FMRN
Contributors
In-depth
knowledge & Research
Fire Management Research Network contributors’ research, articles and experience provide a unique insight into fire management in South Africa.
Browse the latest contributor research, articles and webinars below and sign up here to get access to all FMRN resources.
Dr Glynis Humphrey
Glynis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the African Climate Development Institute (ACDI) in the TES NbS project at the University of Cape Town.
Glynis’s core interests are in people (indigenous knowledge), biodiversity, climate, fire history (spatial and temporal patterns), ecosystem services, and the use of inter-disciplinary research to address adaptive management and conservation policies in an era of unparalleled global change.
She has worked in South Africa, Tanzania, Namibia and Madagascar, which has involved understanding fire management from various perspectives within rural communities, among government stakeholders and conservation authorities inside and outside protected areas.
Glynis has a PhD (Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town), and MSc in Conservation biology (Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town), and a BSc. (Hons) in Environmental Science (Rhodes University).
Research
Trevor Abrahams
Trevor Abrahams is the Managing Director of South Africa’s largest wildland fire management resource, Working On Fire.
With a force of 5300 firefighters stationed across 200 bases across the country, the Programme’s activities range from fire management planning, detection, prevention and suppression to dispatch and coordination and community fire awareness education.
A thought-leader on climate change and its impact on wildfire activity, and one of the foremost voices on wildfires in Africa, Trevor was invited to present a paper at the International Association of Wildland Fire’s Fire & Climate 2022 Conference in Pasadena, California in the United States, in May this year.
His review of the conference and details of his presentation were subsequently the subject of a national television interview on the SABC News Channel.
Trevor has also led WOF teams internationally in deployments on two of its four deployments to Canada.
He holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the State University of New York, and Honours and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Cape Town.
Articles & presentations
Dr Sheldon Strydom
Sheldon Strydom is an Associate Professor of Applied Climatology at the North-West University. He holds a BSc(Hons) degree in Geography and Environmental Management from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
In 2014 Sheldon began a MSc in Agrometeorology under the supervision of Prof. Michael J. Savage which investigate the role of Berg winds in modifying the microclimate and fire danger (awarded “cum laude”). In 2017 he completed a PhD in Agrometeorology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal which aimed to understand the influence of climate change on wildfire dynamics in the KZN Midlands.
Sheldon joined the NWU in 2020 as a senior lecturer of applied climatology, following two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (with Umgeni Water, the Centre for Water Resources Research, and UKZN).
He currently serves as the HOD for the Department of Geography and Environmental Science (Mafikeng campus). Sheldon has published research on pyrogeography and fire climatology in local and international journals and currently holds an NRF-rating of Y2.
He has graduated two PhDs and is currently supervising 3 PhD and 4 MSc candidates on topics related to applied climatology and meteorology.
Research
Prof Sally Archibald
Professor Sally Archibald from the University of Witwatersrand’s School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciencesdepartment works on understanding the dynamics of savanna ecosystems in the context of global change.
Her work integrates field ecological data, remote sensing, modelling, and biogeochemistry. She is involved in collaborative research projects with Yale University, Edinburgh University and the University of Liverpool among others which variously work on fire-grazer interactions, inter-continental savanna comparisons, the importance of land-atmosphere feedbacks, and pursuing a global theory of fire.
She is closely linked with research projects at the Global Change and Ecosystems group at the CSIR where she holds an affiliate position.
Professor Archibald teaches undergraduate courses in Fundamentals of Ecology, Whole Plant Physiology Functional Ecology in Changing Environments.
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