Theme 4-2: Wildlife, Tourism and Multi-Facets of Rangelands/Grasslands--Poster Sessions
Description
Communal rangelands in South Africa support a range of ecosystem services including water provision, carbon sequestration and livestock production for different stakeholders. Delivering these in a sustainable and socially appropriate manner necessarily requires trade-offs to be made between the different environmental and social outcomes required. We draw on empirical fieldwork and a two-day participatory stakeholder workshop to report on the early stages of a project evaluating these trade-offs in communal rangelands of the uMzimvubu catchment in Eastern Cape Province. Our findings suggest that trade-offs will be necessary at a variety of different levels within this system. For example, a key activity within these rangelands is removal of invasive plants such as wattle (Acacia mearnsii) but the environmental gains are conflictual as although this increases water availability within the system, it potentially reduces stored carbon. Wattle removal also highlights a disconnection between people and policy. While current policy mandates complete eradication of wattle, none of the local communities involved in the research wished to see this, as most of them currently make use of the trees for a range of purposes including timber, fuelwood and even livestock feed. Furthermore, trade-offs are also required between different community members, in terms of the social outcomes rangelands can deliver for them. While men conceptualised rangelands largely in terms of maximising livestock production, women focused on the collection of natural resources such as timber, herbs and thatching grass, the latter requiring accumulation of biomass during the growing season and potentially removing areas of rangeland from grazing. Understanding the opposing goals for rangeland use that exist within and between different stakeholder groups is critical to evaluating the social and environmental trade-offs required and to reach a consensus approach to the governance and management of these systems.
Included in
People-Environment Trade-offs in Managing Communal Rangelands of South Africa
Communal rangelands in South Africa support a range of ecosystem services including water provision, carbon sequestration and livestock production for different stakeholders. Delivering these in a sustainable and socially appropriate manner necessarily requires trade-offs to be made between the different environmental and social outcomes required. We draw on empirical fieldwork and a two-day participatory stakeholder workshop to report on the early stages of a project evaluating these trade-offs in communal rangelands of the uMzimvubu catchment in Eastern Cape Province. Our findings suggest that trade-offs will be necessary at a variety of different levels within this system. For example, a key activity within these rangelands is removal of invasive plants such as wattle (Acacia mearnsii) but the environmental gains are conflictual as although this increases water availability within the system, it potentially reduces stored carbon. Wattle removal also highlights a disconnection between people and policy. While current policy mandates complete eradication of wattle, none of the local communities involved in the research wished to see this, as most of them currently make use of the trees for a range of purposes including timber, fuelwood and even livestock feed. Furthermore, trade-offs are also required between different community members, in terms of the social outcomes rangelands can deliver for them. While men conceptualised rangelands largely in terms of maximising livestock production, women focused on the collection of natural resources such as timber, herbs and thatching grass, the latter requiring accumulation of biomass during the growing season and potentially removing areas of rangeland from grazing. Understanding the opposing goals for rangeland use that exist within and between different stakeholder groups is critical to evaluating the social and environmental trade-offs required and to reach a consensus approach to the governance and management of these systems.
