Eden Resilience

This heightened risk stems from multiple interconnected factors in Knysna’s uniquely vulnerable position within a fire-driven ecosystem, now severely destabilised by extensive alien forestry, deforestation of native forests, and increasing climate variability. The 2017 fires stimulated the germination of decades of accumulated invasive alien plant seeds, resulting in intensive and widespread sprouting of these invaders.

The catastrophic Knysna fires of 2017 serve as a stark warning of the region’s vulnerability, yet the situation has only deteriorated since this devastating event. Despite the enormous damage inflicted—tens of thousands of hectares of farmlands, plantations and natural habitats destroyed, hundreds of families left destitute, 938 houses burnt and hundreds of millions of Rand in infrastructure damage—Knysna’s fire risk has alarmingly escalated to levels that now surpasses that of 2017.

This problem has been exacerbated by favourable rainfall between 2019 and 2022 coupled with severely inadequate state funding for alien plant clearing resulting in extensive growth of alien vegetation. Increasingly rising temperatures in Southern Africa further heightens vulnerability to fire.