Since prehistory, fire has been influential as an ecosystem process and has been used by people as a tool to support livelihoods and maintain landscapes worldwide. This is especially true in grassy ecosystems, where landscapes and ecological systems are fire-adapted and fire-dependent and where, even today, people are reliant on fire to manage resources (e.g. grazing areas and important food plants). Currently, global attitudes towards fire and the use thereof are shaped by the impacts of fire in forests, resulting in flawed negative perspectives of the impacts and role of fire in grasslands. The environment in which we manage fire is also changing, climatically, politically, socially, and economically, at scales ranging from local to regional to global, with the potential to alter essential fire regimes that support biodiversity, ecosystem services, and people’s livelihoods. Understanding and managing fire to support both the social and ecological dynamics presents a formidable challenge.