16 May 2019

Fire brigade from Phuduhudu village in the Ngamiland District in conjunction with International Savanna Fire Management Programme (ISFMP) team from Australia held a successful fire exercise intended to showcase techniques and skills to combat fire.

Phuduhudu is sandwiched between two national parks, which are Makgadikgadi National Park and Nxai Pan National Park.

The area is synonymous with outbreaks of veldt fires annually, which negatively affects the existing flora and fauna within the area.

The exercise was held at NG49 concession, which is situated in Phuduhudu.

The locals impressed the visiting team through demonstrations of their skills in fire management.

On the other hand, the visitors also shared skills, techniques and traditional knowledge with regard to fire management.

Interestingly, both teams demonstrated similar techniques even though the visitors were more advanced in terms of equipment.

However, ISFMP leader, Mr Sam Johnston said Australia was committed to strengthening its partnership with Botswana in fire management. 

He said in an interview that he appreciated the exercise as both teams showed interest and commitment.

Mr Johnston noted they were also expecting a delegation from Botswana to visit Australia on a benchmarking mission on their wild land fire-fighting programmes.

He believed that the exchange trip would be an advantage for both countries as they would work towards building effective fire management systems together for the benefit of their communities.

Mr Johnston underscored that Botswana could continue to learn from Australia as the country that had a successful record in managing bush fire outbreaks.

He said it was their intention to extend a helping hand to other countries to reduce emissions from savanna fires.

Mr Johnston also noted that his team would be in Botswana for six weeks and during their stay, they would visit some of the areas which were reported to be prone to bush fires to appreciate the role of the community in fire management.

The team is also expected to share some of its traditional knowledge and techniques with members of the community.

Earlier, Kgosi Johane Ngwengare of Phuduhudu praised Forest Conservation Botswana (FCB) for having funded the village trust, Xhauxhwatubi Development Trust, to the tune of P1 million to develop a fire management strategy.

He said the village was rich in natural resources, but fire outbreaks were a major challenge as they destroyed nature.

The village chief also appreciated Australians for choosing his village for the exercise and urged residents to come in large numbers to learn from the exercise.

Giving a brief history of fire outbreaks, village trust chairperson, Mr Mazinyo Tlhapi explained that in the past years, they had a challenge of fire outbreaks, which forced them to appeal for help.

FCB, he said, came to their rescue with funding.

He said most of the outbreaks came from the east spreading west wards and destroyed a large number of wildlife in the area such as elands and their calves.

That, he said prompted them to develop measures to control the veldt fires and they approached FCB, which funded them to come up with the strategy.

Mr Tlhapi revealed that they managed to establish a fire brigade,  which would be engaged in fire suppression, but they were currently waiting to be trained in fire management.

The fire brigade, he said was given some incentives so that it could respond positively during fire seasons.

He hailed the Australian team for their interaction with his team. ENDs