Strategies reduce wildfires � Tshekedi

Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday May 27, 2015 16:04

This was said by the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama at the fourth National Fire Conference in Gaborone yesterday.

“A lot of effort has been put towards building capacity at all levels including communities to understand fire dynamics. An integrated approach of prevention and suppression has served us well,” Khama said.  The ministry attributed the success in fire suppression to collaborations with the Australian government through the New South Wales Rural Fire Services.

The partnership entered into in 2009, according to Khama, has seen Botswana build capacity in basic fire fighting, crew leadership, incident command system and communication in wild land fire management.

An official in the Department of Forestry and Range Resources (DFRR), Jeremiah Moeng said lessons were learnt in 2008 when wild land fires affected 60 percent of the country.

“It was then that we took up efficient, effective management and enhanced our response time with regards to fire management,” Moeng said.

He said it was crucial for the system to be professionalised since the magnitude of fire management required a stand-alone entity. The proposed Botswana Rural Fire Services, he said needed to be adequately resourced. 

Moeng added that the current establishment where fire management was housed under his department made the DFRR department too big.“We need a centre with a reasonable budget, appropriate equipment and tools because fire management is a very dangerous undertaking,” he said.  Maungo Nkape, of DFFR -Central District, also emphasised community involvement in fire management. He said while it was the responsibility of communities to protect natural resources from fires, government had a critical role to play in organising them.

The three day conference held under the DFRR, intends to strengthen the implementation of fire management strategies, to sensitise stakeholders and communities on fire management, to enhance collaboration in management of cross-border fires as well as gauge Botswana’s preparedness towards managing wild land fires in 2015.

A statement from the department says, “higher frequencies of wild land fires that were experienced in past years have become a concern due to their negative impacts on the environment and people.

“Wild land fires are however needed to maintain healthy ecosystems and biodiversity of African savannah and grassland vegetation types which appear to be highly adapted to regular fire events.”  “However, with their positive impact as an integral part of the ecosystem, wild land fires can also have detrimental effects on community livelihoods and wildlife. These include destruction of crops, houses, killing livestock and people.”