Ecotourism has often failed to deliver appropriate, tangible benefits to host communities living near protected areas in developing regions of Africa. The Robford Community Conservation Benefit Centre (RCCBC) model was developed as a means to overcome many of the common problems of community-based ecotourism and to enhance the range and flow of benefits to such communities by developing a suite of products and programmes aimed specifically at scientists, volunteer tourists and participatory environmental research tourists. This study tests the aims that the necessary tourism, geographic, social and research conditions are present for the implementation of the RCCBC model in a local community situated close to the Great Fish River Nature Reserve (GFRNR) in South Africa. Situational assessment fieldtrips determined that the GFRNR, its immediate tourism egion and the ten settlements surrounding the nature reserve conformed to RCCBC development guidelines and were suitable for further detailed investigation. One of the settlements, Glenmore Village, conformed most closely to the RCCBC model’s guidelines for selecting a preferred host community. A census survey of all households in Glenmore determined a demographic profile of village residents. A random sample survey of 70 Glenmore households established a social profile of the community’s residents and their attitude to various aspects of the RCCBC model. A spatial analysis of the Glenmore precinct determined that sufficient, suitable land was available for the development of RCCBC products and programmes. The findings of the research indicated that the tourism, geographic, social and research conditions were present at Glenmore, the GFRNR and its surrounding tourism region for the implementation of the RCCBC model and the development of the model’s proposed products and programmes at Glenmore Village. Implementation of the RCCBC model at Glenmore and the GFRNR as a pilot study could introduce a new way of bringing tangible, meaningful benefits to select communities located close to protected areas in existing tourism regions that have failed to benefit either completely or partially from traditional forms of ecotourism development in the past. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

Ecotourism has often failed to deliver appropriate, tangible benefits to host communities living near protected areas in developing regions of Africa. The Robford Community Conservation Benefit Centre (RCCBC) model was developed as a means to overcome many of the common problems of community-based ecotourism and to enhance the range and flow of benefits to such communities by developing a suite of products and programmes aimed specifically at scientists, volunteer tourists and participatory environmental research tourists. This study tests the aims that the necessary tourism, geographic, social and research conditions are present for the implementation of the RCCBC model in a local community situated close to the Great Fish River Nature Reserve (GFRNR) in South Africa. Situational assessment fieldtrips determined that the GFRNR, its immediate tourism egion and the ten settlements surrounding the nature reserve conformed to RCCBC development guidelines and were suitable for further detailed investigation. One of the settlements, Glenmore Village, conformed most closely to the RCCBC model’s guidelines for selecting a preferred host community. A census survey of all households in Glenmore determined a demographic profile of village residents. A random sample survey of 70 Glenmore households established a social profile of the community’s residents and their attitude to various aspects of the RCCBC model. A spatial analysis of the Glenmore precinct determined that sufficient, suitable land was available for the development of RCCBC products and programmes. The findings of the research indicated that the tourism, geographic, social and research conditions were present at Glenmore, the GFRNR and its surrounding tourism region for the implementation of the RCCBC model and the development of the model’s proposed products and programmes at Glenmore Village. Implementation of the RCCBC model at Glenmore and the GFRNR as a pilot study could introduce a new way of bringing tangible, meaningful benefits to select communities located close to protected areas in existing tourism regions that have failed to benefit either completely or partially from traditional forms of ecotourism development in the past. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

The existence of the rhino is under serious threat. South Africa has experienced a dramatic increase in rhino poaching since 2008. With the current trend of poaching, rhino in South Africa will soon become extinct. The current strategies to protect rhino have proved to be ineffective. The common view is that rhino poaching is morally wrong, and associated with greed and evil intentions and that rhino poaching must be stopped; however, there are two schools of thought regarding two main approaches (in association with current strategies) to be used in order to stop or limit poaching. The first school of thought supports the CITES ban on international trade in rhino horn, and believes that rhino poaching can only be stopped by eliminating demand (the “conventional approach”). The second school of thought is in favour of the legalisation of international trade, and argues that any solutions to the rhino poaching problem must address the underlying economic forces. This is called the sustainable approach. The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the ban on international trade in rhino horn, as well as the viability of legalising international trade. The effectiveness of the current strategies was also investigated. A qualitative research design was used, and eighteen participants were selected in order to obtain information by means of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires.The first school of thought supports the CITES ban on international trade in rhino horn, and believes that rhino poaching can only be stopped by eliminating demand (the “conventional approach”). The second school of thought is in favour of the legalisation of international trade, and argues that any solutions to the rhino poaching problem must address the underlying economic forces. This is called the sustainable approach. The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the ban on international trade in rhino horn, as well as the viability of legalising international trade. The effectiveness of the current strategies was also investigated. A qualitative research design was used, and eighteen participants were selected in order to obtain information by means of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. A literature review was also conducted, for the purpose of evaluating the responses of participants, and also for the purpose of validity and reliability. The findings indicated that the scales tip in favor of a well-managed, legalized trade, inter alia, to make funds available to rhino owners, rhino custodians and the government, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to reduce the reward and increase the risk to the poacher. Findings also indicated that a legalized trade cannot be implemented in isolation; it goes hand in hand with increased security and improved law enforcement, while strategies such as dehorning and translocation still have a role to play. Finally, findings also indicated that communities need to be involved in the sustainable use approach. These communities are currently excluded from the benefits derived from the neighboring protected areas, thereby making them susceptible to being recruited as poachers. / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Management)

The development of human societies rests on functioning ecosystems. This thesis builds on integrated theories of linked social-ecological systems and complex adaptive systems to increase the understanding of how to strengthen the capacity of ecosystems to generate services that sustain human well-being. In this work, I analyze such capacity in human-dominated production ecosystems in Tanzania and Madagascar, and how this capacity is related to local management practices. Resilience of social-ecological systems refers to the capacity to buffer change, to re-organize following disruption, and for adaptation and learning. In Papers I and II, qualitative interview methods are used for mapping and analyses of management practices in the agroecosystem of the Mbulu highlands, Northern Tanzania. Practices such as soil and water conservation, maintenance of habitats for pollinators and predators of pests, intercropping, and landscape diversification, act to buffer food production in a variable environment and sustain underlying ecological processes. The practices are embedded in a decentralized but nested system of institutions, such as communal land rights and social networks, that can buffer for localized disturbances such as temporary droughts. Paper II compares these findings with practices in a farming system in Sweden, and suggests that similar mechanisms for dealing with uncertainty and change can exist in spite of different biophysical conditions. In Papers III and IV, interviews are combined with GIS tools and vegetation sampling to study characteristics and dynamics of the dry forests of Androy, southern Madagascar. Paper III reports on a previously underestimated capacity of the dry forest of southern Madagascar to regenerate, showing areas of regeneration roughly equal areas of degenerated forest (18 700 ha). The pattern of forest regeneration, degradation, and stable cover during the period 1986-2000 was related to the enforcement of customary property rights (Paper III). Paper IV reports on a network of locally protected forest patches in Androy that is embedded in a landscape managed for agricultural or livestock production and contributes to the generation of ecosystem services and ecosystem resilience at a landscape scale. Forest protection is secured by local taboos that provide a well-functioning and legitimate sanctioning system related to religious beliefs. In Paper V, two spatial modeling tools are used to assess the generation of two services, crop pollination and seed dispersal, by the protected forest patches in southern Androy. The functioning of these services is dependent on the spatial configuration of protected patches in the fragmented landscape and can be highly vulnerable to even small changes in landscape forest cover. In conclusion, many of the identified practices are found to make ecological sense in the context of complex systems and contribute to the resilience of social-ecological systems. The thesis illustrates that the capacity of human-dominated production ecosystems to sustain a flow of desired ecosystem services is strongly associated with local management practices and the governance system that they are embedded in, and that, contrary to what is often assumed, local management can and does add resilience for desired ecosystem services. These findings have substantial policy implications, as insufficient recognition of the dynamics of social-ecological interactions is likely to lead to failure of schemes for human development and biodiversity conservation.