DEPARTMENT OF WATER AFFAIRS AND FORESTRY
GUIDE TO FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SECTION 5 OF THE NATIONAL VELD AND FOREST FIRE ACT (BUSINESS PLANS)
PART A
A GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A BUSINESS PLAN:
THE PURPOSE OF A BUSINESS PLAN AND AN APPROACH TO RISK MANAGEMENT
Version 1.1 April 2004
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
Guide to fire protection associations for developing business plans: Part A (Version 1.1 April 2004)
Structure of the guide
The Guide to fire protection associations for the implementation of Section 5 of the National Veld and Forest Fire Act (business plans) has three parts:
- Part A is an introduction that explains the purpose of the business plan and introduces the approach to risk management adopted in the guideline.
- Part B lists the requirements that must be met in the business plan.
- Part C is an example of the contents of the business plan, based on a largely imaginary case.
Table of contents
A.1. What the Act requires 1
A.2. FPAs as local organisations 1
A.3. Why does an FPA need a business plan? 2
A.4. Risk management 3
A.4.1 What is meant by veldfire risk management? 3
A.4.2 The business plan and your IDP 5
A.4.3 Communication and consultation 6
A.4.4 Monitoring, evaluation and improvement 7
A.5. Steps in veldfire risk management 7
A.5.1 Establish your strategic context 7
A.5.2 Identify hazards 7
A.5.3 Identify and describe assets 7
A.5.4 Identify which hazards each asset is exposed to 7
A.5.5 Identify, describe and rate veldfire risks within the FPA area 8
A.5.6 Assess resources for veldfire management 10
A.5.6.1 Institutional capacity 10
A.5.6.2 Personnel 10
A.5.6.3 Equipment and facilities 10
A.5.6.4 Communications 10
A.5.6.5 Support from the umbrella association 10
A.5.6.6 Assessment of the adequacy of resources and the need for improvement 10
A.6. Veldfire risk management strategies 11
A.6.1 Veldfire risk management options 11
A.6.2 Management strategies 12
A.6.2.1 General strategies 12
A.6.2.2 Integrated veldfire management plans 12
A.6.2.3 Specific asset protection strategies 12
A.7. Sources consulted 13
A.8. Terminology 14
A.9. Persons consulted 16
List of figures and tables
Figure A1: Outline of the risk management process for veldfires 4
Table A1: Qualitative and quantitative indicators of likelihood, that is, the likelihood of the hazard affecting the assets 8
Table A2: Qualitative measures of consequence 9
Table A3: Levels of risk, assessed as the product of likelihood and consequence 10
Table A4: Descriptions of risk levels 10
Table A5: Veldfire risk management options (These are not necessarily mutually exclusive or appropriate in all circumstances) 11
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Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
Guide to fire protection associations for developing business plans: Part A (Version 1.1 April 2004)
A.1. What the Act requires
The National Veld and Forest Fire Act sets out in Section 5 the duties of a fire protection association (FPA). Here the Act states that an FPA must at least:
a) develop and apply a veldfire management strategy for its area;
b) provide in the strategy for agreed mechanisms for the co-ordination of actions with adjoining fire protection associations;
c) make rules which bind its members;
d) identify the ecological conditions that affect the fire danger;
e) regularly communicate the fire danger rating to its members;
f) organise and train its members in fire fighting, management and prevention;
g) inform its members of equipment and technology available for preventing and fighting veldfires;
h) provide management services, training and support for communities in their efforts to manage and control veldfires;
i) supply the Minister at least once every 12 months with statistics about veldfires in its area;
j) furnish any information requested by the Minister in order to prepare or maintain the fire danger rating system;
k) exercise the powers and perform the duties delegated to it by the Minister; and
l) appoint a fire protection officer, unless there is a chief fire officer who is willing to assume the powers and duties of a fire protection officer.
The Department has developed this guide to the business plan of the FPA to address each of these duties. It has been developed in consultation with a reference group drawn from interested and affected parties. The consultation has involved two workshops during 2001, another in April 2002, and a subsequent invitation to send comments by mail.
Appendix A lists the people who participated in this process.
In addition, the guidelines are drawn from an extensive review of the literature on veldfire risk management.
It is built logically around the core requirement of a veldfire management strategy, which in turn is based upon the method of risk management. This guideline prescribes the minimum requirements and structure required by Department to evaluate and approve the business plan and be satisfied that the FPA will be able to fulfil its duties.
A.2. FPAs as local organisations
South Africa is a country of great social, economic and ecological diversity. It is impossible to have a blueprint for the management of a phenomenon such as veldfires for the country as a whole. Local knowledge and judgement must determine the way veldfires are managed.
This principle is in line with the new local government dispensation. Even so, district and even local municipalities are mostly very large, and include wide variation in the conditions affecting veldfire management. For this reason, the scale of the areas of FPAs will be even smaller than the scale of local government.
According to the Constitution and the legislation governing local government, national government has a particular role to play regarding local affairs. National government must:
· Exercise appropriate leadership
· Provide the policies and frameworks to guide local policies, plans and initiatives
· Take steps to ensure equity
· Monitor and evaluate the implementation and impact of its policies and progressively make improvements on the basis of lessons learnt.
The Act places many powers and duties in the hands of the Minister. However, it provides for these to be delegated and in time the Minister will delegate these powers and duties to the most appropriate level for them to be exercised.
The final responsibility for veldfire management lies with the owner of the land. The Act affirms this clearly. Veldfire management within an FPA must be a balance between the plans of the individual landowners, and the collective plans of the FPA, established for the common good.
A.3. Why does an FPA need a business plan?
Before any FPA can be registered, it must have drawn up a business plan, and the business plan must be approved by the Department. Only once an FPA has been registered will it receive its powers under the Act. Registration is also required for the recognition of the FPA’s Fire Protection Officer (FPO). In addition, the veldfire management strategy of an FPA will form the veldfire component of your local disaster management plan.
The business plan is needed for the registration of the FPA, for several reasons:
· to show that it is capable of managing veldfires in its area
· to demonstrate an adequate understanding of the veldfire risks in its area and how to manage them
· as proof that its members understand the risks and agree with the strategies and measures adopted in the plan
· to provide the reasons for the rules that you will apply when your FPA is registered. The Act makes provision for the delegation of additional powers and duties for veldfire risk management. For these reasons, the strategy and its rules need to be read together as the basis for the empowerment of your FPA
· to promote common standards and co-ordination among FPAs, municipal fire services, and disaster management
· to provide information that can be used to build a countrywide picture of veldfire risks and the resources needed to manage them.
The guideline will be useful to the FPA because it provides a framework for a consistent, diligent and efficient approach to veldfire management across South Africa, and for co-ordination with related aspects of managing your resources and the environment.
Please note that what is needed is a strategy, not an operational plan. To meet the requirement of the Act government needs only to determine whether or not an FPA has developed its plans to a level appropriate to the level of veldfire risk in its area, has been reasonably diligent in doing this, and is capable of implementing its strategy. Government will also use the picture that emerges from all FPA business plans to progressively build an overall picture of veldfire risk in South Africa. This will then be used to review priorities for managing veldfires and for the assignment of resources to the different districts in the country.
A.4. Risk management
A.4.1 What is meant by veldfire risk management?
Veldfire risk is defined as the chance of a veldfire igniting, spreading and causing damage to assets of economic, social and environmental value to the community.
Veldfire risk management involves identifying the level of risk posed by veldfires to assets, and establishing strategies to protect these assets from the adverse effects of veldfires. The purpose of veldfire risk management is to protect the community and its values (which could be social, economic or environmental) from the adverse affects of veldfire. The risk management strategies must be appropriate to the level of risk determined within an FPA, and must match the options available for managing the risk. The outcome sought is to achieve better integration of community preparedness, prevention, suppression and recovery strategies as key elements of veldfire management. The principle of achieving the lowest acceptable risk at an affordable cost must apply, that is, that once the FPA has implemented its strategy, the cost of implementation as well as the level of residual risk is acceptable to the members of the FPA and the public agencies supporting the FPA.
In order for there to be a risk, there must be some asset that is exposed to a hazard. The level of risk faced by the asset depends on the likelihood that the hazard will eventuate, and the vulnerability of the asset to loss or damage arising from the asset, that is, the consequence should a hazard event occur (eventuate).
So,
· risk = function of (likelihood of hazard) and (consequence).
For a given likelihood:
· there is no risk if there is no consequence
· there is a very high risk if the consequence is very great.
For a given magnitude of consequence:
· there is low risk if the likelihood of a hazard eventuating is small, that is, if the event is very unlikely
· there is a high risk if the likelihood of a hazard eventuating is big, that is, if the event is frequent.
Risk management is the logical and systematic method of
· establishing the strategic context to veldfire risk management within the area of the FPA, that is, the understood social, economic, environmental and institutional context that determines the level of risk faced by the community, the options available to them to manage that risk, and the criteria that members will apply when deciding on priorities
· identifying the veldfire hazards that they face
· identifying the assets exposed to the hazards
· identifying, analysing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and communicating risks so that members and the FPA can minimise losses and maximise opportunities.
Figure A1: Outline of the risk management process for veldfires – see text for explanation (adapted from Standards Australia 1999)
Risk management must involve effective communication and consultation. This is because:
· risk management is often, if not always, a process involving a lot of judgement, and the knowledge that comes from experience; consultation mobilises the common sense, judgement and experience of members
· diverse and sometimes conflicting interests need to be accommodated in the strategy
· risk management requires agreement in risk assessment, and the final selection of management strategies; in effect, consultation must involve negotiation to the point of agreement among members on the choice of options and strategies
· for rules to be effective, the parties need to agree on their rules
· the risk management strategy must stand up to the scrutiny of the courts, that is, shown to be diligent, to be reasonable, and to meet established standards
· communication is vital to gather all the necessary information, as well as to educate members on how to choose and implement risk management strategies.
Veldfire management requires management now, with the best means available. This means we cannot wait for improvements, but rather that we must improve management continuously, in a systematic way. This continuous improvement is achieved by monitoring, evaluation and improvement.
Section A.4.3 below sets out requirements for consultation, Section A.4.4, monitoring evaluation and improvement, and Section A.5, steps in veldfire risk management.
A.4.2 The business plan and your IDP
It is vital to link with your municipal integrated development plan (IDP) when developing your business plan.
Each municipality must prepare an IDP for every five-year term of local government. This will enable the municipality to manage the process of fulfilling its developmental responsibilities, in compliance with the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act of 2000. IDPs will inform the municipal management as well as guiding the activities of any agency from the other spheres of government, corporate service providers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector within the municipal area.
District municipalities are responsible for fire fighting services for the area of the district municipality as a whole. The district municipality may delegate the service to a local municipality, or the MEC (member of the provincial executive council) for local government may allocate the service to it if the district does not have the capacity to provide the service to the area of the local municipality.
National government has established a framework for the transfer of national revenues to local government by means of the Division of Revenue Act. The most important transfer is the equitable share. Treasury allocates this as a function of the number of households in poverty. The equitable share is intended to assist municipalities to perform their basic functions.