Cape Town - A controlled fuel reduction burn, along with in-field training, concluded at Robben Island over the weekend to reduce the risk of uncontrolled wildfire at the heritage site as part of ongoing environmental management and fire management training between the City and Robben Island Museum (RIM).
These interventions were critical to the long-term sustainability of biodiversity at the site but also acted as in-field training for the City’s biodiversity management and Fire and Rescue Services staff.
RIM provided accommodation for attendees for the duration of the training.
Deputy mayor and spatial planning and environment Mayco member Eddie Andrews explained: ‘’A fuel reduction burn is conducted to reduce the plant biomass which poses a fire risk in the event of a wildfire.
“Given Robben Island’s heritage status, an uncontrolled wildfire would devastate the historical buildings and the burn greatly reduces this risk.”
RIM environmental manager Sabelo Madlala added that they conducted fuel reduction every third year.
“Climate change is a reality on the island, it has manifested itself in many ways, ie increased temperatures and gusty winds. It is therefore important that the site is adapted to such a reality. One of the strategies is to conduct frequent controlled burns aimed at reducing hazards for fire risks,” Madlala said.
Madlala explained that RIM’s primary mandate was the conservation of both heritage and biodiversity assets of the sites and the site’s remoteness from the mainland made any unfortunate event of wildfires more severe.
“Valuable heritage and biodiversity assets would be lost. Training and regular reduction of hazards are two critical components of disaster management, the former speaks to sharpening RIM’s response capacity to disasters and the latter is aimed at mitigating against exposure to disaster risks of fires,” Madlala said.
Andrews said the original vegetation type on Robben Island is Cape Flats Dune Strandveld, which is now classified as endangered and that transformation of the natural vegetation on the Island occurred over the past 350 years.
The City said another aim of the fuel reduction burn was also to rehabilitate the vegetation on the island to a self-sustaining condition that needs minimal management input and ultimately ensure the safety of the breeding habitats, especially with the dwindling African Penguin population on the island.
“The opportunity afforded by this fuel reduction burn gives our biodiversity management and Fire and Rescue Services teams essential training in dealing with environmental challenges,” Andrews said.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za