Thembela Kepe

Land reform and biodiversity conservation in South Africa: complementary or in conflict?

In South Africa, following decades of apartheid, which included racially-based land dispossessions, the post-apartheid government has implemented a land reform programme, which allows people to re-claim the land they were forcefully removed from. Many of these land claims are targeting conservation areas, and this has resulted in the conservation and land reform sectors often coming into conflict. The paper analyzes current experiences in South Africa with regard to land reform in conservation areas, and, through the use of case studies, explores synergies and tensions, which currently exist between these two seemingly disparate objectives. The paper concludes that South Africa has achieved minimal success in reconciling these objectives. First, the divergent goals of the land and conservation sectors result in conflicts, which often lead to delays in the process of resolving land issues. Second, the joint management model used in South Africa to resolve land claims in protected areas appears unsuitable given current power imbalances between conservation agencies and poor rural people. Third, with the retention of the conservation status of land in all cases, land and resource rights remain unclear. Stronger and more secure land rights for the local people are therefore needed. Also needed are flexible strategies for resolving this dilemma, which may include alternative land uses other than ecotourism, and broader bioregional strategies for conservation that look beyond protected areas in terms of planning, conservation and economic development.

Creating Grasslands: Social Institutions and Environmental Change in Mkambati Area, South Africa

Through a case study of the grassland system of the Mkambati area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, the paper explores the interaction of social institutions and ecological processes in the creation of a diverse grassland environment. A number of different transitions between grassland states are examined in detail, highlighting a range of social and institutional factors influencing grassland change. The spatial patterning of different grassland types and the frequency of transitions between them are shown to be dependent on the institutional relationships between different social actors. Understanding such complex and multifaceted processes of environmental change requires analytical tools which combine social and ecological perspectives;an extended form of qualitative “state-transition” modeling, which incorporates institutional dimensions, is therefore explored.

Poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation: a South African perspective

The relationship between poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation has been the subject of intense debate amongst academics and development practitioners for several decades, yet consensus on how to reconcile these two disparate goals is far from being reached. The debate is often characterized by polemics between different camps, particularly on which strategy works best. Without trivializing the quality of scholarship within this debate, we argue that it is delineated by two major factors. Firstly, residents of rich countries and residents of poor countries are often assumed to be in opposition on this matter. On the one hand, some analysts tend to blame the loss of biodiversity on alleged excessive use of natural resources by residents of poor countries, while on the other hand there are those who blame residents of rich countries for alleged unsustainable livelihood strategies. Secondly, the debate on the contested relationship between biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation is often characterized by a tussle between proponents of biodiversity conservation and human rights/anti-poverty activists.

Decentralisation when Land and Resource Rights are Deeply Contested: A Case Study of the Mkambati Eco-Tourism Project on the Wild Coast of South Africa

A failed eco-tourism project in South Africa illustrates the weakness of decentralisations that place insufficient emphasis on democracy. The project promoted ‘empowerment’ of local communities (and entrepreneurs) and government facilitation of community ‘partnerships’ with private-sector investors. However, the devolution of effective powers and the accountability of local bodies to community were both neglected. Project planning failed to promote local participation, which would have allowed a clear understanding of local livelihoods and deep-seated land and resource tensions. An entrepreneurial elite attempted to capture project benefits, ordinary community members resisted. Severe conflicts erupted, stalling the project. To overcome such dynamics, democratic decentralisation requires a strong central state to provide resources for land-tenure reform and to promote the devolution of powers and the accountability of local bodies.

Indigenous voices and the making of the post-2015 development agenda: the recurring tyranny of participation

This paper explores recent efforts to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in the making of the post-2015 development agenda. It is based on an examination of the UN’s global consultation process, conducted between July 2012 and July 2013. Using discursive analysis of consultation findings and reports, we argue that the UN’s approach to participatory development represents a pretence rather than an actual shift in power from development experts to the intended beneficiaries of development. Therefore the post-2015 consultation process aptly illustrates the recurring tyranny of participation, this time at a global level, as the UN maintains control over global development goals. Recognising that it would be unjust to ignore the ability of marginalised groups to challenge the UN’s dominant narratives of development, we suggest that there is still time for indigenous voices to be heard in the build-up to the post-mdg era through ‘invited’ and ‘uninvited’ forms of participation.

“Your Elephant on Our Land”: The Struggle to Manage Wildlife Mobility on Zambian Communal Land in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area

Landscape connectivity that allows for wildlife mobility requires governance across a tenurial mosaic of managerial units based on reconciliation of social, economic, and ecological objectives. The proposed Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA), which includes Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, features a spectacular display of mega fauna and a number of tourist attractions such as the Victoria Falls. However, Zambian communal area landholders, who are affected by the TFCA, presently lack sufficient incentives to accommodate the wildlife costs, especially those related to elephants. This article, which is based on long-term observation and recent field research (2005-2007), explores the dynamics of establishing wildlife corridors on Zambian communal land, through an improved communal-state-private sector partnership based on an experimental communal land reform process that addresses social and ecological issues. These issues are discussed using case studies of some chiefdoms on the Zambian side of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. The paper recommends Zambian policy reform that might address the social, economic, and ecological challenges, with particular reference to elephants, and move the prevailing situation where ordinary rural residents are disempowered relative to the state, traditional leaders, and the private sector.

GRASSLANDS ABLAZE: VEGETATION BURNING BY RURAL PEOPLE IN PONDOLAND, SOUTH AFRICA

ABSTRACT Despite decades of anti-fire rhetoric and different legislation regulating the use of fire, poor rural people in South Africa continue to burn vegetation outside of the recommended periods. This paper explores some of the possible reasons for this ‘uncontrolled burning’ by rural people. Using a village case study from Pondoland, the paper argues that peoples defense of their livelihoods is a key reason; whether this be through using fire to manage natural resources or as a form of protest against those they perceive to be powerful. Thus, detailed understanding of the nature of livelihoods, the history and struggles of the people concerned, as well as local institutional landscape is crucial. Environmental degradation, whether by fire or other things, therefore, is not an ecological issue alone, it is as deep as the peoples histories, economic and political situation and, therefore, has to be dealt with and understood in that context.

From land rights to environmental entitlements: Community discontent in the 'successful' Dwesa-Cwebe land claim in South Africa

This paper discusses the inability of successful land claimants to enjoy livelihood benefits from their newly acquired land rights. Based on long-term field observation, interviews and analysis of secondary material, the paper uses a case study of the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa to explore why it is that an agreement, as part of the land claim settlement, to allow local villagers regulated access to natural resources is not being implemented. The paper draws from the environmental entitlements framework to argue that full land rights that could allow livelihood benefits to be enjoyed are restricted by ineffective and conflicting institutional arrangements, such as the Land Trust, the Communal Property Association and traditional authorities. The paper calls for the empowerment of institutions to deliberately benefit local livelihoods.

Crafting a livelihood: local-level trade in mats and baskets in Pondoland, South Africa

The contribution of natural resources to the livelihoods of the rural poor is widely acknowledged, yet not much is known about trade in these resources. This article investigates local-level trade in plant-based mats and baskets in Khanyayo Village, Pondoland, Eastern Cape, focusing on the social aspects of harvesting, resource tenure and trade in Cyperus textilis and products made from it. It explores the way the mat and basket trade contributes to the livelihoods of the rural poor and argues that crafting is mainly the domain of very poor or widowed women, who use it to supplement their diverse and multiple livelihood strategies. Although its cash contribution to the total household income is minimal, crafting is seen by local people as extremely important. However, mat and basket traders face a number of internal and external struggles, which must be understood by policy makers if crafting is to contribute to the fight against poverty in rural areas.

Land Restitution and Biodiversity Conservation in South Africa: The Case of Mkambati, Eastern Cape Province

ResumeEn Afrique du Sud, la reforme fonciere et la defense de la biodiversite sont consignees dans la constitution du pays. Les revendications foncieres vis-a-vis de zones protegees sont sources de problemes. Cet article, examinant une etude de cas de la region de Mkambati, analyse la tâche difficile que represente la poursuite d’objectifs apparemment disparates de preservation et de restitution fonciere, souvent confrontee a des retards et des accords controverses. Plus specifiquement, l’article affirme que les droits a la propriete dans les regions protegees sont menaces par au moins deux facteurs. Le premier est que, du fait de l’appui financier et ideologique donne a la defense de certaines zones, les regions preservees revendiquees ne cessent de retenir leur statut apres le reglement de l’affaire. Le second, est que l’approche administrative adoptee recemment, permettant la negociation des revendications, approche preferee a un processus juridique, risque de violer les droits constitutionnels des dem...