By: Nokulunga Lebambo

With June and October being the winter month fire season in the Kruger National Park, the Park has announced that it is ready for the season and that it will be implementing management burns. Kruger officials and other members in the region who form part of the Greater Kruger Fire Protection Association have already begun with proactive fire management.

This is a key strategy that involves proactive controlled burns applied by Kruger Rangers early in the dry season. The Rangers apply these controlled fires for ecological as well as fire safety reasons. This approach helps break up the grass coverage (fuel load), which reduces the risk of larger, uncontrolled wildfires later in the dry season. Furthermore, firebreaks have been established around essential infrastructure, including tourist camps, entry gates, staff facilities and areas along the park’s boundary, to ensure safety of people and infrastructure.

The controlled burns are a common and necessary occurrence in the park where plants and animals have evolved with fire in the environment. This in turn has made fires an essential process for supporting and maintaining a healthy savanna ecosystem and its diverse wildlife. Animals such as impala, buffalo, zebra, and warthog congregate on recently burned areas to eat on the fresh, green grass regrowth which is highly nutritious.

In the Kruger sufficient grass cover is needed to support a fire. This is influenced by the amount of rain that the park has received in the previous summer seasons. When the park receives ample rain, more grass growth occurs which leads to more areas burned during the fire season. Following the exceptional rainfall experienced across much of the park during the 2024-2025 summers, there has been substantial grass growth in many parts of the Kruger, which could lead to more areas being burned compared to last year. To manage this, the park will be continuously monitoring fire activity using field reports from Rangers and advanced satellite mapping technology.