Climate Adaptation, Displacement, and Wildfire Disaster Risk Management: Lessons from Cape Town, South Africa

Background: Like many cities globally, Cape Town, South Africa, faces increasing risk from wildfire due to climate change and uncontrolled development at the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Adapting to that risk involves balancing demands for public safety and housing provision with cost and conservation concerns. Those trade-offs are particularly acute in Cape Town, a biodiversity hotspot that is also committed to redressing the apartheid legacies of racial polarization, economic inequality, and housing deprivation. Methods: Our mixed methods case study research combines policy document analysis; key informant interviews ( n = 12) across multiple agencies and levels of government; and focus groups with residents ( n = 58) from eight localities purposefully selected to sample the range of racially segmented settlement types at risk from wildfire across Cape Town. Results: Our analysis highlights the challenges for effective wildfire disaster risk reduction created by institutional fragmentation and spillovers between competing policy goals and measures for fire management, biodiversity conservation, housing provision, and post-disaster recovery. Policy implementation and effects on wildfire risk and social resiliency vary widely across Cape Town’s socially and economically segmented settlement types, whose residents understand and respond to the risks of wildfire and climate displacement in different ways. South Africa’s internationally distinctive commitment to supporting people’s right to stay in place after fires with emergency disaster assistance has had a series of perverse and unintended, consequences for biodiversity, public safety, and disaster vulnerability. Conclusion: Cape Town’s experience underscores the importance of integrated, adaptive governance approaches to manage the dual challenges of wildfire risk and social vulnerability. Reactive policies to suppress wildfires and avert climate displacement can lock cities into cycles of insecurity that perpetuate vulnerability.