Caprivi to host veld-fire workshop
Caprivi to host veld-fire workshop
14 August 2008
published by www.namibian.com.na
Namibia — The seventh workshop of the Southern Africa Fire Network (SAFNet) will be held in Namibia next month under theme ‘Towards Effective Regional Fire Management, Policies and Operations Status’.
It will be held in the Caprivi Region from September 22 to 26.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, southern Africa is one of the world’s fire hotspots where million of hectares burn annually.
The 2006 and 2007 fire seasons were some of the worst in several countries in the region, resulting in widespread destruction in Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.
“Widespread burning in the region will intensify due to climate change.
Fires in southern Africa often cross borders but frameworks for managing such fires are currently limited,” the Ministry says in a statement.
It says fires contribute to greenhouses gases, threaten human security and ecosystems and hence compromise food security and health.
Fire monitoring and research remains sporadic and fractured in southern Africa, as is the case for the rest of the continent.
Building capacity on fire research, generating up-to-date fire information and formulating informed fire management policies and strategies are key to sustainable development and climate change mitigation and adaptation in Africa, the Ministry says.
