The principal hypothesis of this thesis was that the Maputaland Centre of Plant Endemism [MC] is characterised by plant communities that match a particular set of environmental variables, and their rich biodiversity with endemic and rare taxa reflecting the geomorphological history of the region. Data assembled supports the hypothesis. Vegetation studies highlighted two plant communities, endemic to the MC as being an important component of the region’s biodiversity, namely Sand Forest and Woody Grassland. A broad approach to the floristic classification of vegetation was adopted for information on the floristics patterns and diversity of the endemic/rare plants and plant communities of the MC. A hierarchical classification, description and ecological interpretation of the plant communities of the Tembe Elephant Park, Sileza Nature Reserve and surrounding areas are presented. Much of the vegetation distribution can be ascribed to the level of the water table, vegetation dynamics and historic evolution of the geomorphology of the region. The hypothesis is presented that Sand Forest may have allelopathic effects on its environment. Data of exploratory germination trials are presented to test this hypothesis. Sand Forest soil inhibits the emergence of seedlings, the inhibiting effect decreasing progressively from Sand Forest through grassland to woodland. Sand Forest was defined as a community, and its possible dynamics are described. Ideas were formulated (albeit largely hypothetical) on the likely origin of this vegetation type. It is proposed that ancient Dune Forest is the precursor of Sand Forest, but that Sand Forest has subsequently become a separate functioning plant community on its own. Sand Forest appears to be a relictual vegetation type of which the historical factors responsible for it’s original establishment and expansion are currently no longer present in the region. The use of woody species by elephant in different vegetation types in Tembe Elephant Park was investigated. A classification of species into utilization categories was produced which enabled assessment of the importance of different species to elephants, and also of the potential impact of elephants on different tree species. Management implications are highlighted. / Thesis (PhD (Botany))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Plant Science / unrestricted

Current conservation practices in the developing world are conceptualized as tools to simultaneously protect biodiversity and provide rural economic development. Conservation’s responsibility or ability to contribute to poverty alleviation and maintain its primary function of biodiversity protection is widely debated. Regardless if one chooses to prioritize conservation over poverty or vice versa, human well being at the global scale and local livelihoods at the micro scale are dependent on natural resources, making it is impossible to separate environment and development issues. In South Africa, conservation has largely been pursued in protected areas, particularly fenced parks devoid of human settlement. The benefits of parks are well known (i.e. biodiversity and ecosystem services), but the impacts on local livelihoods are not well documented. The Maputaland region located in northeast KwaZulu-Natal contains exceptional biodiversity alongside massive poverty and has been the subject of conservation and development projects marketed as win-win solutions. Yet, conservation in Maputaland is driven by global external agendas and epistemologies based on misconceptions of rural land use patterns and livelihoods, while the costs of implementation are borne locally. Nature-based tourism, participatory community schemes, and pro-poor polices have been designed to facilitate economic development, but the benefits have been minimal and slow to materialize. Uneven levels of power between rural residents and external institutions, as well as within the local tribal government, have resulted in the inequitable distribution of benefits and decision-making power. Development strategy in Maputaland continues to focus on conservation, including the expansion of protected areas to form transboundary peace parks linking reserves in South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland. However, expanded conservation is likely to result in household resettlement, lost access to socio-cultural and natural resources, and an increased risk of conflict over land use between conservation authorities and local residents. Complicating the success of any conservation and/or development scheme in Maputaland is the massive HIV/AIDS prevalence. With more than one third of residents infected, the disease will deepen poverty, decimate local capacity and leadership, and lead to an increased risk of resource degradation and land use conflict that ultimately undermines the long-term security of both biodiversity and local livelihoods. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / Unrestricted

The southern Mozambique/ South Africa borderland is a landscape epitomised by fluctuation, contradiction and constant transformation. It is a world betwixt-and-between Mozambique and South Africa. The international border, imposed on the landscape more than a century ago, gives life to a new world that stretches across and away from it. The inhabitants of this transitional zone constantly shape and reshape their own identities vis-à-vis people on the opposite and same side of the border. This border, which was delineated in 1875, was to separate the influence spheres of Portugal and Britain in south-east Africa. On the ground it divided the once strong and unified Mabudu-Tembe (Tembe-Thonga) chiefdom. At first the border was only a line on a map. With time, however, it became infused with social and cultural meaning as the dividing line between two new worlds. This was exacerbated by Portuguese and British colonial administration on opposite sides of the border, Apartheid in South Africa and socialist modernisation and war and displacement in Mozambique. All these events and factors created cultural fragmentation and disunion between the northern and southern sides of the borderland. By the end of the Mozambican War in 1992 the northern side of the borderland was populated by displaced refugees, demobilised soldiers and bandits, as well as returnees from neighbouring countries. Many of these people did not have any ancestral ties to the land nor kinship ties to its earlier inhabitants. Whereas a common Thonga identity had previously united people on both sides of the border, South African policies of Apartheid increasingly promoted the Zulu language and culture on the southern side of the border. The end of warfare in Mozambique and of Apartheid in South Africa facilitated contact across the border. Social contact between the inhabitants of the borderland is furthermore fostered by various economic opportunities offered by the border, such as cross-border trade and smuggling. The increase in social and economic contact has in turn dissolved differences between the inhabitants of the borderland and promoted homogeneity and unity across the political divide. Fragmentation and homogeneity characterises daily life in the borderland. Inhabitants of the frontier-zone play these forces off against each other, now emphasising the differences across the border, later emphasising the similarities. The borderland is a world of multiple identities, where ethnicity, citizenship and identity, already fluid and contextual concepts in their own rights, become even more so as people constantly define and redefine themselves in this transitional environment. / Thesis (DPhil (Anthropology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Anthropology and Archaeology / unrestricted