Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

Fires in and around Gorongosa National Park, September 2007 The late dry season is a time of intense fire activity in Gorongosa National Park.  Our crew of scouts, assisted by other Gorongosa staff, work day and night during this period to reduce the spread of fires with the aim of preventing these wildfires from burning into the Gorongosa Wildlife Sanctuary and the tourist road network.  They are involved in the age-old challenge of how to manage fire as both friend and foe.

Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem in Gorongosa, and humans have used fire in this this region for more than 150,000 years.  Like rainfall and animal activity, fires shape the ecological structure of Gorongosa.  Fires release nutrients and remove old, dry plant material above ground, enabling new growth to sprout from the roots when the rains arrive.  These areas of lush, green re-growth provide prime feeding grounds for many of Gorongosa’s grazers, including waterbuck, impala, and African buffalo.

New grass shoots emerge after fire But the fires of Gorongosa today are much more widespread than they were in the past because the big grazers – buffalo, zebra, and wildebeest – are greatly reduced compared to their former numbers on the floodplains.  In the past, these grazers maintained a “grazing lawn” with a much lower amount of combustible material that fed fires.  Today, the grasses of Gorongosa are rank and tall and thus produce much hotter, more intense fires.  These fires can be dangerous to people and wildlife around the Park.

Fires remove cover that many animals use to hide from predators and burn up vegetation that other species need for grazing until the rains arrive to stimulate new growth.  When too much of an area burns, not enough food and cover remain for many animal species, who must then go in search of food and protective cover elsewhere.  Also, large, hot fires are much more difficult to extinguish, and can therefore pose a grave threat to human safety. 

Gorongosa’s grasses grow to amazing heights without grazers like buffalo, wildebeest, and zebra Many fires are started by people in the local communities as a way to clear land for planting machambas (garden plots) or to open pathways for transport between communities.  Fires are sometimes used in poaching efforts as well; illegal hunters use fire to find animals that are attracted to the new, tender grasses that grow after a fire, and that are easier to see in burned areas.  Animal traps are more easily laid in burned areas. Unfortunately, once these fires are lit they spread across the landscape, burning any area that is dry enough to sustain fire.  In windy and dry weather conditions, even small fires can grow to burn vast areas of land quickly if uncontrolled.

Gorongosa National Park and other land managers use fire as a management tool.  We
GNP staff lighting prescribed fire along a Park roadintentionally light fires (called “prescribed fires”) in strategic locations to create firebreaks that prevent the spread of uncontrolled fires.  For example, the Park fire management crews burn protective breaks around Chitengo Camp, the Wildlife Sanctuary, and other important areas using prescribed fires.  We also burn certain areas early in the dry season (May/June) – when conditions are wetter and therefore the fires are easier to control – to create a patchy mosaic of burned and unburned areas that provide a patchwork of areas with good grazing conditions and good cover for wildlife.

In 2007, Park fire managers established 22 management units in the southern part of the Park to assist with their efforts to carry out prescribed fires and fight wildfires.  About a third to half of these units will be burned during the dry season.  As our road network expands over time, we will add more management units that will enable prescribed fire management across the entire Park, especially as our large herbivore populations recover.

The defined ignition line (along a Park road) is a good indication that this fire was a prescribed fireGood training and ample field experience make an effective, efficient fire management crew.  Gorongosa National Park is providing its staff with training through both formal workshops taught by experienced the professional fire managers of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Working on Fire International coupled with extensive field experience gained ruing prescribed fires and wildfire control efforts.  We are cooperating with the Working on Fire team to conduct fire ecology research that promotes better integrated fire management practices at Gorongosa and across the region.  We are also developing outreach programs to train community members to control fires in the buffer zone of the Park and to educate them about the impact of wildfires set in the Park.