Fire is increasingly recognized as a natural disturbance that must be actively managed to avoid disaster, ranging from extreme wildfires to loss of fire-dependent organisms and ecosystem function associated with decreasing burned area. In some savannas, including Brazil’s cerrado, fire is necessary, helping to maintain open tree canopies and allowing a continuous and highly diverse grass layer to thrive. Exactly how fire should be managed to conserve cerrado biological and functional biodiversity remains unclear, however. This work focuses at the interface of stewardship and research to evaluate how fire is being managed in protected areas in Brazil’s cerrado, whether fire policies are effective for conserving vulnerable fire-dependent cerrado plants, and how fire may be used as a tool to increase cerrado resilience. This work will advance scientific understanding of fire and the maintenance of ecosystem function and biodiversity in savannas, as well as ensuring that Brazil’s national fire policies promote biodiversity and ecosystem function across all of Brazil’s ecoregions. The project will elegantly integrate societal benefits (determination of how well management practices and policies are working) and a variety of training and outreach with cutting-edge research. To achieve these goals, the research interrogates a) how a new legal framework in Brazil (Law 12651) allowing for the development of integrated fire management policies in protected areas and on private lands