Wildfires are a land management failure

THE wildfires burning across parts of the Western Cape this past week are not an exception.

- JAN VREKEN

A FIREFIGHTER from the Cape Winelands District Municipality's Fire Services battles a fire that broke out in Franschhoek at the weekend.

(AYANDA NDAMANE Independent Newspapers)

They are sadly a predictable outcome of how fire risk is managed or neglected - in many instances in South Africa. While heat, wind and low humidity create dangerous conditions, they do not determine the scale of destruction on their own. The increasing incidence of deliberate ignitions and arson further heightens exposure, exacerbating the consequences of inadequate land management.What ultimately shapes fire behaviour is longer-term land-use practice: invasive alien vegetation left uncleared, fuel loads allowed to accumulate, and firebreaks that exist in planning documents but not in practice.

This season's wildfires have already burned more than 100000 hectares across the Western Cape, forcing evacuations and stretching fire services across multiple districts. Fires have damaged property in Mossel Bay, prompted evacuations in Pearly Beach, and triggered multi-agency firefighting responses from the Winelands to the coast.

The financial costs associated with firefighting efforts are mounting. At a provincial level, the Western Cape government reports spending at least R15 million on aerial firefighting support so far this season - almost double the number of missions compared with the same period last year, with some 38 aerial deployments authorised to support ground crews.

These figures demonstrate that when fires occur, the economic, environmental and social costs are enormous. Yet these costs are largely borne after ignition, when opportunities to reduce severity have already been lost.