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The Demand for Resources to Practice Fire Management in the Protected Areas of the Western Cape – South Africa.1

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The Demand for Resources to Practice Fire Management in the Protected Areas of the Western Cape – South Africa.1 The Demand for Resources to Practice Fire Management in the Protected Areas of the Western Cape – South Africa.1 Zane Erasmus 2 Abstract The Western Cape Province of South Africa is prone to frequent wild fires. Land managers manage fire in the Fynbos vegetation that survives in fragments over a wide and mountainous landscape. Boundaries are extensive, and the impacts of alien plant species and urban and agricultural activities on the fringes present consistent challenges. Managers within Protected Areas strive to achieve biodiversity objectives by managing to achieve optimum Veld ages and diverse habitats. Fire Management in effect entails three main activities that are closely integrated, namely, the suppression of wild fires, the implementation of control burns, and the preparation of firebreaks. These activities are labour intensive, requiring large numbers of field workers to carry out dangerous and physically demanding operations. The National Department of Forestry had, up until the mid-1980’s, managed the vast Mountain Catchment Areas (MCA’s) which represent most of the remaining Fynbos biome. The Western Cape Provincial Conservation authority took over control of the MCA’s, after which management resources dedicated to Fire Management declined quite significantly. This came about directly as a result of financial restrictions imposed by the authorities. This study discusses a means whereby the human resources required to manage fire in order to meet ecological and legislative objectives, is described. This provides an essential means for management to determine the volume of work for which Fire Managers are responsible. Furthermore, it can be used to determine accurate budgetary targets. Introduction The Western Cape, in contrast to the rest of Africa, experiences a Mediterranean climate. Winters are cold and wet, while summers in contrast are very hot and dry (Tyson and Preston-Whyte, 2000). A system of folded mountain ranges traverses the entire Province. Lightning is a common natural source of ignition in the high lying areas (Edwards, 1994). Of particular significance is the fynbos biome , also known as the Cape Floristic Kingdom (CFK). One of the world’s six floral kingdoms, it is found almost exclusively within the boundaries of the Province (Cowling and Holmes, 1992). 1 A version of this paper was presented at the Western Cape Fire Prevention and Management Seminar 6 – 7. September 2006 Ganzekraal, Western Cape, South Africa. 2Zane Erasmus – CapeNature, Private Bag X6546, George, Republic of South Africa, 6530 - [email protected] Regional Session F—The demand for resources —Zane Erasmus While it is the smallest of the Floral Kingdoms (90 000 km 2), it is also the most species rich with 9 600 species on record, more than 70 percent of which are endemic to the Western Cape (Anon 2000). Fynbos - which means “fine bush”, consists of fine leaved, evergreen sclerophyllous shrubs. The presence of three families generally identifies the vegetation type, namely low shrub Ericaceae , leafless reed like Restionaceae and waxy broadleaved Proteaceae . Structure within different Fynbos plant communities varies significantly. However all types display extreme density where canopy cover, can in some cases, exceed 75 percent in mature stands (Kruger, 1979). Fire is a natural phenomenon given the climatic and topographical features that prevail in the Western Cape. Fynbos has evolved complex avoidance and tolerance mechanisms to survive fire. Indeed, fynbos is both fire prone and fire dependant (van Wilgen and Scott 2001). Without regular burning, fynbos can become senescent – and conversely with fire that is too frequent, species that have not adapted to recurrent fires can become extinct. Survival mechanisms invariably respond to the inherent fire regimes that may prevail in any particular fynbos type. There is consensus amongst botanists that fynbos is adapted to fire intervals ranging from between 10 to 30 years (van Wilgen 1987), dependant on localized factors such as climate and topography. In terms of the Constitution of South Africa, nature conservation is a concurrent responsibility of all spheres of government. Since the management of the fynbos biome is predominantly a conservation activity, this responsibility in the Western Cape has fallen primarily to CapeNature, a Parastatal formed on 1 April 2000, to manage all nature conservation concerns in the province. Other Conservation Agencies and landowners are actively involved in fire management and related conservation activities. Table 1 reflects the current conservation management status in the Western Cape. Table 1 —Conservation areas in the Western Cape showing respective management authorities (Based on figures in le Roux and others 2002) Number of Management Authority Area Units Protected (Ha) Wilderness Areas 4 CapeNature 116,924 Provincial Nature Reserves 79 CapeNature 576,757 Contractual Provincial Nature 1 CapeNature 933 Reserve Island reserves 12 CapeNature 295 Marine Protected Areas 6 CapeNature 41,930 Local Authority Nature 38 Municipalities in association 25,582 Reserves with CapeNature Mountain Catchment Areas 15 Private landowners in 619,038 association with CapeNature Private Nature Reserves 148 Private landowners in 122,399 association with CapeNature South African Natural 36 Private landowners in 33,198 Heritage Sites association with CapeNature Conservancies 43 Private landowners in 563,121 association with CapeNature National Parks 7 South African National Parks 90,283 Total Area in Ha Protected 2,190,460 Regional Session F—The demand for resources —Zane Erasmus CapeNature is directly responsible for managing 736,839 ha, and indirectly for an additional 1,661,338 Ha. According to le Roux and others (2002), 10.7 percent of the Western Cape’s surface area falls under statutory conservation areas, while an additional 7.7 percent falls under privately owned conservation land. Fire Management of the Fynbos vegetation is the most critical of all conservation activities for two reasons. Firstly, Conservation Managers need to maintain optimum levels of biodiversity to ensure that natural processes continue. Selected areas are burnt under prescribed conditions where season and intensity are key factors for ensuring that diversity levels are accomplished. Furthermore, intervention measures are required to ensure that large areas of young fynbos are not burnt in wild fires before reseeding species have been able to mature; Secondly, the scarcity of water has become the most critical factor determining development in the Western Cape. An increased demand from the social, industrial and agricultural sectors, coupled with the projected impacts of global warming, indicate that there are inadequate water resources for the future (Midgeley and others, 2005). CapeNature is responsible for the management of Mountain Catchment Areas (MCA’s) including private MCA’s, by virtue of the delegation of the National Mountain Catchment Areas Act (63 of 1970) to the Provincial Government in 1987 (Nicholson, 2005). The aim of this management is to produce a sustained yield of high quality water throughout the year (Wilson, 1985). Versfeld (1995) identified that this objective is only possible if the natural vegetation is maintained in a viable state through a sound burning policy. Since the economy of any community is dependant on a sustained yield of good quality water, it could be stated that the future development of the Western Cape economy is dependant on how effectively CapeNature manages the MCA’s. The only way that MCA’s can be "managed" is by practicing sound Fire Management principles. While Pitman and others (1981) showed that the invasion of the mountain catchments by alien woody species can significantly reduce runoff, it should also be borne in mind that large wild fires can substantially spread invasion by encouraging seed release from cones, stimulating germination and creating large safe sites for seed germination (Richardson and others, 1992). It makes sense therefore that any alien plant eradication operation is only effective if associated with proactive Fire Management prescriptions. Conservation Managers are trained Fire Management “experts” and understand the demanding nature of Fire Management within the scope of their institutional responsibilities. However, there is no indication of the level of human resources that are required to operate throughout the Province. In this paper, a means whereby the human resources required to meet legislative Fire Management requirements, as well as ecological and hydrological objectives, is discussed. This fundamental information is essential to determine the resources required by CapeNature to fulfill its mandate to the Provincial Government of the Western Cape. Regional Session F—The demand for resources —Zane Erasmus Methodology An expert survey model was compiled on an Excel spreadsheet (Appendix 1) and sent to 19 of the major Nature Reserves that are responsible for managing Fynbos and thereby practicing Fire Management. The Reserves are spread evenly throughout the Province and thus represent the various classes of Fynbos. Managers were requested to refer to their own records and provide the information requested for 21 basic questions divided into five fundamental categories. These are discussed as follows: Question one. Requests the name of the Protected Area managed . CapeNature manages Protected Areas that are formally protected in terms of Provincial or National legislation. Protected Areas include
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