer fire weather seasons, yet trends in burned area have been inconsistent between regions. Reasons for differences in fire patterns can be difficult to determine due to variable vegetation types, land use patterns, fuel conditions, and human influences on fire ignition and suppression. This study compares burned areas to climate and fuel conditions in three temperate regions: the desert, shrub, and forest ecoregions of western North America, west‐central Europe, and southwestern South America. In each region the mean annual aridity index (AI, precipitation over potential evapotranspiration) spans arid to humid climates. We examined how the fraction of area burned from 2001 to 2021 varied with mean annual AI, mean aboveground biomass, and land cover type distributions. All three regions had low fractions of area burned for the driest climate zones (AI < 0.5), a sign of fuel limitation to burned area. Fraction of area burned increased with mean aboveground biomass for these dry zones. Fraction of area burned peaked at intermediate AI (0.7–1.5) for all regions and declined again in the wettest climate zones (AI > 1.5), a sign of climate limitation to burned area. Of the three regions, western North America had the highest burned area, fraction of area burned, and fire sizes. Fragmentation of vegetation patches by the high Andes Mountains in southwestern South America and by intensive land use changes in west‐central Europe likely limited fire sizes. All three regions are at risk for future wildfires, particularly in areas where fire is currently climate limited.

Argentina’s Native Forests Protection Act No. 26,331 (NFPA) enforces the use of spatial planning to regulate land use in native forests. However, guidelines regarding the spatial planning of native forests in urban and wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas are lacking. Taking the city of Ushuaia as a case study, we used a mixed-methods approach (online survey, individual interviews, and focus groups) to assess stakeholders’ perceptions regarding native forest land use planning in urban and WUI areas. Results revealed that regulations addressing native forest land use in urban and WUI areas are lacking but considered important. Communication between stakeholders, public participatory processes, and current forest zoning criteria were identified as challenging aspects of native forest policy. Among the strategies to address these challenges, stakeholders emphasized developing: new opportunities for stakeholder communication, mechanisms for community engagement, specific guidelines for native forest land use planning in urban and WUI areas, and dissemination and education.

Wildland–urban interface (WUI) expansion is accelerating in numerous regions around the world due to increasing amenity‐led migration processes, defined as the movement of people seeking higher environmental quality. While WUI areas are complex social–ecological systems requiring holistic planning and management, they are usually approached from wildfire risk mitigation perspectives that overlook broader people–nature relations. We explored the drivers of WUI expansion and the planning and management practices used to address WUI expansion‐related issues through two case studies: the Roaring Fork Valley (US) and San Martín de los Andes (Argentina). Through semi‐structured interviews, we assessed stakeholders' perceptions regarding current WUI planning and management practices and potential strategies for improvement, identifying opportunities to implement transdisciplinary landscape planning and management approaches in these systems. In particular, we highlighted WUI planning and management aspects that go beyond wildfire mitigation, addressing underlying causes of WUI expansion like amenity‐led migration. The drivers of WUI expansion in the study areas mirror those of amenity‐led migration, with a perceived higher life quality as compared to fully urban areas. The interaction of WUI areas with the tourism industry and the consequent rise in real estate prices increases the demand for housing solutions for both low‐ and high‐income sectors, putting pressure on WUI and wildland areas to serve as sites for new construction. This challenges the conception of amenity‐led migration as a process that solely affects wealthy sectors. In addition, different socioeconomic sectors may have varying vulnerability to WUI‐related risks. To improve WUI planning and management approaches, participants emphasized the need to integrate environmental and ecological considerations, such as changes in ecosystem services provision to identify potential sites for future housing development as well as housing density criteria. This latter idea proved contentious, with different stakeholders advocating for low‐density and high‐density developments, options that should be discussed through participatory processes. This study invites reflection on the benefits of transdisciplinarity (knowledge integration, bridging science and practice and enhancing stakeholder engagement) in the context of WUI social–ecological systems, providing insights into more comprehensive and collaborative approaches to WUI planning and management that consider people–nature relations. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Intensifying wildfire regimes and expanding human settlements into wilderness areas have heightened concerns about the wildland–urban interface (WUI) due to the associated increase in fire risk. However, the WUI presents broader social‐ecological challenges that go beyond wildfire risk and remain understudied. We assessed two WUI governance systems to identify challenges and opportunities for implementing adaptive governance and facilitating transdisciplinary approaches to WUI planning and management. Our approach considers WUI areas as complex social‐ecological systems and the challenges of WUI planning and management as a wicked problem. Specifically, we focus on collaboration and participatory processes within WUI governance, recognizing their potential to integrate broader perspectives and facilitate the co‐production of knowledge that characterizes transdisciplinary approaches. Results from policy analysis and semi‐structured interviews suggest that WUI governance systems in Colorado (US) and Neuquén (Argentina) present a mix of opportunities and challenges for advancing adaptive governance and facilitating transdisciplinary approaches to WUI management. Reflexive policies (flexible and adaptable) based on minimum standards and legal sunsets (periods for policy revision and adaptation) emerged as adaptive governance enablers in both systems. However, ambiguity in the definition of social‐ecological boundaries and the way in which participatory processes are currently implemented represent important challenges to adaptive governance and transdisciplinary approaches to WUI planning and management. We suggest that, to advance a more comprehensive management of WUI areas, WUI governance systems (including actors, legal frameworks, processes, etc.) should emphasize collaboration and participatory processes, facilitating active forms of community participation and the co‐development of WUI management objectives.

Wildland–urban interface (WUI) expansion is both an expression and a consequence of the global urbanisation process. It manifests spatially as residential expansion into wildlands at local scales, a process that has been documented on every permanently populated continent. Due to their wildland–urban duality, WUI areas are subject to multiple and frequently competing interests and uses, such as residential development, outdoor recreation, and biodiversity conservation, which makes their governance and management complex. Participatory methodologies are capable of addressing the complexity of WUI social‐ecological systems by assessing the values and demands of diverse stakeholders. In particular, participatory mapping offers the advantage of producing spatially explicit information about those values and demands, which can be incorporated into scenario planning efforts. This study explored the ability of participatory mapping to capture stakeholders' values, contribute to the co‐development of predictive and exploratory future residential expansion scenarios, and inform spatial planning in San Martín de los Andes, a touristic city experiencing WUI expansion in Argentina. This was done through the combination of semi‐structured interviews with participatory mapping activities and involving diverse stakeholders. The mixed‐methods approach enabled the emergence of three different exploratory residential expansion narratives, which were called ‘conservation‐oriented expansion,’ ‘tourism‐driven expansion,’ and ‘restrict further expansion’. In addition, we assessed the socio‐economic values underlying these narratives, as well as participants' consensus and disagreements regarding residential expansion issues in this WUI social‐ecological system. The participatory mapping outputs were digitised, combined, and merged into ‘expected’ and ‘desired’ future expansion scenarios, providing a spatial input that could be integrated into scenario planning processes. However, the values, agreements, and disagreements underlying these scenarios have environmental justice implications that require further analysis. Inclusive participatory mapping approaches can contribute to bridging the gap between community members, experts, and governmental authorities for better‐informed decision‐making in spatial planning.