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Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / South Africa’s coastal environment is characterized by an increasing network of Marine Protected Areas (MPA), with the purpose of conserving fisheries resources and marine biodiversity. The coast is also home to over a hundred rural small-scale fisher communities, such as the community at Struisbaai Noord, which are considered to be marginalised communities heavily dependent on marine resources for their food security and income needs. The small-scale fisher community at Struisbaai Noord is one of several fisheries operating in the waters off the coast of Struisbaai. The others are: a migratory commercial line fishery, boat and shore-based recreational fishery, chokka squid commercial fishery, and commercial trawlers. The overall aim of this study is to understand the human (social, economic, cultural and institutional) dimensions of the small-scale fisheries sector in Struisbaai, with a particular focus on the livelihood strategies that fishers in this community employ, in order to inform future marine protected area planning in the Agulhas region.

Bibliography: leaves 23. / Small-scale mining provides income generation possibilities to a number of people and can thus help to alleviate poverty in Namibia, a country richly blessed with appropriate geological resources. A legal framework coordinating mining activities is in place, but there are obvious shortcomings regarding small-scale mining operations, particularly with respect to procedures for registering claims and obtaining mining licences.

Bibliography: leaves 29-31. / This paper presents the results of an investigation of two case studies at tertiary education institutions in the Western Cape of South Africa, in which water audits were implemented. The two institutions are the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch. The study was initiated following the poor response of one institution to water conservation recommendations. This study emanates from the findings of a more comprehensive Baseline Report, which highlighted the fact that many public organisations and institutions possess the potential for water and cost savings which could be realised by implementing viable water-use audit recommendations. Furthermore, there is growing support and need for improving water-use efficiency due to the ever-increasing demand and limited supplies of water in the Western Cape and South Africa in general.

Bibliography: leaves 21-23. / This paper provides a brief overview of the context, scope, methodology and salient findings emerging from a survey of 125 large dams in 52 countries world-wide. This global Cross-Check Survey was one of four key work programme components integral to the world Commission on Dams, initiated in Gland, Switzerland in 1997. In particular the paper gives a brief overview of some of the key issues responsible for significant ecosystem impacts and highlights key responses practices in a variety of different regions and countries world-wide.

Bibliography: p. 155-161. / Management systems as applied to most of the world's tropical forests are anthropocentric. In view of this, conservation of these ecosystems has been threatened by overuse and pressure of exotic monocultures. Sustainable forest development aims at utilizing the forest resource without unduly degrading the forest ecosystems. This study examines the case of Mount Meru forest reserve, a tropical montane rainforest in northern Tanzania. The main aim of the study is to investigate human induced causes of forest degradation and to propose ways to improve the forest management so as to attain sustainable forest development. The study is based on survey data obtained from the study area through semi-structured interviews conducted with 198 key informats. Social study methods have been used for data analysis and interpretation.

Bibliography: pages 29-31. / Traditionally, an increase in water consumption and the corresponding decrease in the availability of water resources, has led to the development of new water augmentation schemes to store and transport water. Both in South Africa and internationally, dams, tunnels, reservoirs, inter-basin transfers, pipelines and weirs have offered effective but temporary solutions to an ever-increasing demand for water. However, as rivers, wetlands, waterways and canals start to show signs of collapse, emphasis is changing from the traditional water supply management to water demand management. Water demand management, which can be divided up into a number of related tools, looks at ways of using water more efficiently instead of exploring new sources of water. In this project, two water demand management case studies in South Africa were investigated and compared to international trends in water demand management. The ease studies were at the small towns of Hermanus and Stellenbosch both in the south western Cape. The Hermanus project consisted of 12 different water savings programmes, while the Stellenbosch project consisted entirely of a retrofitting programme. The Hermanus project has recently run to the end of its three-year duration, and has won numerous awards for the success it has achieved, while the Stellenbosch study took place four years ago and was on a smaller scale. Many aspects of the 12-point Hermanus programme were found to compare favourably with international WDM programmes and the project was well structured and run. However, some parts of the 12-point plan were not successful, and failed for various reasons. The Hermanus project received large amounts of support from various levels of governance, and questions remain whether the project would have been this successful without this support. The sustainability of this project has come under the spotlight in recent months. The Stellenbosch study was less successful than the Hermanus, but served to highlight the importance of some of the WDM tools and the combination of different tools in a water demand management programme. Stellenbosch has recently introduced a comprehensive Water Master Plan. It was concluded that the expertise and potential exists in South African to implement successful water demand management programmes, however the sustainability of the South African water demand management initiatives should be investigated.

Bibliography: leaves 223-228. / In the past, economic instruments for environmental purposes were strongly resisted by industry, government and the public. As such, they were used only in exceptional circumstances. More recently, there has been a realisation that economic instruments can be a powerful complement to direct regulations. Consequently, economic instruments1 are playing an increasingly important role in the environmental management of buildings. The activities of the construction industry are driven by economic forces, so using market mechanisms is a logical strategy to pursue the objectives of sustainable construction2 . Perhaps the question is not whether economic mechanisms should be employed to improve environmental building performance, but rather how this should be achieved. This paper suggests that it can be achieved by using the economic instrument of ecolabelling to create market competition for improved building performance. Ecolabelling has traditionally been associated with household products, but has more recently been applied to a wider range of products, including buildings and building materials. The basis for building ecolabels is provided by the results of building environmental assessments, which evaluate building performance. In developed countries, these assessments have stimulated market demand for 'green' building developments. Building environmental assessment methods have used the concept of ecolabelling to provide consumers with an additional benchmark in renting or purchasing buildings.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) noted the need and therefore requested further quantitative research to better inform policy on the potential impacts of further warming to 1.5 and 2.0 °C above preindustrial levels. Climate extremes are expected to become more severe as the global climate continues to warm due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The extent to which extremes and their impacts are to change due to additional 0.5 °C warming increments at regional level as the global climate systems warms from current levels to 1.5 and then 2.0 °C above preindustrial levels need to be understood to allow for better preparedness and informed policy formulation. Having realized the lack of research on this front in Botswana, this study investigates the differentiated impacts of climate change on climate extremes under the current, 1.5 and 2.0 °C warmer climates. The dissertation analysed the projected changes in extremes using Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI), derived from fifth version of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) projections over Botswana, a country highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Results indicate that (i) projected changes in temperature extremes are significantly different at the three levels of global warming, with hot day and night extremes expected to realise the greatest increases; (ii) drought related indices are also significantly different, and suggest progressively increasing drought risk with shortened rainfall seasons especially in northern Botswana; and (iii) heavy rainfall indices are likely to increase, but are not statistically different at the different global warming levels. The implications of these changes for key socio-economic sectors are explored, and reveal progressively severe impacts, and consequent adaptation challenges for Botswana as the global climate warms from its present temperature to 1.5 and then 2.0 °C.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Within the pool of urban food access literatures a split has emerged. One body of literature has tended to look towards the structural elements of the food economy to indicate communities which have limited access to nutritious and affordable food. A second body of literature have focussed more on the household- level to investigate which household characteristics and entitlements act as constraints to food access. This thesis integrates both of these bodies of thought to explore the limitations to food access present in a low-income urban community in Cape Town. This is achieved through an investigation of both the local food retail environment and the household-specific characteristics which inform food access. The food purchasing patterns have been chosen as an important indicator of food access as they reveal how the household navigates its food environment.