Previous PageTable Of ContentsNext Page


2.1.1 The fire environment, fire regimes and the ecological role of fire in the region

Africa is often referred to as the “fire continent” due to the regular and widespread occurrence of vegetation fires. This description is equally pertinent to southern, west and east Africa where the savannah biome is a major plant community. The capacity of Africa to support fire stems from the fact that climatic factors are the driving force of fire ecology and the main requirement for fire to occur anywhere on earth is to have lightning as the primary ignition source and climatic conditions that permit the ignition of vegetation and the spread of fires caused by lightning strikes. Africa is a continent that is highly prone to lightning storms and has a fire climate with both dry and wet periods, during which fires can burn the plant fuels produced and accumulated during the wet, rainy period. Although in the past lightning was the primary ignition source of fires in the Africa savannahs, the stage has now been reached that humans have become more important than lightning as a source of ignition (Goldammer and Crutzen 1993). Africa also has the most extensive area of tropical savannah in the world, characterised by a grassy understorey that becomes extremely flammable during the dry season.

As a result, burning is recognised as an important ecological factor in the savannah ecosystems of Africa. Research on the effects of fire on the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem has been conducted since the early twentieth century. This has given a general understanding of the effects of the type and intensity of fire as well as the season and frequency of burning on the grass and tree components of the vegetation. This in turn has clarified the use of fire as a range management practice and viable burning programs have been developed for savannah areas used for livestock production, game farming and nature conservation.

Areas that can be classified as “Forest and Other Wooded Land” and are regularly subjected to fire are much smaller than the area of the savannah biome.


Previous PageTop Of PageNext Page