On the summits of the canyons of Isalo national park (southern Madagascar, Ihorombe and Atsimo Andrefana Regions), Kakaza dominates the massifs wonderfully sculpted by the erosions. Binocular on the eyes, telephone in pocket, he scans the landscape worthy of a western. The sclerophyllous forest, the savannah, the trees along the watercourses, they all pass by. Scrupulously, he watches for the slightest smoke.
In Madagascar, the war against fire is a top priority for protected area managers. If fires were controlled, protected area management would be easier, donors would be more supportive, and funds would be more secure. Every year, managers must be creative in preventing and managing fires. In the Isalo National Park, an important provider of foreign currency at the national level, Madagascar National Park has set up an early warning system. Focus on these firemen of the shade!
The fire-watchers, the first link in the fight against fire
“From August to December, once the maintenance of the firewalls is completed, I am back a fire-watcher. In the dryseason, a fire is quickly started either by lightning or by people. My role is to monitor the sector, identify the points of fire outbreak, and then quickly inform those concerned about the firefighting in order to minimize the damage,” says Andriankaja Emile Brillant, known as Kakaza, a ranger living in the commune of Ranohira.
Several fire-watchers are distributed in 3 sectors across Isalo: Ranohira, Ilakaka, Ilemby. Ten (10) look-out points, located on the strategic heights of the massif; one of them stands near the famous window of Isalo. They overlook the 81 000 ha of the protected area. Each watchtower has a team of 2 to 4 agents, some of them have a tanker truck depending on accessibility. These watchers are trained and equipped to detect fire occurrences in the park from a distance. In the event of a fire, the nearest teams that have access to a vehicle are notified or immediately reach the site of the fire. Accessibility being sometimes a challenge, only their mastery of the terrain remains their asset to reachthe site on fire as soon as possible. At the same time, the teams from Ranohira (headquarters of the protected area) are alerted so that they can keep other agents and communities ready if backup is needed. In Ranohira, many families benefit from tourism to Isalo, and they do not hesitate to move voluntarily to put out the fire, sometimes even before being warned by the park agents. Compensation is provided even for these voluntary acts.
The conclusions of a monitoring-evaluation mission in 2022 in the protected area are rather encouraging as SergeRatsirahonana, FAPBM, monitoring-evaluation officer declares. “To measure the effectiveness of fire management, I analyze the link between the number of fire points and the area burned. In Isalo, the number of fire points in Q3 is 22 VIIRS and 6 MODIS (in Q3 2021, it was twice as many) and all of these fires were extinguished before reaching the park. Although the savanna was burned, the fire spared the forest. The target ecosystems for conservation in Isalowere untouched.”
An early warning system easy to replicate
This early warning system is frequently used in Disaster Risk Management/Reduction (DRM/DRM). However, in conservation and protected area management, it needs to be further popularized. In South and East Africa, theeffectiveness of this system has been proven on World Heritage sites. The reduction of damage is almost 80% in some sites in 3 years.
Many protected area managers are already applying this method with the construction of watchtowers in protected areas. In Antrema, for example, watchtowers also serve as a storage point for firefighting equipment and a rallying point for teams. However, just as many managers are not yet using this system.
This early warning system requires funds (allowances for fire committees, telephone credits for alerts), equipment and materials (water bags, tankers, impluviums, etc.) and very close technical monitoring in order to adapt quickly.
