By Joanna Ross in Cape Town

South Africa's Cape Peninsula recently witnessed its worst fires in living memory.

The finger of blame is now being pointed at unwelcome plants which have intruded among the area's unique indigenous vegetation.

Dieter Lokksarn's luxury thatched house was spared from destruction only by a change in the wind direction as fire licked up the vegetation just two metres from his house.

"The pine trees were like flame throwers, blazing higher than the roof of the house. The fynbos just burns quickly but these aliens keep the fire going much longer - like an incinerator."

The aliens he refers to are of the botanic kind. The natural flora of the Cape Peninsula is fynbos - an endemic mixture of ericas, proteas and reeds, much admired by tourists to the region and a source of great pride to the locals.

But alien plants such as eucalyptus and pine trees have invaded the fynbos and it is these that are being blamed for the destruction of homes, national parkland and almost all the natural vegetation on the Peninsula by fire.

Regeneration

Fynbos actually requires fire and smoke in order to regenerate, but Dr Dave MacDonald, a vegetation ecologist at the Kirstenbosch Research Centre in Cape Town says the fires this year may have threatened the fynbos.

"Too much fire can actually knock out the seed regeneration so we can't have fires every two or three years - it should be every 15 years, when the plants have had a chance to mature and their seed bank is ready."

The alien plants such as acacias, pines and Port Jackson willows also upset the water level, according to Dr MacDonald.

"The fynbos is well adapted to the long dry summers we have here, whereas the alien species carry on transpiring and they remove a great deal of water from the soil," he says.

Weeding out pests

The government has responded to the alien invasion with an initiative forcing private landowners to get rid of the unwanted plants. They plan to create 2,000 jobs for currently unemployed people to clear out the trees, but the onus is on individuals, says Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ronnie Kasrils.

"It will only succeed if we are able to bring on board the people of the peninsula, those directly affected. We are looking to the landowners of the mountain chain for a contribution in the region of $1.6 million."

The plan - entitled Ukuvuka, from the Xhosa word for rise up - also aims to rehabilitate the environment in terms of problems such as erosion and mudslides that have been exacerbated by the fires. The project hopes to instill a sense of community and to educate people about their environment.

Minister for Environment and Tourism Valli Moosa says "you cannot place a value on our natural area.

"Yet many do not see any direct economic value in the fynbos. Unless people see the land as economic benefit they will not respond to Ukuvuka".

There has been some objection to the emphasis placed on individual responsibility, although the majority of funding for the project is to come from commercial sponsorship.

And it will be necessary to retain some of the alien plants as a source of firewood for the poorest communities on the peninsula.

But while the helicopters continue to fly overhead dropping water on yet another fire, most people - like Dieter Lokksam - have their saws out and are attacking the aliens with force.