Veld Fires: Realities and Myths

Response to a report in The Namibian on 15 September: ‘Forest Fires destroy 250 000 hectares of land in Kavango’. The acting Chief Forester for the northeastern regions, Moses Moses, states that the cause of the fires could not yet be established, but may have been caused by a variety of factors, with the most common one being illegal harvesters camping in the forests to cut down wood.

He also says the fires could have been caused by hunters, beekeepers and cattle herders. The cause he does not mention is lightning, which occurs when moist air and dry air mix (because they have different electrical charges). As the fires coincided with the first cloudy weather in the region, this is the time that lightening fires – that are not followed by heavy rainfall to extinguish them – are most common. In the 1970s Professor Roy Siegfried of Cape Town University analysed the fires occurring in Etosha over a 10-year period (from 1970 to 1979) and found that at least 54 per cent, and probably 73 per cent were caused by lightning. They are, therefore, natural and would have set the veld ablaze over much of the Namibian highveld for millions of years. Nineteenth century travellers through Namibia, including the Okavango Region, recorded that large tracts were annually burned between June and September. By preventing and suppressing these regular fires – which killed tree seedlings and stopped most of those that did become established from growing above the height of the grass – we have created the bush encroachment problem that has reduced the carrying capacity of our cattle ranches and the northeastern communal areas to a fraction of what they once were.But not all the fires were caused by lightning. The forefathers of the present residents of Kavango and Caprivi recognised that fires occurring in the hot dry season, when they are often accompanied by strong winds, could be destructive to the larger trees that provided them with fruits and nuts. For this reason they deliberately burned the veld in the cool months (between May and August) so that there would no longer be enough fuel for later hot fires to occur. This early burning also resulted in a flush of new green growth that provided both livestock and grazing game with high quality food during the dry season, when it was most needed for them to maintain condition until the next year’s rains began. Unfortunately Namibians – including the descendants of the rural communities that bequeathed us the country’s once very productive rangelands – have been brainwashed by Eurocentric theories that veld fires are destructive. In fact, the annual early burning their ancestors practised rejuvenated the perennial grasses, which will be smothered and die if the dead leaves that collect on top of their growing points are not periodically removed. They also prevented large trees from being damaged, stopped bush encroachment and kept livestock and wildlife well nourished during the dry season. It is time for the myth of fires ‘destroying the veld’ to end. Garth Owen-Smith, Windhoekvia e-mail