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26 January 2024
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Working on Fire holds 20th Anniversary Fire Symposium in Kruger National Park
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Working on Fire held its 20th Anniversary Fire Symposium in the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga in partnership with the Nelson Mandela University George Campus and SANParks. The event was held at the Skukuza Conference Centre from 8 to 10 November 2023, with a field day with aerial and ground firefighting operations on 9 November 2023. On the start of the Symposium, guests were warmly welcomed with a WoF marching parade, some chanting and singing of the National Anthem.
Session 1: Working on Fire-Kishugu Joint Venture and its integrated fire management approach to fire management
Working on Fire stakeholder manager, Linton Rensburg, welcomed all dignitaries, delegates, speakers and exhibitors followed by a video from Working on Fire on climate change and wildfires in 2023. Senior general manager for conservation and area integrity for Kruger National Park, Danie Pienaar provided an interesting presentation and welcomed all.
The keynote address and official opening was presented by Trevor Abrahams, managing director of Working on Fire (WoF), who discussed climate change and wildfires: the rapidly changing game, looking at the key challenges, policy and operational responses.
Roland Hendriks, chief director at the National Disaster Management Centre, discussed South Africa's preparedness for future wildfires on behalf of Dr Elias Sithole. The presentation included a legislative overview, the current review of the Disaster Management system in South Africa, improvement of fire services capacity, a policy shift from suppression to mitigation and adaptation, data collection and further research to inform risk reduction.
Session 2: Climate change and the new “normal” in integrated fire, chaired by Prof Edith Vries
Kevin Rae, chief forecaster: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) at the South African Weather Service (SAWS) discussed comparative performance and daily behavioural characteristics of the Canadian fire weather index (FWI) and Lowveld Fire Danger Index (FDI) models in a South African domain.
Kim Connors, executive director of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) Canada, shared the lessons learnt from Canada’s unprecedented fire season in his topic ‘strengthening global collaborations in wildland fire management’.
Dr Danie Boshoff, senior lecturer of Geography at the North-West University discussed the role of climate on large fire events in the Western Cape, followed by a presentation by Dr Christo Marais on climate change and the “new normal” for integrated fire management, looking at the potential contribution of integrated wildland fire management to ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change.
Session 3: Empowering Africa to become IFM compliant chaired by Dr Christo Marais
Haritiana Zacharie, head researcher, Land, Landscape and Development Research Lab (LLandDev) in Madagascar, discussed using remote sensing data in supporting wildfire early warning in East-Africa and shared experiences from the Regional Eastern Africa Fire Monitoring Resource Centre (REA-FMRC), which was followed by a presentation from Dr Paolo Fiorucci of the CIMA Research Foundation in Italy, who discussed enabling integrated fire management strategies through integrating a comprehensive smart modelling chain into a wildfire early warning system.
Dr Ida Herdieckerho of the University of Eastern Finland, looked at taming the flames using participatory GIS as a tool to support community-based fire management in land use planning in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, followed by Prof John Kessy of the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, who shared the development of community level action plans for the enforcement of the national integrated fire management (IFM) policies, including processes and lessons from Tanzania.
Tiaan Pool, head of department at Nelson Mandela University, George Campus, discussed the implementation of integrated fire management practices on the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, followed by a presentation from Navashni Govender, senior manager: Conservation Management for the Kruger National Park, featuring the integrated fire management plan for the Kruger National Park. She included the lessons learnt from seven decades of fire management.
Day two
Day two of the event started off with several presentations in the morning followed by a game drive and field day, which showcased both aerial and ground firefighting resources using integrated fire management as a key tool in managing biodiversity and wildfire risks. This followed by a boma braai, South African style.
The morning presentations started with Nicolene Oliver of AON, discussing business continuity plans and processes followed by a presentation from Wimpie van Onselen and Quinton Taylor of Dräger South Africa, who shared Dräger’s solutions for wildland firefighting.
Fred Ludick, operations manager at Risk Management Resources, provided an overview of their operational areas and resources including fire detection, aerial operations and integration, which was followed by a presentation by Tony Marcos, CEO of the Kishugu Training Academy, discussing wildfire training for both management and firefighters and what the future holds in context of climate change and global warming.
Coenie Lamprecht, CEO of Kishugu Fleet, provided an overview of fleet management as a key component of integrated fire management and the application of advanced technology in vehicles and drivers, which was followed by a presentation by Emile Grobbelaar, CEO of Kishugu Aviation, looking at aerial firefighting as a critical component in early initial attack and global best practices.
Session 4: Prevention the key to mitigating the increased incidence of wildland fires, chaired by Tiaan Pool
Nokuphila Buthelezi of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal discussed using fire to manage grasslands in eThekwini Municipality, followed by a presentation by Dave Dobson on how changes in the ecology of fires as a result of climate change will affect management decision making.
Dr Pieter Olivier, director at MAP Scientific Services (MAPSS) looked at harnessing the power of wildfire data to enable integrated fire management for safer landscapes.
Gaston Hedwigino Tahintsoa, researcher at REAFMRC in Madagascar, discussed analysing interactions between landscape structure and fire-resilience at watershed level, sharing their experiences from Ankarafantsika National Park in
Madagascar.
Louise Wessels, manager at the Greater Overberg Fire Protection Association (GoFPA) provided delegates with an overview of the Seventh International Wildland Fire Conference, which was held in Porto in May 2023, sharing the benchmark exercise with some new perspectives and take-home messages.
Nothando Ngobeni, fire researcher at Working on Fire, discussed the effect of the time of day on factors that affect fire intensity in Southern African savanna, which was followed by a presentation by Angel Goldsmith from Kings College London’s Geography Department and Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy in the UK on the prophylactic land-use for wildfire risk reduction at South Africa’s wildland-urban interface.
Session 5: Better collaboration of global, continental and local level, chaired by Trevor Abrahams
Markes Butler, head of the Free State Disaster Management Centre discussed implementing the Incident Command Systems (ICS) as a critical component of responding and managing emergencies including wildfires.
Dr Abigail Croker of the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London in the UK discussed community-based fire management in East and Southern African savanna-protected areas and shared a review of the published evidence.
Each session was followed by a panel discussion allowing the audience a chance for questions and comments.
Working on Fire’s Trevor Abrahams thanked everyone for their presentations, attendance and sharing of information during the event’s closure, where after Kim Connors of CIFFC in Canada and Trevor handed paintings over to each other’s organisations in thanks.
View gallery
View video
An indepth review of the Symposium will follow in the next Fire and Rescue International magazine, with some of the presentations shared in full as technical/research articles during the year in the Wildfire Focus in the magazine.
Quote of the week
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” ~ Winston Churchill
Fire and Rescue International is your magazine.
Read it, use it and share it!
Read the latest magazine: https://www.frimedia.org/fri-vol-7-no-2.html
FRI magazine archive: https://www.frimedia.org/fri-archives.html
Enjoy the read!
Lee Raath-Brownie
Managing director
Cell: 082 371 0190
Contact us
Tel: 011 452 3135 or Email: [email protected]
Websites
www.fireandrescue.co
www.frimedia.org
Facebook
www.facebook.com/FireandRescueInternational
Twitter
www.twitter.com/FRI_magazine
LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-raath-brownie-16668065/
Session 1: Working on Fire-Kishugu Joint Venture and its integrated fire management approach to fire management
Working on Fire stakeholder manager, Linton Rensburg, welcomed all dignitaries, delegates, speakers and exhibitors followed by a video from Working on Fire on climate change and wildfires in 2023. Senior general manager for conservation and area integrity for Kruger National Park, Danie Pienaar provided an interesting presentation and welcomed all.
The keynote address and official opening was presented by Trevor Abrahams, managing director of Working on Fire (WoF), who discussed climate change and wildfires: the rapidly changing game, looking at the key challenges, policy and operational responses.
Roland Hendriks, chief director at the National Disaster Management Centre, discussed South Africa's preparedness for future wildfires on behalf of Dr Elias Sithole. The presentation included a legislative overview, the current review of the Disaster Management system in South Africa, improvement of fire services capacity, a policy shift from suppression to mitigation and adaptation, data collection and further research to inform risk reduction.
Session 2: Climate change and the new “normal” in integrated fire, chaired by Prof Edith Vries
Kevin Rae, chief forecaster: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) at the South African Weather Service (SAWS) discussed comparative performance and daily behavioural characteristics of the Canadian fire weather index (FWI) and Lowveld Fire Danger Index (FDI) models in a South African domain.
Kim Connors, executive director of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) Canada, shared the lessons learnt from Canada’s unprecedented fire season in his topic ‘strengthening global collaborations in wildland fire management’.
Dr Danie Boshoff, senior lecturer of Geography at the North-West University discussed the role of climate on large fire events in the Western Cape, followed by a presentation by Dr Christo Marais on climate change and the “new normal” for integrated fire management, looking at the potential contribution of integrated wildland fire management to ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change.
Session 3: Empowering Africa to become IFM compliant chaired by Dr Christo Marais
Haritiana Zacharie, head researcher, Land, Landscape and Development Research Lab (LLandDev) in Madagascar, discussed using remote sensing data in supporting wildfire early warning in East-Africa and shared experiences from the Regional Eastern Africa Fire Monitoring Resource Centre (REA-FMRC), which was followed by a presentation from Dr Paolo Fiorucci of the CIMA Research Foundation in Italy, who discussed enabling integrated fire management strategies through integrating a comprehensive smart modelling chain into a wildfire early warning system.
Dr Ida Herdieckerho of the University of Eastern Finland, looked at taming the flames using participatory GIS as a tool to support community-based fire management in land use planning in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, followed by Prof John Kessy of the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, who shared the development of community level action plans for the enforcement of the national integrated fire management (IFM) policies, including processes and lessons from Tanzania.
Tiaan Pool, head of department at Nelson Mandela University, George Campus, discussed the implementation of integrated fire management practices on the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, followed by a presentation from Navashni Govender, senior manager: Conservation Management for the Kruger National Park, featuring the integrated fire management plan for the Kruger National Park. She included the lessons learnt from seven decades of fire management.
Day two
Day two of the event started off with several presentations in the morning followed by a game drive and field day, which showcased both aerial and ground firefighting resources using integrated fire management as a key tool in managing biodiversity and wildfire risks. This followed by a boma braai, South African style.
The morning presentations started with Nicolene Oliver of AON, discussing business continuity plans and processes followed by a presentation from Wimpie van Onselen and Quinton Taylor of Dräger South Africa, who shared Dräger’s solutions for wildland firefighting.
Fred Ludick, operations manager at Risk Management Resources, provided an overview of their operational areas and resources including fire detection, aerial operations and integration, which was followed by a presentation by Tony Marcos, CEO of the Kishugu Training Academy, discussing wildfire training for both management and firefighters and what the future holds in context of climate change and global warming.
Coenie Lamprecht, CEO of Kishugu Fleet, provided an overview of fleet management as a key component of integrated fire management and the application of advanced technology in vehicles and drivers, which was followed by a presentation by Emile Grobbelaar, CEO of Kishugu Aviation, looking at aerial firefighting as a critical component in early initial attack and global best practices.
Session 4: Prevention the key to mitigating the increased incidence of wildland fires, chaired by Tiaan Pool
Nokuphila Buthelezi of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal discussed using fire to manage grasslands in eThekwini Municipality, followed by a presentation by Dave Dobson on how changes in the ecology of fires as a result of climate change will affect management decision making.
Dr Pieter Olivier, director at MAP Scientific Services (MAPSS) looked at harnessing the power of wildfire data to enable integrated fire management for safer landscapes.
Gaston Hedwigino Tahintsoa, researcher at REAFMRC in Madagascar, discussed analysing interactions between landscape structure and fire-resilience at watershed level, sharing their experiences from Ankarafantsika National Park in
Madagascar.
Louise Wessels, manager at the Greater Overberg Fire Protection Association (GoFPA) provided delegates with an overview of the Seventh International Wildland Fire Conference, which was held in Porto in May 2023, sharing the benchmark exercise with some new perspectives and take-home messages.
Nothando Ngobeni, fire researcher at Working on Fire, discussed the effect of the time of day on factors that affect fire intensity in Southern African savanna, which was followed by a presentation by Angel Goldsmith from Kings College London’s Geography Department and Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy in the UK on the prophylactic land-use for wildfire risk reduction at South Africa’s wildland-urban interface.
Session 5: Better collaboration of global, continental and local level, chaired by Trevor Abrahams
Markes Butler, head of the Free State Disaster Management Centre discussed implementing the Incident Command Systems (ICS) as a critical component of responding and managing emergencies including wildfires.
Dr Abigail Croker of the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London in the UK discussed community-based fire management in East and Southern African savanna-protected areas and shared a review of the published evidence.
Each session was followed by a panel discussion allowing the audience a chance for questions and comments.
Working on Fire’s Trevor Abrahams thanked everyone for their presentations, attendance and sharing of information during the event’s closure, where after Kim Connors of CIFFC in Canada and Trevor handed paintings over to each other’s organisations in thanks.
View gallery
View video
An indepth review of the Symposium will follow in the next Fire and Rescue International magazine, with some of the presentations shared in full as technical/research articles during the year in the Wildfire Focus in the magazine.
Quote of the week
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” ~ Winston Churchill
Fire and Rescue International is your magazine.
Read it, use it and share it!
Read the latest magazine: https://www.frimedia.org/fri-vol-7-no-2.html
FRI magazine archive: https://www.frimedia.org/fri-archives.html
Enjoy the read!
Lee Raath-Brownie
Managing director
Cell: 082 371 0190
Contact us
Tel: 011 452 3135 or Email: [email protected]
Websites
www.fireandrescue.co
www.frimedia.org
www.facebook.com/FireandRescueInternational
www.twitter.com/FRI_magazine
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-raath-brownie-16668065/
