Fisheries are complex socio-ecological systems consisting of both human and ecological components. Managing fishery resources has almost always focused on ecological concerns without due consideration being given to the human dimensions. However, increasingly more scholars are recognising the need to integrate the human dimensions of fisheries management with the ecological concerns. Managing a fishery solely on the basis of ecological information will result in the management strategies being unsuccessful. Understanding the human dimensions is important as it provides insights into who participates in the fisheries industry, and what the behavioural patterns and motivations of the fishers are. This study focused on understanding the human dimensions of fishing at Zeekoevlei, focusing on who the fishers are and why they engage in fishing. It also addressed the source of conflicts at Zeekoevlei. The management of Zeekoevlei and fishing activities is also considered. A mixed methods approach, using a case study design, was adopted. The sample included fourteen fishers and six individuals involved on various levels of management of Zeekoevlei. Data-collection methods included the use of a structured questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. On the basis of this study, the demographics show that two types of fishers were found at Zeekoevlei – recreational and small scale. These fisher groups display contrasting socio-demographic profiles; however, a correlation between socio-demographics and motivations was observed. Recreational fishers appear to be white, educated males who are employed and engage in fishing for a sense of achievement, which is underpinned by the size of the fish. Small-scale fishers, on the other hand, are unemployed coloured males, with low levels of education and to this group of fishers the Zeekoevlei fishery system has an important function as it is used to diversify livelihoods. As with many fisheries, conflicts are prevalent at Zeekoevlei. These conflicts arise between fishers because Zeekoevlei has limited demarcated fishing spots and fishers display ownership over these spots; to exacerbate this situation, Zeekoevlei is located in an open reserve, which makes it easier for fishers to enter the reserve illegally. The management of the vlei appears to be based on recreational considerations with unclear measures to accommodate small-scale fisheries.

Evaluating the success of the growing number of climate adaptation initiatives is challenging. Assessment of adaptive capacity has been used to focus, prioritise and track the progress of adaptation interventions as well as to identify key barriers to and opportunities for implementing adaptation. Many adaptive capacity assessments have relied on secondary data and expert judgement. Given the call in climate change research and practice for bottom-up approaches that value communities' insight, it is clear that more participatory approaches for the assessment of adaptive capacity need to be developed. This research aims to address this gap by developing an adaptive capacity index that adopts a mixed methods approach and prioritises input from local stakeholders. Many adaptive capacity assessments have focussed on rural areas where livelihoods are directly exposed to climate variability. There is growing recognition that increasing numbers of people are settling in urban areas and many of these livelihoods are often at the margin. This thesis focuses on urban livelihoods where a more holistic understanding of adaptive capacity is required which recognises that a community's capacity to adjust to climatic stressors is interlinked to its capacity to adjust to environmental, social, economic and political challenges. An adaptive capacity index is developed in this thesis that includes and characterises the more subjective determinants of adaptive capacity, rather than giving precedence to material resources as the key determinant of a community's adaptive capacity. To achieve this richer understanding, the index is informed by a framework that incorporates aspects of individuals' agency and social cohesion. Using a case study of four towns in the Bergrivier Municipality, South Africa, this research develops an index of adaptive capacity that is holistic, collaborative and interdisciplinary. The scores generated by the index are analysed using statistical and regression analyses that are contextualised by stakeholders' inputs to explore the variation in adaptive capacity across socially differentiated groups. Key insights from these analyses relate to the variation in adaptive capacity between the four towns and differences in the adaptive capacity of males and females. Interestingly, the analyses revealed the absence of a positive correlation between schooling level and both adaptive capacity and wellbeing variables which could be attributed to limited economic opportunities in the area, particularly for high-skilled workers. The analyses also highlighted the need to support initiatives that strengthen the social cohesion within the community to improve the inclusion of marginal demographic groups. The thesis reflects on the participatory and collaborative research process, finding that combining quantitative and qualitative data through an interdisciplinary process has the potential to provide an index that is more reflective of subjective capacity. This more holistic understanding of adaptive capacity can align with the field of wellbeing, to offer valuable insight into building adaptive capacity for urban livelihoods that is grounded in both academic and applied fields.

The Dube AgriZone has been described as an agricultural cluster development zone situated at an air logistics platform called the Dube TradePort in La Mercy, KwaZulu-Natal. The Dube AgriZone was launched in 2012 and aims to stimulate the growth of KwaZulu-Natal's perishable goods sector by producing high-value fresh produce all-year round in high quantities for both domestic and international markets. The main objective of this study was to investigate the current performance status of the Dube AgriZone's operation. This research made use of data collected from key informant interviews, document analysis and observational recordings during site visits. The information was used to compile a case study of the Dube AgriZone as an example of agriculture at an airport precinct (aerotropoli agriculture). Findings of this research have shown that the Dube AgriZone has operated with some success and failure during Phase 1. Infrastructural, logistics, financial, market, climate and administrative issues at the farming facility surfaced during this investigation. This study advocates that more research is needed on how to assist the Dube AgriZone project to operate optimally combating the current issues that it faces. It is hoped that this research can offer an interesting contribution to information on agricultural projects situated at airport precincts.

This research evaluates the effectiveness of Namibia's institutional framework for environmental impact assessment. This effectiveness evaluation consists of two parts: firstly, an evaluation of the extent to which the formal laws, regulations and procedures conform to internationally established norms for EIA systems; and secondly, an evaluation of the implementation of these formal laws, regulations and procedures in Namibian EIA practice. The research utilises a qualitative research approach, which is considered suitable for research that seeks to provide understanding with respect to 'why' and 'how' questions pertaining to policy phenomena. Several qualitative research methods were utilised including the case study method, document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Three cases from two development sectors namely, mining (two cases) and agriculture, were selected with the aid of an experienced Environmental Assessment Practitioner in order to attain the maximum information related to the focus of this research. Two sets of semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 participants. One set was conducted with 10 individuals, including representatives from both the state and private sector, with significant experience (i.e. more than 10 years) in terms of engagement with Namibia's EIA system. Eleven interview participants, including representatives from both the state and private sector, were interviewed as part of the three selected case studies. The findings reveal that Namibia's EIA system conforms in part to internationally established norms for EIA systems in terms of the formal laws, regulations and procedures, with a few significant omissions. The findings also reveal that the implementation of these laws regulations and procedures in practice, as observed in the three selected cases, is lacking. The environmental authority lacks capacity, both in staffing and expertise. Elements of best practice on the part of proponents and their Environmental Assessment consultants were observed, however improvement in alternatives consideration and public consultation and participation is needed. The main weaknesses relate to the screening of activities that require EIA, implementation and impact monitoring and auditing, the centrality of the findings of the EIA report to decision taking, EIA system monitoring and the environmental assessment of policies, plans and programmes. To conclude, the research findings reveal that Namibia's EIA system has a significant number of weaknesses. This is however consistent with similar research conducted within a developing country context. Further research should focus on seeking to better understand the potential causes for the observed weaknesses.

For centuries, nontimber forest products have been key aspects of household diets throughout the world. In southern Africa, mopane worms are widely harvested for household consumption and traded for income generation. This study investigated the contribution of mopane worm harvesting to rural livelihoods, and the effects of environmental change on mopane worm harvesting in rural households in order to understand how households attain sustainable livelihoods under different tenure types in rural areas in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Specific objectives were to determine the current significance and contribution of mopane worm harvesting and trading to rural livelihoods; to gauge the perceptions of harvesters and traders on forms of environmental change which have affected mopane worm availability and how consumption and trade patterns have changed in the last 20 years; to assess access and management of mopane resources under different tenure types; and, to explore mopane worm use in the context of the sustainable livelihoods framework. The research was conducted in the villages of Bokmakierie, Matiyani, Ha Gumbu, Masisi, Zwigodini, and Mphambo in Vhembe district and Nkomo village in Mopani district in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. Additional interviews were conducted with traders at markets in Thohoyandou, Makhado, Malamulele, Giyani and Elim in the Vhembe and Mopane districts, Limpopo Province. The study employed qualitative methods to collect data and included semi-structured household and key informant interviews. The respondents and key informants were identified through snowball sampling techniques. The significance of mopane worms in the study area is three-fold: it is an important source of food, it is a valuable trading commodity, and it is an intrinsic part of local cultural practices. The findings of this study indicated that the historical value placed on mopane worms as a food source and trading commodity has been passed down for generations. Trading was found to be important form of employment for rural people who have limited prospects of formal employment, and had the potential to generate higher income levels than wage labour in rural contexts. The decline in mopane tree density, vegetation change, lower-than-normal precipitation, and higher-than-normal temperatures were the leading forms of environmental change which have significantly affected mopane worm availability and outbreak events. Household consumption and trade patterns were altered as a result of the weather and climatic conditions shock arising from the El Niño phenomenon. Land tenure type was found to be the primary determinant of resource management and access regimes in the harvesting areas. Within the context of the sustainable livelihoods framework, the following findings were made. The limited availability of mopane worms presented a key constraint for the households and traders. The high availability of labour from family of the harvesters suggests human capital is strong. Furthermore, the strong social links and networks which resulted from family-level and community-wide participation strengthened the social capital opportunities. Physical and financial capital were found to have greatest threat to the attainment of sustainable livelihood. Households suffer poverty and are not easily able to access financial resources. This served as a hindrance for households and limited their income earning potential. In respect of these findings the following recommendations are made: further empirical investigations should be undertaken to determine the status of mopane worm populations; improved cooperation between traditional leaders, harvesters and local government is suggested as an option for management of the communal harvesting areas; the interplay between access, land tenure and harvesting requires further research.

Cape Town's Green Point Park is a legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, built on the then dilapidated, former Common. Initially heavily contested, it is now a beautiful, popular, and well-used public space that attracts diverse people from all over the city. The thesis narrates its paradoxical story by drawing on historical and archival data, park observations, a transect walk, as well as qualitative interviews with city planners, park management, service providers, and the formerly sceptical local public. First, the thesis reflects on the conflictual planning process that led to this new urban park and a changed vision and function for the Common. Second, it explores the park's everyday operation, the management and maintenance that are central to its present acceptance and safe, clean and pristine condition. I argue that the City's planning 'by exception' of the park, and the public-private management vehicle is central to its success and differentiates it from how others operate in the city. I suggest that this neoliberally planned and managed public park produces a paradox: it has restored this space once again as a usable and accessible public 'common'. This argument challenges a literature that assumes neoliberal forms of planning and regulation to limit, at best, or destroy urban spaces, resulting in a similar 'tragedy of the commons' (Hardin, 1968) or 'end of public space' (Sorkin, 1992; Mitchell, 1995). In contrast, the thesis builds on Jerram's (2015) critique in that the traditional commons too often become 'historical fantasy,' a theorised ideal and almost impossible reality, in the contemporary neoliberal era. This more nuanced assessment of the contemporary commons is important in the South African urban context, where there is great concern that neoliberal, market-led, world city agendas perpetuate exclusion and historical legacies of segregation (Marais, 2013). In a 'paradox of the commons', this publicly regulated, privately maintained free-to-the-public park has restored what was previously a Commons, albeit an unsafe and largely unused space. The Green Point Urban Park suggests a need to 'rethink' parks and their planning and management in contemporary and neoliberal post-apartheid South Africa. They do not necessarily result in a certain 'tragedy of the commons' or 'end of public space'.

This dissertation focuses on a private residential estate, known as Grotto Bay, situated on the West Coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It examines the motivations of its participants to move to a non-metropolitan gated community and focuses on the participants' experiences of life in gated nature. In analysing the participants' subjective experiences, this work aims to understand how such experiences contribute to the development of place attachment, against the backdrop of the understanding of whiteness in the post-apartheid landscape. This qualitative, ethnographic research uses semi-structured interviews and participant observation to collect data. To analyse the data collected, this research uses thematic content analysis of texts and observations to identify motivations and link them to the body of literature on gated communities and lifestyle migration in South Africa. Drawing on the Person, Place and Process Framework, this work further probes into an understanding of the processes of place attachment to Grotto Bay, by speaking back to insights from the literature on place attachment, landscape and identity, within the post-apartheid South African context. The findings show that through gating and a migration back to the rural land, the participants of this research have enlisted the natural landscape to root themselves to place and to find a sense of continuity in self and in their identity, by linking the reconstruction of their past with the present and future. The results further indicate that discourses of withdrawal and attachment to place, read through a lens of white privilege, drive the making and re-making of boundaries in the post-apartheid context of South Africa. This work shows that through the privatisation of the rural landscape, Grotto Bay facilitates notions of power and control through the respondents' romantic and nostalgic idealisation of their new social imaginary. The respondents' subjective experiences exemplify the ways in which estates such as Grotto Bay may stand to perpetuate white hegemony and environmental injustice in the post-colonial and post-apartheid contexts.

Conservation in Montagu started in the early 1970s, with the rescuing and restoration of significant buildings and the declaration of 21 National Monuments (now called Provincial Heritage Sites), which safeguarded those buildings when no other heritage protections were in place. This was followed by a conservation study by Todeschini and Japha in 1990, identifying heritage resources, delineating conservation areas and providing guidelines. This case study has found that, with a few exceptions, the conservation endeavours in Montagu during the past 40 years have been successful.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of urbanisation on the use of, and access to, NTFPs in three settlements in the Chobe District of northern Botswana. Specific objectives were to determine the extent of NTFP use occurring in these areas; the purposes of use; the factors that influence use and access in the rural/urban context, particularly government rules and regulations; and implications for future NTFP use in this region. Research was conducted in three settlements: Kasane, Kazungula and Lesoma. Kasane is an urban town, Kazungula is less urbanised and Lesoma is a rural village. All areas are surrounded by state-owned Forest Reserves and the Chobe National Park. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods including household interviews (30 in Kasane, 30 in Kazungula and 25 in Lesoma), four key informant interviews, two focus groups with youth and the collection of other grey literature relating to government harvest permits and market data. Households in all three areas used NTFPs despite the different rural and urban contexts in which they exist. Kasane and Kazungula showed a less diverse range of resource use, with fuelwood and wild foods the most commonly used resources in all three areas. These resources were used mainly for subsistence purposes. Harvest locations varied but were most commonly in and around the settlements themselves. Households in Kasane and Kazungula expressed the desire to use fewer resources in the future, mainly for conservation reasons, while those in Lesoma wished to use more. The government rules and regulations, particularly the DFRR permit system, were found to restrict resource access. Despite this, households in the more urban areas felt that the laws were necessary while those households in Lesoma thought that the laws conflicted with community livelihood needs. The majority of respondents believed conservation management to be a barrier to resource access as the presence of wild animals and anti- poaching units in the harvesting areas compromised safety. The general absence of resource commercialisation and market opportunities in the settlements, especially the urban towns of Kasane and Kazungula, were other commonly cited barriers to resource access. The perceived degradation of traditional practices due to modernity and urbanisation was evident for most households in all three areas but the actual loss of indigenous knowledge was most apparent in the urban areas. Wider implications for this case study are the application of the findings to further research into the impacts of urbanisation. This study can add to the literature around the implementation of improved urban development strategies, including the reliance on NTFPs and declines in cultural and environmental degradation. Recommendations provided in this study include further investigations into resource use; the application of resource co-management; improved market infrastructure and the implementation of ecotourism and local craft-making projects.

Increased management through domestication is the predicted, and often necessary, commercialisation outcome of a wild resource which is subject to a demanding market that promotes competition amongst producers and the depletion of wild stocks. This has been the case for commercial buchu (Agathosma betulina and Agathosma crenulata), a historically wild collected plant which has been cultivated on a large-scale in selected areas of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Buchu is an endemic, aromatic shrub around which a lucrative industry spanning diverse and distant markets has developed. Alongside its medicinal properties, buchu is primarily valued for its essential oil which is exported for use in international flavour and fragrant industries. The aim of this study was to conduct an overview of the local buchu industry with a focus on how cultivation has impacted on the general trade, the different actors involved and the conservation of the plant. A shift in buchu production to large-scale, agricultural enterprises raises certain questions for the involvement of rural harvesters in the trade, especially with regard to their inclusion and the sharing of benefits arising from commercialisation. Accordingly, this research sought to identify the social and economic impacts of buchu cultivation while also exploring the environmental impacts associated with large-scale farming of the plant. The methods employed in this research were primarily qualitative, based on semi-structured interviews conducted with key actors involved in the buchu trade, including harvesters, farmers, industry representatives and environmental authorities. The study revealed that while the harvesting of buchu is an important economic activity for harvester communities, the cultivation of buchu has played a limited role in local livelihoods with cultivation mainly being confined to large-scale, commercial operations in the hands of wealthy farmers and private processing companies. The findings of this research also shed light on the shortcomings of national access and benefit-sharing legislation which has failed to secure commercial benefits for the rural poor involved in the trade. From an environmental perspective, the cultivation of buchu has contributed to the conservation of the plant in the wild through offsetting harvesting pressures experienced by wild populations, but has also contributed to the destruction of naturally occurring vegetation.