The goal of this short-term project is to develop and implement an Integrated Trans-frontier Community-Based Fire Management Strategy for Liuana Partial Reserve in Angola and Bwabwata National Park in Namibia. The strategy will build upon the lessons learned from Namibia’s fire management work in Zambezi Region, and will be designed to complement the environment, community, land use, capacity and available resources of the area. The strategy, which will draw on Namibia’s experiences, will have a strong Community Based Fire Management (CBFiM) focus through decentralization of decision-making and coordinated / integrated implementation between neighbours.

The project will achieve this by undertaking the following activities:

1. Carry out formal visits to local and provincial/regional authorities responsible for forestry in each country to formally introduce the project and obtain their support for implementation.
2. Facilitate a series of reciprocal site visits for community leaders and traditional authorities in Liuana and Bwabwata to raise awareness about fire management approaches, to obtain guidance on implementation protocol and to develop a common vision for fire management between the two sites.
3. Develop institutional framework for community collaboration and communication between Liuana and Bwabwata.
4. Provide technical assistance to the Liuana-Bwabwata transboundary community forum to improve their advocacy skills, and equip them to address their local authorities and to obtain further buy-in for the project from their respective governments.
5. With support from CBFiM specialist, carry out CBFiM training in Liuana and refresher training in Bwabwata, and develop Integrated Trans-frontier Fire Management Strategy for Liuana and Bwabwata.
6. Engage with the KAZA-TFCA secretariat to share lessons learnt and to identify ways that this activity could be transferred into common practice and further institutionalised in the broader KAZA-TFCA.