This study explores a possible relationship between personality factors and attitudes towards perceived problem animals in a sample of 17 white, male, full-time small- stock farmers in the Eastern Cape district of Cradock. Personality factors were analysed by means of Cattell's l6 Personality Factor Questionnaire, standardised for South Africa. Attitudes were determined by qualitative analysis of data from semi-structured interviews. Specific personality factors associated with positive and negative attitudes towards 'problem animals', including Lynx Felis caracal, eagles and vultures, were identified. Demographic and situational influences and certain world views associated with environmental attitudes are also discussed. Re-orientation of perspectives are recommended for farmers, conservationists and environmental educators.

Social-ecological systems are facing complex social, political, economic and environmental problems beyond the capacity of one group of stakeholders or organization to solve in isolation. Ecosystem degradation causes major environmental and economic concern, due to the loss of ecosystem services which river and wetland ecosystems provide. Stakeholder communities who depend on natural resources need to identify the social processes which are underlying causes to unsuccessful natural resource management and thus environmental degradation. The study is primarily aimed at identifying and understanding the structural and functional properties of the stakeholder network in the Duiwenhoks River catchment in the Western Cape, South Africa. Through analyzing the social network properties the study identifies and describes the main stakeholders involved with natural resource management in the Duiwenhoks water catchment area. How the individual actors from the diverse stakeholder groups are connected through communication ties were assessed. Furthermore, issues and factors which limit the effectiveness of the social network were identified. The main factors include a lack of communication and collaboration between key local resource users and governance officials caused by conflicting perspectives regarding resource management and societal conflicts caused by asymmetries in power distribution favoring government institutions. The lack of collaboration between stakeholders was identified as a contributing factor that links to the resource degradation experienced in the catchment. Ultimately means of overcoming the limitations to effective social networking, in order to manage the challenges related to natural resource management were identified. Management recommendations include the development of bridging ties and collaboration between diverse stakeholders, whilst facilitating participatory processes aimed at participatory problem solving and adaptive co-management of natural resources. Government institutions were identified as being dominant stakeholders in the network and should be mobilized to perform a stronger bridging role to connect disconnected actors. The findings of the study may inform future efforts of researchers and facilitators to implement strategies which promote social networking, social learning and ultimately adaptive co-management in the study area or other similar social-ecological systems. Ultimately, collaboration can be achieved between the diverse stakeholders to successfully improve ecosystem management and resilience in the Duiwenhoks water catchment.

The Mceula Commonage Land in the Hewu district lies due northwest of Whittle sea and west of Queenstown in the Eastern Cape. This thesis has two main objectives. Firstly, to survey and analyse the condition of the natural resource. base in the Hewu district with particular reference to water, soil, vegetation and land use. Secondly, to investigate the relationship between scientific approaches to assessing land use degradation and to compare these to the results obtained using a participatory approach of the rural environment of the Hewu district of the Eastern Cape. Random quadrats (4m2) were sampled and corresponding line transects were done with increasing distances from the villages. The Braun-Blanquet method was used to find the cover and abundance of the various species of plants. Data obtained from point sampling along 100 metre line transects was used to assess the condition of the veld using Trollope's technique. Six communities were defined using TWINSP AN, and grazing capacities and veld condition scores of the respective sites were calculated. It was concluded that the six communities were distributed along a gradient of palatable to non palatable grass and grasslike species. Rangelands close to the villages had low veld condition scores and percentage plant cover as opposed to those farther away from the villages. The null hypothesis of no significant difference between the percentage plant cover and condition of the veld close to the villages and farther away from the villages was rejected. Whilst it is urgent to resolve political disputes around land through land distribution, a key issue for the future is sustainability of the natural resource base of South Africa. To attain this, the old traditional methods of research must be supplemented with the participatory method, where the local community becomes fully involved. The central theme of the participatory approach was to investigate the possibility of promoting local management of the natural resources. Workshops were conducted to involve the local community in the project. The community formed six discussion groups that met regularly to discuss environmental issues. The six groups that were formed were: Firewood or woodlot collectors, shepherds / livestock raisers, crop fanners / agriculturists, water collectors, building material / soil collectors and medicinal plant users. The results obtained from the meeting of the discussion groups were used to compare the scientific results obtained from Braun-Blanquet method. Perceptions about their environment, which came out of the results of the discussion groups showed that the local knowledge of the rural community of Mceula was sufficient to train them to manage their environment sustainably.

A 32-item scale, based on a model of environmental concern using anthropocentric and ecocentric orientations as its two dimensions, and intended to measure the level of environmental concern in South Africa, was developed from existing similar measures and modified for the South African context. Factor analyses of the data collected from 95 questionnaires completed by participants in the Western Cape and Gauteng Provinces of South Africa indicated not only the existence of an anthropocentric factor and an ecocentric factor, but also that these two factors were correlated sub-factors of one general factor. Participants who were involved in the activities of an environmentally oriented club showed significantly higher levels of environmental concern than those who were not. No other significant correlations between biographic or demographic variables and environmental concern were found. The internal consistency of the scale as indicated by Cronbach's alpha was found to be 0.91. / Psychology / M.Sc.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Resource Conservation Biology (Coursework and Research Report) Johannesburg, February 2016 / Environmental perceptions have been researched in a wide range of communities globally. However, the environmental perceptions of rural people in the developing world, as well as their determinants, remain understudied. Investigating rural inhabitants’ environmental perceptions and what shapes them can produce useful information that could be incorporated into decision-making process that help resolve environmental issues. This study aimed to investigate dominant environmental perceptions and their determinants at individual, household and village levels, with a focus on environmental resource use, resource availability, and resource governance and management, among rural inhabitants of Bushbuckridge region in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. This study used unanalysed pre-existing data for 300 rural households across five villages, collected via a questionnaire in 2006. Of the twelve local resources considered, fuelwood, edible wild herbs, grass and twigs for brooms, reed mats and wooden carvings were the most widely used resources. Building poles, thatch for roofs, and bushmeat were the least widely used resources. On the frequency of use of consumable resources, most households consumed fuelwood every day while edible wild herbs, wild fruits and edible insects were mostly consumed 1-3 times/week. The majority of user households used traditional medicine and bushmeat less than once a month. The majority of respondents perceived local availability of edible wild herbs, traditional medicine, edible insects, and wild fruits to be adequate. By contrast, less than a third of respondents indicated sufficient local supply of building poles, bushmeat and fuelwood. However, it was dominantly perceived that it is not necessary to get harvesting permits for most resources, except in the case of traditional medicines. The chief was repeatedly perceived to be the ultimate authority in issuing harvesting permits and regulating access to natural resources. Individual and household level characteristics, as well as village resided in, were found to shape a range of individuals’ environmental perceptions with regards to resource availability and resource governance and management, but their influence was not consistent across resource or governance issues. For instance, at the individual level, age significantly shaped individuals perceptions of resource governance and management regarding who controls access to natural resources. The youth and middle aged compared to elderly were less likely to perceive that the chief controls access to resources and were also more likely to perceive that the government controls access to resources than elderly. Household-level characteristics were found to have no influence on perceptions of who controls access to resources. Village resided in shaped perceptions of resource availability, for every resource, and most aspects of resource governance issues. Village resided in had a stronger influence on range of individuals’ environmental perceptions than individual and household level factors. Households which depended highly on natural resources were more likely to perceive shortages of resources and an increase in household resource use, the likelihoods of individuals perceiving community development forum and the community itself regulating access to the natural resources increased. It is clear that environmental perceptions vary within and between communities, and are shaped by the characteristics and circumstances of the individual, their households and the community they live in. Furthermore, the strength of influence of these determinants varies according to the particular resource and environmental governance issue concerned. The understanding and identification of factors that shapes individuals’ environmental perceptions will be helpful for policy makers, as it could establish solutions that are grounded in rural communities’ realities and their environmental perceptions.

A 32-item scale, based on a model of environmental concern using anthropocentric and ecocentric orientations as its two dimensions, and intended to measure the level of environmental concern in South Africa, was developed from existing similar measures and modified for the South African context. Factor analyses of the data collected from 95 questionnaires completed by participants in the Western Cape and Gauteng Provinces of South Africa indicated not only the existence of an anthropocentric factor and an ecocentric factor, but also that these two factors were correlated sub-factors of one general factor. Participants who were involved in the activities of an environmentally oriented club showed significantly higher levels of environmental concern than those who were not. No other significant correlations between biographic or demographic variables and environmental concern were found. The internal consistency of the scale as indicated by Cronbach's alpha was found to be 0.91. / Psychology / M.Sc.

This study explores the potential role of an environmental education approach towards the conservation of the Swartkops Estuary and Swartkops Nature Reserve. More specifically it examines the opinions, feelings and perceptions of a sample of twenty seven people, who have a vested interest, in the possible conservation of the area. These stakeholders were comprised of people representing all the various groups and communities that use either or both the estuary and reserve. Opinions were examined by means of a qualitative data analysis from semi-structured interviews. The conservation opinions of respondents were obtained on both general topics and more detailed areas. Due to the small sample and exploratory nature of the project, these results should be viewed as tentative. Proposals are made for increasing the impact of Environmental Education programmes in this and similar environments, and recommendations are put forward to help facilitate related studies in the future.

Internationally there is an increasing focus on involving local communities in natural resource management and monitoring. Monitoring methods which are professionally driven appear to be inadequate to deal with the monitoring of natural resource use and biodiversity conservation, globally. This is especially evident in areas such as South African rural communal land. Two community based natural resource management (CBNRM) programmes in areas which are communally governed in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, namely Nqabara and Machubeni, were used as part of this research study. This thesis identified and tested potentially simple and cost effective monitoring methods related to the utilization of the local rangelands and indigenous forests. The criteria that were tested include 1) appropriateness and effectiveness in measuring change, and 2) contribution to building adaptive capacity among local land managers through learning. The criteria were assessed using a scoring system for each monitoring method in order to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses . This was done by using both quantitative and qualitative data. Contribution to building adaptive capacity was assessed by evaluating technical capacity gained, local ecological knowledge contributed and learning by participants. This was done using qualitative data. The results show that the monitoring methods had different strengths and weaknesses in relation to the criteria, making them more appropriate for different priorities such as effectively measuring change or building adaptive capacity. It is argued that an adaptive approach is a useful component in the participatory monitoring process. An adaptive framework was developed from lessons learnt in this study for collaborative monitoring. Challenges such as low literacy levels and adequate training still need to be addressed to strengthen efforts towards participatory monitoring. Factors such as incentives, conflict and local values may negatively affect the legitimacy and sustainability of participatory monitoring and therefore also need to be addressed.

This thesis is an account of the challenges people in Tyefu Location, Peddie District, and specifically in Gwabeni village, face in their attempts to manage their common pool natural resources. Taking my analytical cue from the literature which deals with the institutional dimensions of resource management in common property systems, I look at the impact of both outside influences and local dynamics on resource managing institutions at village level. I show how particular historical circumstances, including state interventions, led to the enclosure of Tyefu Location, and to the rapid increase in the population that had to be accommodated here. This placed enormous pressure on the natural resources of the area, and contributed to the emasculation of the local institutions responsible for overseeing resource management. The residents of the location adopted whatever strategies they could to ameliorate the depletion of natural resources in their villages. One 'traditional' strategy they have sought to emulate is to move their imizi (homesteads) away from areas where local resources has been exhausted. Given the finite area of land available to them, this strategy was only ever likely to be successful in the short-term. I analyse social, economic and institutional factors at village level that appear to act as disincentives to collective resource management activities. These factors include the social structure of the imizi and the socio-economic heterogeneity that exists between imizi in Gwabeni village. The varying degrees of household economic marginality that follow from this, together with the differential ownership of livestock and other possessions that decrease people's reliance on locally available natural resources, mean that the transaction costs that people would incur by contributing to collective resource management activities, differ widely. A primary cause of people's failure to engage in resource management at village level stems from the dispersion of the members of their imizi. This factor robs the village of decision makers and undermines the capacity of those left behind to make and implement resource management decisions. It results in the various members of imizi in the village having different orientations that dissipate the energy needed for collective action. It also fuels existing struggles, and creates new ones, over the meanings and uses of the term 'community'. I conclude by arguing that, in Tyefu Location, the management of natural resources is extremely difficult to co-ordinate, because such management is highly contested, undermined by differentiation among resource users, and subject to the attentions of weak village institutions that do not share a clear set of resource management objectives. / KMBT_363

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg 29 September 2017 / As in other developing countries in Africa, unsustainable harvesting of fuelwood in South Africa has become a matter of concern among policy makers and researchers. This is despite the country having the highest electrification access in the continent, because the majority of rural households in communal woodland areas cannot afford to cook on electric stoves, due to high levels of poverty and unemployment,. Moreover, relevant institutions do not have the capacity to monitor compliance with harvesting rules, resulting in resource users harvesting livewood due to the scarcity of deadwood with almost impunity, despite this constituting an illegal activity under the traditional management rules. Other interventions such as woodlots have largely been unsuccessful in addressing the unsustainable harvesting problems. Thus, researchers have recommended that rotational coppice harvesting be implemented by the local institutions in partnership with local resource users as a potential strategy to sustainably provide fuelwood, while addressing incapacity problems in terms of the shortage of physical and human resources in the relevant institutions. The majority of South Africans using fuelwood reside in the savanna biome which covers 34% of the country. Savanna tree species generally coppice (resprout) easily and this provides an opportunity for rotational harvesting strategies, involving local resource users. Although ecological data suggest that rotational harvesting of coppice regrowth can be sustainable, rotational harvesting of coppice has not gained popularity in South Africa, because of tenurial and institutional challenges in communal areas. Thus, whether or not rotational harvesting strategies are feasible in communal woodland is yet to be established. This thesis reports the findings of a study that assessed the implementation of a rotational harvesting scheme in selected rural communities. In order to investigate the ecological and socio-economic feasibility of community-based coppice management (CBCM), four communities across Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces (Thorndale, Peninghotsa, Homu and Makhuva) in South Africa were selected based on a set of criteria, and involved in a coppice management trial. The harvesting trial was implemented over a one year period by the local traditional leadership in partnership with local resource users and relevant government institutions, facilitated by the researcher. The trial was successfully piloted through one iteration of the adaptive management cycle in the first two villages. The intervention entailed rotational harvesting of specified stem size classes and species in blocks (coupes), according to consensus-based rules that were enforced by local institutions in cooperation with resource users. The study period was not long enough to monitor the rotational harvesting of coppice per se, but enabled the creation of coppice stools and a community-based system for rotational harvesting of wood resources. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this action research study to assess fuelwood harvesting and use patterns, ecological sustainability, social feasibility, and the adequacy of local resource-governance systems to implement CBCM, over the course of the first year of the intervention. Data such as energy mix used in the households, time spent acquiring fuelwood, compliance with harvesting rules, perceived cooperation between institutions, and socio-economic information were collected using questionnaires. Data were collected in two survey periods, the first occurring in early January 2014 before the trial started, and the second one from April 2014, after it had started, to January 2015. The fuelwood resource base, coppicing, and wood harvesting patterns in the village communal woodlands were assessed before and during the trial in fixed 100 m2 circular plots. Allometric equations were used to convert the observed density of stems and coppice shoots into wood biomass. The measured growth rates of coppice shoots were used to estimate the amount of time that would be required for shoots to reach the allowable harvest diameter of 4–9 cm, and hence the number of years required for one harvest rotation between coupes. These data, along with the measured rates of self-thinning of shoots and village wood demand, were used to make projections of fuelwood supply by coppice and unharvested stems in the village coupes over a number of harvest rotations. The effectiveness of management under traditional management rules and that of CBCM were assessed in focus group discussions, interviews and questionnaires with the local traditional leaders and key informant interviews with government rangers before and during the trial. Levels of compliance by resource users with the agreed CBCM rules were high in Thorndale and Peninghotsa because they were given an opportunity to decide and agree on harvesting rules that were conducive to their harvesting practices. Although the intervention did not change the energy use patterns in the households in these villages, local resource users spent significantly less time acquiring fuelwood than they did prior to the intervention, thus reducing the opportunity costs of wood harvesting. There was a noticeable decline in the incidence of illegal harvesting of fuelwood by “outsiders” due to greater vigilance by resource users and community-based monitors as a result of the successful implementation of CBCM in these villages. Based on the growth rate data averaged across species, coppice shoots would reach the harvestable diameter of 4 cm in 3 years in Thorndale and 4 years in Penninghotsa. The difference may be explained by species differences in these villages, e.g. Terminalia sericea which coppices vigorously was one of the predominant species recorded in Thorndale. The successful implementation of the trial in Thorndale and Pennighotsa in the first year of the intervention is attributed to a number of socio-economic factors, including relatively small and homogenous populations, innovative and adaptive local TAs which were flexible and had encouraged community participation and supportive resource users who had positive perceptions of their leadership and the project. This is in contrast to Homu 14B and Makhuva which were characterised by larger, more heterogeneous populations, inflexible leadership who were incapacitated by lack of physical resources, lack of transparency by the leadership, and negative attitudes and perceptions of resources users. This study demonstrates that community-based coppice management is potentially applicable and feasible for sustainable provision of fuelwood in communal areas, and identified under what conditions it is most likely to succeed. / MT2018