Namibia has recently called on its army to help combat deadly wildfires. Such fires have burned a significant swath of Etosha National Park, among the continent’s oldest and largest game reserves. The fires started on September 22 in the park’s southwestern corner. They have eaten through an estimated 775,163 hectares, or 1.9 million acres, equaling 34% of the park’s original land size.
Etosha National Park has magnificent wildlife. It’s one of the few places to see majestic elephants, fierce lions, graceful giraffes, and critically endangered black rhinos. Additionally, the park is home to 340 bird species and features a vast salt pan spanning 4,730 square kilometers (1,826 square miles), visible from space.
These wildfires have damaged not only the animals in and around the park, but even encroached into residential neighborhoods beyond them. An estimated 171,098 hectares (423,000 acres) beyond the park have been affected. Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare Manongo assured citizens that while the fires are still burning, they had been contained. This limit ensures that response teams can concentrate on preventing additional injury.
“Strong winds and dry vegetation contribute to the fire spreading rapidly,” officials noted. That perfect storm has made everything—efforts to control, prevent, and suppress the fires—much more difficult. Yet the resolve of the Namibian government and military is absolute.
In 2011, the most extreme wildfire tore through Etosha National Park. It consumed 370,000 hectares (940,000 acres) and resulted in the untimely death of billions of animals. The contrast to the last two Joint Sea Turtle Surveys serves to underscore the extreme threat that wildfires continue to pose on this ecologically critical habitat.
The fire has already had a catastrophic impact on biodiversity and wildlife. It endangers the lives that communities in impacted regions have built,” said a person from the workplace of acting Namibian President Lucia Witbooi. The impacts of these destructive wildfires go beyond the park’s borders, hitting communities downriver that depend on these public lands.
Even with the continuing hardship, Prime Minister Manongo was hopeful that they would be able to prevail through the crisis. “When there is teamwork there is no challenge we cannot overcome,” he stated.
