The role of humans in the complex fire, climate, and vegetation regimes of North-east of Namibia.

Transcription

1 Supervisor: Assoc. Prof Lindsey Gillson Glynis Humphrey - PhD Candidate University of Cape Town The role of humans in the complex fire, climate, and vegetation regimes of North-east of Namibia. 13 th Annual Savanna Science Network Meeting, Kruger National Park (KNP), March 2015

2 Fire science does not typically include the social dimensions of fire regimes Political To explore the relationship between livelihoods, biodiversity, conservation and the prevailing fire regime. Cultural Ecological Social Fire Management

3 Lee & DeVore (1976)!Kung San, hunt and set bush fires, but how much and in what way is uncertain.set fire to large areas in late winter and early spring to facilitate growth of fresh grass, which in turn attracts game. Silberbauer (1976) G/wi Bushmen..use of fire sticks for fire making

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5 Research Aim: To explain the current vegetation pattern of Kavango East and Zambezi Regions of north-east Namibia To relate fire events to land use practices, vegetation change, climatic variation and socio-political change over the past 126 years. Spatial: Fire, Climate and Land Use Social: Community Ground: Vegetation Palaeoecological Historical aerial photos

6 Ecological & Social Spatio-temporal local fire regime Biology and Fire War Politics Fire Suppression Policy Inter-ethic conflict Land use practises Fire management practises Poverty / Food Security Anthropogenic burning Population migration Relocation of people Society, culture and fire Geophysical environment and fire Pyrogeography is the study of fire on the Earth and the synthesis of diverse disciplines (adapted and simplified from Bowman et al. 2013, Annu. Rev. Environ. Res. 38: 57-80)

7 Interviews [n=20]; Questions [n=26] Seasonal Calendars & Focus Group Meetings in three villages Khwe-San: 90% / Hambukushu: 10% Priori Themes 1. Cultural Practises 2. Fire Management: How, where, when and how often fire is used 3. Vegetation and Fire History 4. Livelihood resources: Impact of fire on plant and other livelihood resources

8 Grounded Theory Theory emerges from the data : Constant comparative method Meaningful themes were linked to form a model Conceptual Model Thematic Content Analysis Identifying themes / categories that emerge from the data : Priori themes: Historic and current fire regime; climate; land use; resource harvesting and cultural practises. Number of individual responses Node frequency reports Node co-occurrences matrices Seasonal calendars Interview data were initially coded according to a number of themes that corresponded to the focus questions Social analyses Qualitative Data Analysis Process Interviews [n=20] Questions [n=26] Inductive approach Analysis of data with little or no pre-determined theory, structure or framework, and uses the data itself to derive the structure of analysis Coding and describing Conceptualisation, classifying codes, and identifying prevailing themes Connecting and interrelating data interpretation and providing meaning Initial coding, post coding and final coding (NVivo 10 QRS) Transcription of Interview Data Descriptive/Interpretive approach

9 Fig. 1. Map of main and sub-node categories (n= 65) based on thematic content analysis of interview data (n = 20).

10 Communication Land Productivity Clearing homestead of vegetation Medicinal purposes Productivity of Veld Food Gender Healing Cermonies Veld Food Resource: Survival High dependency on resources for survival. Kinship (Khwe- San) tending to resources to ensure survival of family members. Use of traditional burning practises (early & patch burning). Famine and food source reliance trigger for poverty/deaths High frequency of fires: destroying veld foods: repetitive burning (e.g. Smaller plants are being impacted). Late season fires / damage Cross-cultural conflict and living in mixed settlements with different resource use and burning strategies. Hunting & Tracking with the use of fire Field Preperation Burning to attract animals Protection Traditional burning strategies Cooking Veld Food Resources_Survival No of repsondents Fig. 2. Community respondents reasons for the use of fire in the BNP.

11 Vegetation more closed Population Increase Concentration in Settlements Land use change (Acculturation) Cross Cultural Conflict Easy to burn vegetation Perception of Fire: Positive More Frequent Fire Vegetation more open Perception of fire: Negative Negative impact: Fire No of respondents Fig. 3. Community perceptions of fire in the BNP.

12 Burning for prevention Patch Burning Natural Causes Policy Loss of traditional knowledge Burning for regeneration Vegetation moisture Fire Management Vegetation moisture/rainfall and amount of fuel load - association to larger or smaller seasonal fires. Wind and the spread of fires. Importance of vegetation management for animals and veld food resources. Abundance of cattle and reduction in grass and associated fires. Late season fires associated to larger more severe fires in the region. Importance of the timing of burning (summer versus winter fires). Recognition of the difficulty in management of fires, and understanding required. Regular fires associated with vegetation damage/absence of growth People Early Burning Fire Management No of respondents Fig. 4. Community responses in relation to fire management and traditional burning practises in the BNP.

13 Fig. 5. Nodes co-occurrences (>50%): Aggregated Similarity Matrix Vegetation more open Negative Natural Causes Summer (Aug - Oct) Field Preperation Burning for regeneration Early Burning Negative impact_fire Protection Cooking Knowledege Transmission Traditional burning strategies Traditional burning strategies Other traditions Knowledege Transmission Loss of traditional knowledge Cooking Tracking with the use of fire Protection Veld Food Resources_Survival Negative impact_fire Fire Management Early Burning Vegetation moisture Burning for regeneration Policy Field Preperation Easy to burn vegetation Summer (Aug - Oct) Cross Cultural Conflict Natural Causes More Frequent Fire Negative Positive Vegetation more open

14 Negative impact_fire/veld Food Resources_Survival Veld Food Resources_Survival/ Negative perception of fire Knowledge Transmission / Traditional burning strategies Traditional burning strategies/early Burning Veld Food Resources_Survival / Cross - cultural conflict No of respondents Fig. 6. Top 5 co-occurrences of nodes based on an aggregated node similarity matrix (n=20; nodes: 25 >50%).

15 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Season Dry Rainy Vegetation dries out Field preparation Clearing and burning: brush piles (n =14) Growth period: Crops Burn once a year (n= 14) Easy to burn brush piles (n=12) Harvesting of crops Harvesting of veld foods Harvesting of veld foods Late season fires Forefathers early burning Patch burning BNP early burning Hunting of smaller species all year round in the BNP Fig. 7. A seasonal land management calendar showing anthropogenic fire utilization in Bwabwata National Park (BNP), Namibia.

16 Burning to attract animals (9) Hunting (12) Tracking with fire (13) Cooking (16) Veld Food Resources Positive impact (5) Negative impact (18) Knowledge Transmission (16) Gender (7) Other traditions (16) Protection (15) Survival Early Burning (16) Veld Food Harvesting (18) Policy (10) Early & patch burning (7) Traditional burning strategies (15) Medicinal (6) Traditional Cultural Healing ceremonies (7) Acculturation (7) Vegetation moisture (11) Patch Burning (7) Fire Management Burning fire prevention (5) Burning fire regeneration (11) More frequent fire (14) Community respondent direct and indirect explanations and perceptions of fire in the BNP landscape. Vegetation more open (16) Vegetation more closed (2) Negative (17) Perception of Fire Positive (13) Less frequent fire (6) People

17 Tracking with fire (13) Hunting (12) Cooking (16) Veld Food Resources Negative impact (18) Knowledge Transmission (16) Survival Loss of traditional knowledge (10) Traditional Cultural Protection (15) Early Burning (16) Traditional burning strategies (15) Cross-Cultural Conflict (10) People Vegetation moisture (11) Fire Management Burning for regeneration (11) More frequent fire (14) Community respondent direct and indirect explanations and perceptions of fire in the BNP landscape. Vegetation more open (16) Negative (17) Perception of Fire Positive (13)

18 Preliminary findings The use of fire as a normal survival strategy was overshadowed by the Liberation War in SWA by ground operations by both sides: war and politics were prioritized above natural resource management. Salient Theme: Survival Fire is important for the Khwe- San livelihoods where fire and foraging are interlinked. Gathering of veld foods is essential where hunting is restricted. Thus, veld Food resources are critical as a survival strategy in the BNP. Linkages between traditional burning practises and conserving food for people and animals in the park. - Loss of knowledge with the use of traditional burning strategies: loss of the elders decision hierarchy of where, when and how to burn. - Historical nomadic existence and a shift to sedentary based agricultural livelihood practises cause of community contention: affecting the incidences of fire and cross-cultural conflict. Locating fire ecology within social complexity allows contextual understanding of processes demonstrated in this study to account for casual relationships between changes in social systems and fire regimes.

19 Khwe San Historically used fire for the ease of seeing tracks on the ground during a hunt.

20 Spatial Scale Continent Super- Fire Regime Anthropocene Regional Climate Anomalies Landscape Local Biomass Vegetation Fire Regime Fire Suppression? Traditional Fire Practices Fire Event Mixed natural and human ignitions Agriculture Human Scale How will adaptive management accommodate changing socio-cultural systems use of fire? Microsite Fire Fire Management Seconds Days Months Years Temporal scale Decades Centuries Millennia Fig. 8. Controls of fire at multiple and temporal scales including the human dimension (adapted from Whitlock et al. 2010, and Bowman et al. 2011).

21 Acknowledgements Thesis meeting interviewees in Namibia.. Communities & Ministry Staff within BNP Integrated Rural and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) Assoc. Prof. Lindsey Gillson (UCT) GreenMatter, NRF Scarce Skills Scholarship, ACCESS Sophie & Alan Simmonds (Namib Hydrosearch cc)