A FPA is formed when a group of landowners get together to prevent and manage wildland fires through formally predicting risks in a defined area.​

Each FPA should work with an Umbrella FPA which ideally operates at a provincial level and is aligned with the Provincial Disaster Management Centre. The UFPA benefits a number of smaller FPAs through shared resources and services.

FPAs were born out of the necessity for a single Integrated Wildfire Management structure. The National Veld and Forest Fire Act of 1998 recognises this need and promotes that all land owners, where there is a high and fairly uniform risk of veldfires, and where that risk justifies the costs of organising and maintaining the FPA, organise themselves into a forum which can become a registered FPA.

Under its contract with Government, WoF is mandated to assist in the development of FPAs and has developed guidelines to this end. As financial viability is a potential problem impacting upon the sustainability of FPAs, WoF has provided support valued at R95 Million over the past three years and anticipates this rising to R278 Million for the next three years.​

Assistance has subsidised FPA operations relating to FPA Managers, aircraft, dispatch centres, ground teams, advocacy and awareness.

WoF and the Potchefstroom FPA:

​​The Potchefstroom Fire Protection Association is very priviledge to have three teams in it’s area of jurisdiction.

The one team is situated in the Boskop nature reserve, the second team is at Highveldt park reseve and the last one between Potchefstroom and Ventersdorp called the Castello team.