About 14 million hectares in Russia were burnt due to wildfires in 2018; an area twice the size of a country like Ireland. 2018 became the third worst year of wildfires in Russia since the beginning of the century. And as a consequence of disputable Russian forest legislation, 98% of forest fires are left not attended and only 2% of them are being extinguished.

Most of these fires are happening in Siberia and the Far East, out of the public eye, so the disaster continues to pass unnoticed. The Pribaikalsky wildlife reserve is a precious place on the shore of the lake Baikal that lost 43,000 hectares out of 70,000 due to a wildfire in 2015. The Greenpeace wildland fire team recently went to document the aftermath in this UNESCO protected area that is now covered by ashes or being logged. The condition of the valuable forest reserve currently indicates little hope for revival, for decades to come.