Q

Why are these fires such a big threat?

A

These large wildfires are major threats to property, lives, and ecosystems. They increase the likelihood of adverse impacts at both local and landscape level, including soil degradation and loss of key wildlife habitat, next to other economic values. Most importantly, in our program’s area these uncontrolled fires make farmers hesitant to invest in tree crops or agroforestry systems on their farms. When your farm burns every year, you will make sure to only plant annual crops and harvest these before the dry season starts. Planting trees or investing time and energy in agroforestry farms is risky in an area of which you know will surely burn during the dry season. On the other hand, because the land is unmanaged during the dry season, wildfire outbreaks run out of hand freely and without hindrance. That is why our program implements an Integrated Community Fire Management Project, to stop this negative downwards spiral. The effect is that farmers are now willing to develop agroforestry farms again. By incentivising farmers to plant permanent crops, the land is managed, also during the dry season, which creates buffer zones around for example Forest Reserves and stops fire from running through protected areas.

Q

Can you offer farmers an alternative if they are not allowed to use ‘slash & burn’ practices anymore?

A

This question is not applicable to our situation as farmers are still allowed to use fire for land clearing. Fire is a traditional tool in Ghana’s farming system and has been a longstanding practice in Ghanaian agriculture, although it went through a period of taboo, due to past bylaws that outlawed burning. However, we recognized that this was one of the major reasons why burns turned into wildfires: prohibiting the use of fire stripped farmers of their own control, leaving them without an economically feasible way to clear their lands. As such, we have worked together with the government to reverse these bylaws: farmers are now allowed to use fire as a tool for controlled burns, if they receive support from the National Fire Service or from specific support programmes. We believe that you cannot tell farmers to stop using fire because it is part of their way of life, but you can support them in using it responsibly.

Q

You have successfully revived Community Fire Squads to play an active role in your Integrated Community Fire Management Project. What turned out to be an essential ingredient to this success?

A

There are a couple of components in this program that are essential for its success. First of all, the engagement of and endorsement by the traditional authorities and community leaders. In the past, Ghana National Fire Service was the only body that was responsible for the community fire squads. Traditional leaders were not involved with the appointment and operations of the community fire squad, resulting in conflict of interests between several parties and therefore friction and unproductive fire squads at village level. Revision of the bylaws and therefore a change in perception within communities of how people look at fire was also crucial for the program’s success. Instead of fire being a taboo and focusing on punishment, we can now focus on making people capable and responsible for taking preventive measures to reduce the fire risk within the landscape. To increase capacity, the fire volunteers were reactivated and supported. The program supports the squad with making a fire management plan for their farms and area around the community and they are trained to become community trainers who now assist farmers with controlled burns and with farm preparations before fire season.