Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) and its stakeholders prioritise risk mapping as part of its Integrated Fire Management (IFM) strategy. Risk mapping helps firefighters to identify potential fire hazards and gives them the necessary time to prioritise, mitigate, and manage such risks.
GRDM Fire Chief, Deon Stoffels explains: “By mapping areas most prone to wildfires, stakeholders are able to allocate resources strategically, improve decision-making, and ensure rapid response to predetermined risks, especially when severe weather alerts are issued”.
“This process is continuously being refined through innovation and improved software applications, like exploring OroraTech’s Wildfire Solutions and the CSIR Meraka Institute’s Advanced Fire Information System (AFIS).”
Historical Perspective: Past Wildfires
The 2017 wildfires that swept through Knysna and parts of Plettenberg Bay, in a way contributed quite significantly to the Garden Route’s current wildfire management strategies. It also paved the way for new collaborative agreements to be drawn up between municipalities, forestry companies, and landowners to share the costs of year-round aerial firefighting services. The Western Cape Provincial Government and the Department Forestry’s Fisheries and the Environment, however, still funds the provision of first hour aerial firefighting deployment for incidents in high-risk areas over the high summer season.
As of now, improvements include:
Enhanced early warning systems aligned with known risks;
Increased public awareness programmes, particularly in high-risk rural communities and schools;
Greater emphasis on prevention and risk reduction;
Enhanced Integrated Fire Management, including fire awareness, fire prevention, prescribed burning, resource coordination, fire detection, and fire suppression;
Rapid deployment of most suitable resources, including aerial firefighting; and
Increased capacity, particularly over the summer period.
Role Players in Fire Risk Mapping
Several partners contribute to wildfire risk mapping in the Garden Route. They include the GRDM Fire and Rescue Services, Disaster Management, South African National Parks, CapeNature, Forestry companies, Southern Cape Fire Protection Association (SCFPA), Working on Fire, landowners, and communities.
To strengthen this approach, GRDM collaborates with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) Advanced Fire Information Systems (AFIS); a satellite-based tool providing near real-time fire data and veld age maps to update local risk profiles.
Academic and Research Partnerships
Although no direct partnerships currently exist with universities or Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) at a district level, Stellenbosch University (SU) regularly participates in provincial platforms. In May 2025, SU contributed to a Western Cape wildfire workshop focusing on evidence-based fire management policies. This workshop highlighted the Five E’s of Fire Services: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Response, and Economics.
Future workshops are planned, including one in Central Karoo in 2026, building on the inaugural session in Overberg in 2024.
Why Certain Areas Are Riskier
Wildfire risks do increase because of the following:
Human negligence (cigarettes, broken glass, uncontrolled burning, unsafe burning practices, illegal burning) and lack of awareness;
Lightning strikes in mountainous areas;
Extreme weather such as berg winds;Variable climate patterns (heat, droughts and floods);
Lack of control over alien invasive plants;
Poor land management practices; and
Insufficient enforcement of legislation and more.
Addressing these risks requires education, compliance, and preventative measures such as alien invasive plant removal and rehabilitation, fire breaks, and risk planning.
Public’s Role in Reducing Fire Risks
Residents and landowners can play a significant role in lowering their properties’ fire risks by:
Clearing alien invasive plants (with guidance from municipalities, Fire Protection Associations, and environmental authorities);
Creating and upkeeping fire breaks;
Reporting incidents and risks to either the GRDM, local municipalities, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, or the Southern Cape Fire Protection Association;
Municipalities monitor compliance, while enforcement is a priority improvement area for the district and relevant environmental departments;
Fire Scaping your properties and homes; and
Applying for permits to burn and burning in designated places.
Looking Ahead
While measurable district-wide data (such as hectares cleared or number of prescribed burns) is not yet centralised, municipalities and the SCFPA maintain their own records. GRDM is working towards a centralised fire permit system to strengthen data capturing and future reporting.
