Responding to wildfire in a changing climate: ranger preparedness for forest fire response in northern Pakistan

Forest fires are escalating in frequency and severity worldwide, with particularly severe impacts in climate-vulnerable countries such as Pakistan. Rangers are often the first, and sometimes only, responders in remote fire-prone landscapes, yet little is known about their preparedness and institutional support. This study assesses the roles, vulnerabilities, and preparedness of rangers responding to forest fires across eight selected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), northern Pakistan, using a mixed-methods approach combining structured surveys, focus group discussions, and interviews with 66 rangers, alongside a principal component analysis-based vulnerability assessment generating a composite score for each district. Findings show that rangers perform diverse roles across the fire management cycle and increasingly act as first responders, despite substantial gaps in preparedness, including 90.9% lacking personal protective equipment and 54.5% reporting no fire-related training at all. Vulnerability varied markedly across districts, with Dir Upper, Khyber, and Abbottabad emerging as the highest-risk areas requiring urgent targeted intervention for rangers. Institutional support was minimal overall, with 97% of rangers reporting no access to compensation and no formal insurance coverage. Rangers in northern Pakistan operate under precarious conditions despite their expanding contribution to community and ecosystem protection. This study recommends their formal recognition as first responders and stronger institutional support, including training, equipment, insurance, and compensation mechanisms within national and provincial disaster risk reduction frameworks.