Rangeland as a Common Property Resource: Contrasting Insights from Communal Areas of Central Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Rangeland as a Common Property Resource: Contrasting Insights from Communal Areas of Central Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

In communal areas of South Africa, grazing systems are held under a variety of different common property regimes. However, the social and ecological realities of these communal grazing systems remain poorly understood, particularly with regard to the use of land allocated for crop production. Little is known about how these arable areas are utilised as a common grazing resource but the wide array of tenure arrangements under which they are held suggests that they facilitate some interesting departures from recognised common property systems. A clearer understanding of how common property regimes function at an integrated level in South Africa will be fundamental in developing an empirical foundation for effective institutional capacity building at both the local and national level as well as other policy recommendations. This research outlines the diversity of grazing management regimes operating in communal areas, relating it to key social and ecological factors and emphasising the critical role played by the arable land allocations.