HARARE – The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has raised concern over the high incidence of veld fires fuelled by rampant poaching in Matabeleland North province, a situation that continues to pose a risk to both wildlife, human lives and property.

The agency held a fire indaba on Friday in Bulawayo with various stakeholders drawn from Hwange, Binga, Lupane, Umguza and Zimparks to come up with fire prevention strategies for the year 2023.

Addressing stakeholders at the indaba, Matabeleland North EMA provincial manager Chipo Mpofu-Zuze said the province had the second highest coverage of land destroyed by veld fires in 2022 after Mashonaland Central.

“Mat North came second in terms of hectare (ha) burnt. This position has been maintained for six years,” she said.

“The province lost 399,622,79 ha in 2022, signaling a 132 percent increase compared to 172,215,01 ha in 2021.

“The most affected areas were Hwange, Lupane, Binga, Lupane and Umguza respectively. The majority of the veld fires occurred in protected areas.”

Mpofu-Zuze said poaching was the lead cause of veld fires.

“The causes of the fires have been attributed to suspected poaching activities in these protected areas with bee smoking making a minor contribution.

“In other areas, land clearing activities using fire for agricultural purposes is the major contributor,” she said.

Mpofu-Zuze added that the fire model of the country for 2023 had predicted a high level of susceptibility to veld fires.

“This is as a result of normal to above normal rainfall that the country received in 2022/23 rainfall season. Matabeleland North was categorised as being in the medium to high risk,” she said.

The agency implored stakeholders to come up with strategies to reduce fire incidents and hectares destroyed.

Stakeholders singled out lack of resources, among them, manpower for firefighting activities as the major hindrances towards the battle against the veld fire menace in the province.

Veld fires have devastating effects on wildlife, human lives and property.

In October last year, 10 people died while five others were treated for smoke inhalation at a farm in Esigodini, Matabeleland South, after an ill-fated attempt to put out a raging veld fire.