22 May 2014

Reviving the spirit of volunteerism and aggressively engaging communities in taking part in defusing wild fires in Community Based Fire Management (CBFiM) programmes is vital.

This was observed  at the 3rd National Wild Land Fire Managers conference in Maun by the Agricultural Resource Board (ARB) deputy chairperson, Mr John Benn.

He said following Botswana’s worst fire season in 2008, where the extent of the area burnt and the geographical distribution of the fire, with all the districts burning simultaneously placed a huge demand on both human and financial resources to the extent that the nation was stretched beyond its coping capacity, there was a need for people to volunteer during fire outbreaks.

Mr Benn said this event led to the country seeking assistance from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, especially South Africa and the international community, in particular, the United States of America (USA) and Australia.

He commended Australia for responding by sending two fire experts to undertake a scoping mission in Botswana and identifying three critical areas that were meant to build capacity in fire management.

These areas entailed provision of hand tools including personal protective equipment (PPE) for fire suppression; training on the use of hand tools for timely, effective and efficient fire suppression and provision of technical expertise and support.

The help also entailed the introduction of a prescribed burning programme as a way of reducing fuel load and support on the development of fire risk management plans.

Mr Benn implored all district representatives to develop proactive ways and means of managing fires, as well as involving the community.

He appealed to them to be aware of technocratic arrogance; a mind-set that he said creates solutions and imposes them on land users.

The former North West District Council (NWDC) chairperson urged them to involve community members in all stages of fire management, because without their active participation, all their efforts are doomed and destined to fail in their efforts to manage fires economically, effectively, efficiently and ecologically.

The theme of the conference was Fire management: from vulnerability to resilience, and was graced by SADC member states such as Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and fire experts from New South Wales Rural Fire Services. ENDS