BE FIREWISE

An Introduction to Fire Protection Associations

Why do Fire Protection Associations (FPAs) Exist ?

• Co-operation among rural owners and managers of land is required for the effective management of veldfires.
• The Act provides a framework for a consistent way for owners to organise and collaborate in veldfire management.
• Rural landowners need to have a collective self-sufficiency to manage veldfires because it is too costly for government to provide these services.

Advantages of registered FPAs

• Decreased risk of veldfires.
• Promotion of co-operation in managing veldfires.
• No presumption of negligence in civil claims.
• Cost saving through sharing of services.
• Advice and assistance to members from government and other services.
• Possible assistance from the Minister.
• Potential financial support from local government.
• Establishment of reasonable norms and standards for veldfire management in an area by means of FPA rules.
• Establishment of a fair and equitable basis for managing and sharing risk through an FPA's business plan.
• Powers under the Act conferred on registered fire protection officers (FPOs).
• Support from umbrella FPAs where these exist.
• Improved communication between FPA members.
• Improved communication between members and the Minister and other roleplayers.
• Provision of possible relief from certain prevention measures, for example, the duty to create and maintain firebreaks.
• Stronger negotiation powers by virtue of being part of an organised group.
• Possibility of reduced insurance premiums.

Costs of forming and running an FPA

• Time needed for meetings to set up and run the FPA.
• Having to report to the Minister on fire statistics and provide information for the fire danger rating system.
• Financial contributions to running costs of the FPA:

- salary of the FPO and his or her staff
- office expenses
- information and communication
- travelling expenses
- contributions to umbrella FPAs.

• Members' commitment to keeping the FPA running properly, for example, keeping a register of members, informing members of the current fire danger rating, and reporting on fires.

Costs versus benefits

• An FPA should not be formed where its costs will be greater than the benefits it provides to members (FPAs should be cost-beneficial).
• FPAs should be established in areas where the hazard of veldfires justifies the costs of organising and maintaining the FPA.
• The justifiable level of hazard must be judged locally.
• Establishing an FPA could be cost-beneficial in the following situations:

  - where there is a hazard of veldfires on the urban edge of a city or a town
  - where forest plantations are exposed to wildfires
  - where emergent stock farmers are exposed to wildfires.

When may an FPA be formed?

Who is an "owner"?

• any landowner with a title deed to property
• lessees

  - lessees who lease DWAF commercial plantations - a person who rents land from the owner

• any person controlling land under a contract

  - a lease is a type of contract

• any person controlling land under a law

  for example, managers of State forests who control the land under the National Forests Act

• any person controlling land under a will

  for example, where someone has the right to control land until she dies, at which point it will go to the heir

• any person controlling land under an order of the High Court
• the executive body of a community set up under its constitution, law or custom
• a Minister or person authorised by him/her where the land is State land and it is not controlled by someone else
• a member of the executive council or a person authorised by him/her where the land is provincial land and is not controlled by someone else
• the chief executive officer of any local authority or a person authorised by him/her.

What about communities?

• Land controlled by a community could be private land (where the community owns it), or State land held in trust.
• Most land controlled by communities is held in trust by the State or the Ingonyama Trust.
• The Act states that where land is controlled by a community, regardless of the ownership of the land, the executive body of that community is the owner.
• The executive body can exist in terms of:

  - its constitution (where the community has formed a communal property association and owns the land)
  - any law (for example, where a tribal authority was appointed by law) or
  - custom or customary law (where a chief or headman and the tribal elders may control the land)

• Several different communites may control portions of a single piece of State land held in trust.
• Each community should be represented in the FPA by its executive body.

What about State land?

• a person contemplated in s2(1)(xiii)(a) (a title deed holder, lessee, or person controlling the land in terms of a contract, will, law or order of the High Court) or
• a community

Membership of FPAs is voluntary for most owners

• Landowners can choose whether to join the FPA or not.
• This is because:

  - The right to freedom of association in the Constitution must be upheld.
  - Landowners themselves need to make firm commitments to co-operate through FPAs.

Who is compelled to join an FPA?

• State land
• municipal land where there is a fire service

State land means:

• national or provincial land
• land held in trust for communities by the Minister of Land Affairs or the Ingonyama Trust
• excluding municipal land

Boundaries of FPAs

• Section 3: The area where an FPA is formed should be relatively uniform in terms of:

  - having regular veldfires or - its veldfire risk or - its climatic conditions or - its forest types or other vegetation

• Form FPAs only where they are definitely needed.
• The area of an FPA should be optimum, that is, not too big to be able to fulfil duties and not too small to justify the costs involved.
• The Act leaves this matter open - each case must be judged on its own circumstances.
• An FPA may usefully correspond with one or more local municipalities (category B).
• But there may be cases where an FPA would for good reasons include only part of the area of a local municipality.

Prioritisation of FPAs

• DWAF has established the framework for priorities in the country, by using a "risk assessment" modelling approach that ranks district municipalities according to the overall fire risk in each district.
• This risk assessment informs the work of the national, provincial and local disaster management centres (DMCs).
• This assessment guides Fire Advisors in their communication with local initiators of FPAs:

  - district DMCs
  - fire services (chief fire officers - CFOs)
  - emerging umbrella FPAs
  - local leaders
  - nature conservation authorities

• Fire Advisors advise initiators on the priorities for their districts and the optimum configuration for FPAs in their districts.

Where no FPA has been formed

• The Minister may intervene when no FPA has been formed in an area in which s/he is of the opinion one should be formed.
• The Minister may call a meeting to discuss setting up an FPA and to establish what kind of support is required.