Africa Burning

Nyika Safari Company helped to set up the Nyika-Vwaza Trust, and organisation that aims to protect and to manage the two reserves of the Nyika Plateau and Vwaza Marsh. One of the main duties of the Trust in the dry season is fighting bush fires that can start with only a spark and spread as fast as a man jogging. With tinder dry grass to burn and ancient forests and rare orchids to protect the responsibility is an serious one. The only feasible method of fighting fires is to take as many bodies as possible to the site and beat the fire out. We have only about 20 rough, pot-holed roads over the whole 3 000 square km plateau and only the camp is serviced by water-mains, so a functioning fire service is out of the question. With only one single-engine plane water drops are also unfeasible. That leaves sheer brute force as the only alternative. The tragedy is that most of these destructive infernoes are started either by careless or inexperienced hikers or, more commonly, by poachers. Knowing that the scouts tracking them will not only have to stop to report the blaze but will also be needed to fight it, the poachers simply slink away under the cover of the rising haze. Poaching is not only fuelled by the curio trade but also provide the African Doctors who sit in their ritually marked plots on the outskirts of most villages and towns with their raw ingredients. Fighting fires on the nyika is an involved and complex social issue.