The 5th International Wildland Fire Conference, was held in Sun City, South Africa. It provided a platform to bring together members of the science community with those involved in the technical operational fire management. This also included those affected by fire and the authorities concerned and mandated with developing policies and strategies in wildland fire management. The goal of this collaboration is learning, innovating and sharing practices and lessons common to sustainable use of the environment, wildland fire risk management and disaster reduction at local, national, regional and global scales.

The presentations, exhibitions and insights offered by international professionals and experienced fire management personnel appealed not only to fire and disaster risk management specialists, scientists and practitioners, but also to students, the conservation, commercial forestry and agriculture sectors, community leaders, policy and decision-makers.

The Conference Programme was arranged around the theme “Living with Fire – Addressing Global Change through Integrated Fire Management”

Conference Program

• Adapting to climate change: Integrated Fire Management in the post-Kyoto period
• Fire management and carbon management innovations
• Community fire awareness, prevention and survival – revisiting Stay or Go Resource Sharing and Co-ordination
• Best practices and new technologies in fire detection and suppression
• Recent advances in fire science and fire management applications
• Developing future leaders and Leadership Programmes
• Using fire to sustain ecosystem services in fire adapted environments
• Mitigation, wildfire risk reduction and vulnerability
• Integrated Fire Management and poverty alleviation in developing countries
• Institutionalizing application of the Incident Command System
• International exchange and assistance programmes and protocols

The Conference Programme commenced with the official opening of the conference on Tuesday 10th May and closed on Friday 13th May.

The outdoor demonstrations consisted of:
A field trip to the Pilanesberg Nature Reserve, with a live fire and aerial demonstration and exhibitors equipment demonstrations.

Daily proceedings were concluded with evening events. Evening events included a welcoming cocktail evening with traditional African entertainment and two outdoor dinners – a barbeque and a beach party.

Source: Wildfire2011

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