Posted on 19 May 2017

WWF Zimbabwe is engaging in three practices namely food, forests and wildlife under the new global architecture. With respect to the latter, the office is supporting management of a number of protected areas in Zimbabwe. Under the GEF funded $5.4m Hwange Sanyati Biological Corridor Project, WWF Zimbabwe is facilitating the management of the Hwange National Park (1,4 million hectares in extent) and its buffer zones. This project is funded through the World Bank. Given HNP’s vastness, a key challenge in the park relates to veldt fires.

As part of its overall support to improved park management, WWF Zimbabwe in partnership with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority and the Forestry Commission facilitated the updating the park’s fire management plan. This was an inclusive and participatory process that brought together key stakeholders to not only contribute to the plans, but to pledge their support in ensuring effective fire management.

HNP areas are in a savannah region which by nature is a fire ecosystem. Periodic and planned burning of the area is necessary to create a balance in the floral biodiversity of the ecosystem. However, uncontrolled fires have been a challenge in the park with fires emanating from buffer communities and poachers among other causes identified in a fire ecology assessment conducted prior to the plan updating workshop. The uncontrolled fires have resulted in changes in vegetation cover as densities of woody plants have been affected resulting in change from forested land to bush land.

The fire management plans will inform site-specific pre-suppression, suppression and post-suppression activities that the managers of the protected area and relevant stakeholders need to implement in order to reduce the occurrence of fires and to mitigate their impact on the ecosystems. Highlights of the fire management plan include fireguard construction, fire line clearing and controlled early burning to reduce the biomass. Community leaders pledged to support fire surveillance and to ensure that community fire brigades participate effectively in fire management within the buffer areas. The symbiotic relationship between communities and the protected areas was emphasized and such participatory fire management will benefit both biodiversity and communities in livelihood enhancement.