While it seems wildly counter-intuitive, burning, done properly is usually a net carbon increase. Many, many ecosystems require fire for their life-cycles. Wit

While it seems wildly counter-intuitive, burning, done properly is usually a net carbon increase. Many, many ecosystems require fire for their life-cycles. Without reasonably regular fires, some species can go extinct. The soil fertility, for example, in Australia is so poor, and there's not enough moisture for fungi etc to break down the leaf-litter, that unless there is a fire valuable nutrients remain unavailable and it impedes growth.