Situation Report – South Africa

BY TESSA OLIVER

The number and intensity of unwanted wildland fires in South and Southern Africa has increased significantly in the past several years. Many of these fires have been either major or catastrophic, and have resulted in deaths, loss of livestock, negative impacts on the environment, and economic costs.

The worst wildfires recorded to date swept through parts of Southern Cape in June 2017. The town of Knysna and its surrounding areas were severely affected by these devastating fires. Sadly, seven people were killed, more than 1,000 structures were destroyed, and 500 houses were damaged in this event. Thousands of people were evacuated, with 1,533 families and 134 businesses being negatively affected, and critical infrastructure such as power lines were damaged or destroyed.

Wildfire management in South Africa has traditionally been heavily dependent on fire suppression, which is extremely costly; this has meant that firefighting resources (teams, aerial resources) are moved across fire prone provinces during South Africa’s two opposing fire seasons in the north and south. However, unseasonal fires influenced heavily by factors such as changing climate patterns and increased fuel loads have become increasingly significant, and are forcing a relook at wildfire management across the country.

Increasing the number of prescribed burns for fuel reduction and ecosystem maintenance will become more necessary and critical to try to minimise the risk of disaster wildfires in future, but many organisations lack the capacity or experienced or qualified personnel to confidently plan and execute prescribed burns.

Although fires are necessary for ecological processes to function properly, they pose a threat to human lives, livelihoods and possessions. More and more people, assets and infrastructure are placed on the boundary or interface between developed land and fire-prone vegetation (wildland-urban interface or WUI) where they are exposed to wildfires and potential risk of loss or harm.

Climate change has become a key factor in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires. Research shows that changes in climate create warmer, drier conditions in many areas across the globe. Increased incidences of drought, reduced precipitation, higher temperatures and a longer fire season are boosting increases in wildfire risk. This risk also includes factors such as wind, soil moisture, and the presence of trees, shrubs, and other potential fuel (many of which have increased due to excluding fire from landscapes). Increased invasions of alien plants, the growth and spread of which are compounded by climate change, add to the biomass of natural ecosystems and increase and aggravate the intensity and heat of fires, making it more difficult and unsafe to control.

South Africa has two different fire seasons and much of the natural vegetation across the country requires fires to maintain the ecosystems in good condition.

Scientists have studied fire ecology in South Africa for many decades and have looked at fire ecology, behaviour and fire regimes in the major vegetation types – grasslands, savanna or woodland, and fynbos – and have arranged them into three main groups:

1) Fire-dependent, which requires fires at the right intervals to regenerate the vegetation (all grassland types, moist and arid woodland, fynbos and Renosterveld).

2) Fire-independent, which may burn from time to time but does not require fires for regeneration (sparse arid woodland, thicket, Nama and Succulent Karoo).

3) Fire-sensitive, which are adversely affected by fires and can take many years to recover (grassy Nama Karoo, forest).

Fires are inevitable in the fire-dependent group, so the key to reducing fire risk is to actively manage the fuels to minimise the risk of wildfires in the WUI.

Fires rarely occur in the fire-independent group because there is too little fuel to sustain a fire except in high rainfall years, so fuel loads only need to be managed to reduce the fire hazard during the dry season after such high rainfall periods.

The fire-sensitive group also rarely experiences fires but may need fuel load reduction at times.

In the Northern part of the country, which has a summer rainfall season, fires usually occur in the dry winter months (May through October), whereas in the South, most fires occur in hot dry summers (December to March) and usually not in the cool, wet winter months.

To address this, South African policy and legislation recognises that wildfires are necessary but can be damaging, and promotes the formation of fire protection associations (partnerships between fire management authorities and land owners or lessees) to manage fires and prevent damaging wildfires. Landowners have, in the past, been completely reliant on authorities, such as the fire brigade services (many of which are not fully functional in South Africa) during wildfire events. Many people are not aware that they are able to do many things around their homes and properties, often at little cost, to minimise the risk of wildfires damaging their assets. These simple tasks would ease the burden on fire services during wildfire events and also reduce the risk of fires spreading across properties. Associations provide information and assistance to individuals and communities. There is much that can be done to reduce the damage caused by wildfires by taking ownership of the risk and taking action to reduce and minimize the risk.

After studying humanities at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town for five years and a stint as a photographer, Tessa Oliver’s career path went into a biological direction. Her knowledge of the local flora, picked up from her parents, who were botanists, landed her a job with CapeNature at its scientific services section, managing its biodiversity database. Since then, Oliver has worked for the Agricultural Research Council, the South African National Biodiversity Institute and various non-profit organisations. Oliver’s work has been varied, but always encompassing something that involves uplifting the environment and the people within it. Oliver organised the 2011 International Wildfire Conference in Sun City and from 2012 until 2018 c-oordinated the US$3.5million GEF Fynbos Fire project and until 2020 implemented fire risk reduction projects for the South African Insurance Association. In 2019, Oliver completed a PGD in environmental management through the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University. Oliver is a director of the Association for Wildland Firefighting in South Africa and a director on the Fynbos Forum NPC, and runs a DFFEfunded Groen Sebenza project that places and mentors interns in working environments. Oliver is currently manager of the Western Cape Fire Protection Association, which represents fire protection associations in the province on provincial and national committees and platforms.