Lessons from a century of evidence-based fire management in grassy ecosystems.

Abstract

This African Journal of Range and Forage Science, fire Special Issue is dedicated to Winston Smuts Watts Trollope for his contribution, commitment, inspiration, support and a life-time of work to fire Ecology, with a tribute compiled by Navashni Govender, Sally archibald, Susanne Vetter andCorli Wigley-Coetsee. Brian W Van Wilgen wrote a succinct yet thorough review of the book titled ‘Ecology of fire-dependent ecosystems: Wildland fire science, policy and management’, by Devan McGranahan and Carissa Wonkka. although the authors are from North America and the focus is accordingly skewed towards the northern hemisphere, many good examples are used from around the globe, including Africa, to introduce all aspects of wildland fire science. Van Wilgen's review highlights how fire use, and fire research in Africa has contributed to the global understanding of the interplay between science, policy and management, and this sets the scene for the papers presented in this special issue.