More than 110 million acres of US land are designated wilderness, where the 1964 Wilderness Act bars logging, mining, roads and mechanized equipment. Many of these areas were long tended by Indigenous peoples using fire and cultivation that shaped the landscape. Climate change and decades of fire suppression have now caused severe wildfires that killed large numbers of giant sequoias and turned some forests into shrubland, while some pine forests are declining without fire. Researchers argue that protecting wilderness may require active management, such as prescribed burning and tribal-led stewardship.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.