Introducing Fire Protection Associations

1. Introducing Fire Protection Associations

2. Reasons for FPAs • Co-operation among rural owners and managers of land is required for the effective management and prevention of veldfires. • Government cannot take on the duties and responsibilities of landowners for fire protection. The Act places this responsibility on landowners.

3. Advantages of FPAs (1) • Promote co-operation in fighting and preventing veldfires • Cost saving by avoiding duplication of services • Enforceable rules of FPA protect members from the actions of non-members • Fire protection officers (FPOs) are empowered to enforce the Act and FPA rules • Advice and assistance to members • Improved communication between members • Improved communication between members and the Minister and other roleplayers

4. Advantages of FPAs (2) • Possible relief from certain prevention measures, for example, the duty to create and maintain firebreaks • Decreased risk of veldfires • Organised groups have better negotiation powers • Possible decreased insurance premiums • Possible assistance from the Minister • No presumption of negligence in civil claims

5. Costs in forming an FPA • There will be costs in forming and running an FPA: • Costs in time needed for meetings to set up and run FPA • FPAs must report to the Minister on fire statistics and info needed for the fire danger rating system • FPO and other officials may have to be paid • Administrative efforts to keep an FPA running e.g. keeping a register of all members, informing members of the current fire danger rating • Financial costs of maintaining an FPA e.g. costs for FPO to travel to inspect members’ land

6. 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. • For example: in the Cape Peninsula the hazards of veldfires on the urban edge are so great that establishing an FPA is cost-beneficial.

7. When may an FPA be formed? • Section 3 of the Act says any group of owners who wish to co-operate to predict, prevent, manage and extinguish veldfires may form an FPA.

8. Who is an “owner”? • “Owner” has its common law meaning and includes • 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 • e.g. managers of State forests who control the land under the National Forests Act

9. Who is an “owner”? • any person controlling land under a will • e.g. 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

10. Who is an “owner”? • 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

11. 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.

12. What about communities? • 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 communities might control different portions of a single piece of State land held in trust. • Each community should be represented in the FPA by its executive body.

13. What about State land? • Only where State land is not controlled by: • 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 will the Minister of the government department or member of the provincial executive council exercising control over the land, or a person authorised by him or her, need to be represented on the FPA

14. 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.

15. Who is compelled to join an FPA? • The owners of • State land • municipal land where there is a fire service must join an FPA if one forms in their area. • 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

16. Boundaries of an FPA • 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.

17. Boundaries of FPAs • 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.

18. Prioritisation of FPAs (1) • HO will establish the framework for priorities in the country, by using a “risk assessment” modelling approach that ranks District municipalities according to overall fire risk in each district. • These will be discussed and finalised with provincial disaster management centres (DMCs) by DWAF.

19. Prioritisation of FPAs (2) • Fire Advisors will then inform local DMCs • Fire Advisors will establish communication with local initiators of FPAs: • district DMCs • fire services (chief fire officers (CFOs)) • emerging umbrella FPAs • local leaders • nature conservation authorities.

20. Prioritisation of FPAs (3) • Fire Advisors will advise initiators on the priorities for their Districts and the optimum configuration for FPAs in their Districts.

21. 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.