Page 17 - Environmental Affairs

Changing how we burn for

biodiversity - Patch Mosaic Burning

By Marcini Govender By Romy Antrobus-Wuth
Images by Wolf-Achim and Hanna Roland Image by Wynand Uys

Above: Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve, where patch mosaic burns have been implemented for years (Image by Wynand Uys)

cross South Africa fire is a key ecosystem implemented by the South African National Biodiversity
driver in many biomes, including grasslands, Institute (SANBI), the Kruger to Canyons BR in partnership
savanna and fynbos (heathland) ecosystems. with Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks agency
AControlled fires are also often used as a compiled a set of guidelines to assist landowners and
management tool by land managers to help meet manages to implement patch mosaic burns on their
a number of objectives including reducing the risk properties. The purpose of the guideline document is
of large-scale, destructive wildfires; clearing land for to explain the principles behind PMB and give step-
improved grazing; reducing bush encroachment; tick by-step instructions on how to implement a successful
control, biodiversity and improving tourism objectives. patch mosaic burning regime.
In conservation areas, the primary objective of fire
management should be to increase or maintain As part of this broader project, specific sites were
biodiversity. It is argued that the best way to achieve identified to implement patch burns on the slopes
this is to mimic natural fire regimes as closely as of Mariepskop. Three wetland sites that had become
possible through patch mosaic burning (PMB) encroached with woody shrubs and alien invasives as
techniques. PMB can however also be used in a a result of fire being excluded from the area, were burnt
variety of land uses including commercial forestry, in September 2020. The first burn in over 20 years! The
rangelands and agriculture as it reduces the risk of impact of these burns and the regeneration of these
wildfires and the detrimental economic implications sites will be monitored going forward in partnership
thereof. PMB requires less manpower, thus reducing with SAEON, MTPA and K2C BR.
costs associated with management.
In the new year it is hoped that a series of workshops
and training sessions will be held to support fire teams
The use of fire and its incorporation into conservation
management has changed in parallel with shifts to better understand the benefits and implement PMB
in ecological thinking which have taken place in conservation landscapes in our region.
over the past 100 years. Historically it was thought
that the environment was in a state of balance For more information or to download the detailed
or equilibrium and management practices were Patch Mosaic Burning Guidelines, go to the K2C
implemented to reduce change. This paradigm has Webiste.
since been replaced with the view that ecological
systems are rather in a constant state of flux and This work was conducted under the Biodiversity and
that heterogeneity leads to greater biodiversity. Fire Land Use Project (BLU) which is implemented by the
management is therefore increasingly focusing on South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
introducing heterogeneity in burning patterns under together with its partners, with funding from the Global
the assumption that “pyrodiversity creates biodiversity.” Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations
Under the Biodiversity and Land Use Project, Development Programme (UNDP).

www.environment.gov.za : Environment Quarterly 15