MENVSC / Department of Geography and Geo-Information Sciences / The purpose of this study was to contribute towards a better understanding of the effectiveness of Biosphere Reserve as a tool in managing natural resources in the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM), Limpopo Province of South Africa. There are limited documented materials for a better understanding of the effectiveness of Biosphere Reserve (BR) as a tool in managing natural resources in the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM). As a result, this study was undertaken to bridge this gap and to discover new insights to assist in understanding the effectiveness of BR as a tool in managing natural resources. This study adopted a pragmatic research approach, which is a mixture of the qualitative and quantitative research approaches, wherein data were collected using primary and secondary sources. Both primary and secondary data were used, in order to obtain information concerning the effectiveness of biosphere reserve in the study area. Primary data were obtained using a combination of methods, including participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools and techniques, and informal and formal surveys. The secondary data was collected from desk-based examination of relevant documentation relating to conservation of the Biosphere Reserves areas. The documents included previous reports from Greenest Municipality Competition (GMC) results for all local municipalities from 2012 to 2017, Management Effective Tracking Tool (METT-SA) from 2016 to 2018, and previous research data on conservation. The results obtained revealed that Biosphere Reserve (BR) is an effective tool for the conservation of natural resources within Vhembe District, South Africa. This is because natural resources are taken into consideration when there are developments and projects being undertaken. Furthermore, the communities in Vhembe District Municipality benefit from the programmes and projects aimed at conserving natural resources within the VBR. The study also revealed that there are environmental challenges within the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve due to mining activities, climate change, developments in natural resources and deforestation, which require the enforcement of by-laws and programmes and projects aimed at conserving natural resources. / NRF

Forest and woodland ecosystems provide a variety of natural resources such as fuelwood, brushwood and kraal posts to local communities, as well as possess important cultural and spiritual value. However, many forests and woodlands worldwide have been unsustainably used and managed. Thus, under pressure from the international conservation community to recognise the importance of people's relationships with their surrounding natural environment, particularly for the natural resources it can provide, and given a move away from the management of forests and woodlands for sustained yields, and according to simple cause and effect models, in favour of systems approaches, South Africa has developed some of the most progressive natural resource management policies in the world. Nevertheless, for these policies to be sensitive to local contexts, there remains a need for a better understanding of how local people in different contexts, determine forest and woodland ecosystems to be of use to them, and what 'usefulness' means to different groups of resources users. This is a case study, which examines the role of fuelwood, brushwood and kraal posts in the rural livelihoods of the people of Machibi village, located in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, through people's preferences for particular landscapes and species, accessed for these purposes, and the trade-offs people make between resource availability and resource accessibility. Key objectives of the study are to 1) determine the preferred landscapes and species for fuelwood, brushwood and kraal posts at Machibi, 2) determine the landscapes and species actually used for fuelwood, brushwood and kraal posts, and 3) with the help of a conceptual model, and using iterative modelling as a tool, determine the factors that influence people's harvesting strategies in terms of the costs and benefits associated with the different landscape and species options. On the basis of this knowledge, the study provides some guiding principles for the better use and management of these landscapes and species for fuelwood, brushwood and kraal posts. An innovative research approach and methodology that integrates social and ecological systems, works across disciplines, and draws on different types of knowledge is used to develop and test a conceptual model of the harvesting strategies of fuelwood and kraalwood users at Machibi. Participatory methods such as workshops, participatory resource mapping, ranking exercises and trend-lines were used to tap into local knowledge while plotless vegetation sampling and GIS maps were used to capture the scientific information. Results showed that people did not always use the landscapes and species they preferred. However, the local people did behave in a rational manner by weighing up the returns from harvesting and accessibility costs associated with the respective options available to them, before selecting the option(s) associated with the greatest net benefits. At the landscape level, people made trade-offs between the returns from harvesting and the accessibility costs of using particular landscapes in addition to costs associated with the physical work of harvesting fuelwood, brushwood or kraal posts from these landscapes. At the species level, people made trade-offs between the returns from harvesting and the accessibility costs of harvesting particular species for fuelwood, brushwood and kraal posts, or the costs of commercial alternatives. Costbenefit factors that influenced people's resource use patterns also differed across landscapes and species for fuelwood, brushwood and kraal posts, respectively. Consequently, a range of diverse and flexible management options and strategies is recommended for the wise use and management of these landscapes and species, focused on short, medium and long term goals. These strategies examine the use of cost - benefit incentives to influence people’s landscape and species use patterns.

The Clean Community System (CCS) is a method of waste management education widely used in the USA by the Keep America Beautiful organization. The CCS has been applied by the eThekwini Municipality since 1981. The training of staff and volunteers in the CCS has to date been limited and based on the American model. The aim of this study is to provide guidelines for the training of participants in the Clean Community System in the South African context. This will be achieved by a study of two community groups that have successfully applied the CCS. The results of the research will be compared with the principles of the CCS and relevant literature. The conclusions drawn from the study will provide guidelines for the training of participants in the CCS. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Didactics)

Anthropogenic activities generate waste products that pollute the environment with bacteria and heavy metals. This research assessed pollution of the Kahwa River, Bukavu Town, DRC with cadmium and lead (HMs) and bacterial enteropathogens. A survey of businesses, households and healthcare facilities showed general use of the river to remove effluent and waste. Indicator organisms were cultured at over 200 cfu/100 ml showing faecal contamination of the river water. Antibiotic resistance was shown by enteropathogenic Vibrio cholerae and Salmonella typhi to ampicillin and cotrimoxazole with some sensitivity shown to ciprofloxacin. River water contained HMs at around 40 times the World Health Organisation limit for drinking water. The bacteria, particularly from river sediment, tolerated HMs up to a concentration of 1.5 mg/ml. The presence in the Kahwa River of antibiotic-resistant pathogens showing tolerance to HMs has serious public health implications / Environmental Management / M.Sc. (Environmental management)

The most contemporary approach to biodiversity conservation within South Africa is that of community-based initiatives, which seek to combine biodiversity conservation with socioeconomic development. As a challenge to the Western, science laden approaches to conservation there is an increasing need for community initiatives to reflect the values of local communities. Values of local communities and the management body, CapeNature, with regards to Driftsands Nature Reserve, Cape Town, were captured and analytically coded through the qualitative methods of interviewing and participant observation in order to develop a grounded theory and model. A discussion of the expressed values suggests that community-based conservation initiatives are doing little to include community values even though there is a large degree of agreement between these and corporate values. As such, it is questioned whether community-based conservation can be practised within an organisation which, due to procedures and protocols, is top-down in its approach. / Geography / M. Sc. (Geography)

Thesis (MSc (Conservation Ecology and Entomology))--University of Stellenbosc, 2005. / Biodiversity is under enormous pressure from an increasing human population. Urbanisation, agriculture, and mining are just some of the factors responsible for the continuous degradation of the natural environment. Of these, urbanisation is one of the leading factors of diversity loss. To address this problem, it is necessary to understand the relationship between biodiversity and urban areas, as well as the relationship between society and biodiversity. This study focuses on these relationships and suggest ways in which urban biodiversity can be maximised without compromising on development. In order to create an urban environment that successfully supports maximised biodiversity, new methods and ideas must be developed to promote the protection of urban ecosystems. The Cape Floristic Region in South Africa is a good example of an area that requires immediate action in order to prevent enormous losses in biodiversity. Data have shown drastic decreases in natural vegetation cover in this area, and with its close to 9000 species, of which approximately 60% occurs nowhere else in the world. This state of affairs should be regarded as a serious crisis. This study consists of three main parts, the first being a literature review on the current relationships between the urban environment, society, and biodiversity. The second and third parts report on two empirical investigations on the campus of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Stellenbosch in the City of Cape Town. The first of these investigates the possibility of using spirituality connected to nature as a promotional tool for conservation through rehabilitation or restoration of damaged urban vegetation habitats. For this purpose students’ and staff members’ opinions of the urban nature at the campus were tested. In the second investigation the options of restoring biodiversity to the campus was considered by exploring the best options available for rehabilitation while taking the current biodiversity status on and around the premises into account. This was carried out through three smaller projects that included the physical reintroduction of plant species, vegetation analysis, and bird identification and attraction. The response of employees and students at the Faculty of Health Sciences was found to be in favour of restoring vegetation and animal life to the campus. This is supported by a belief that their attitude towards their work would improve with improved natural surroundings. Initial rehabilitation attempts highlighted the complexity of rehabilitation practices by bringing forward challenges and problems experienced with the reintroduction of plant species. Despite these problems, increased plant diversity in experimental areas showed the possibility of successfully completing the project. Biodiversity analysis showed that methods of controlling vegetation used by the university are doing more harm than good, as it results in indigenous vegetation being displaced by exotic vegetation. This study introduces a number of questions regarding the relationship between urbanisation and biodiversity and to what extent the two should be linked. Hopefully it is a step in the direction towards marrying the urban and natural environment, and to create a sustainable urban environment where society no longer sees nature as something outside the city boundaries.

Preservationist conservation created a legacy of national parks and protected areas that were surrounded by local people dispossessed of their land and denied the rights to use the resources they had previously relied upon. Although conservation is now shifting towards a more participatory approach, research gaps still exist in determining the meaning of 'the environment' and the role of local means of conservation in rural communities in South Africa. This study focused on children's cultural environmental narratives from two rural villages in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Children from grades 4, 7 and 10 were involved in the study, and adult family members, local experts and village elders were included in the study to allow for comparison between children's and adult's narratives and to realise what Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) was being passed on. This thesis considers children's use of the environment for play and their sense of place as key methods in ascertaining children's environmental narratives and perceptions. At both field sites, local experts and community elders possessed a wealth of cultural environmental narratives, but these narratives were not necessarily being passed on. Changing household structures and other socio-economic factors influence cultural environmental practices, which in turn have an impact on the cultural environmental narratives being passed down. In many cases, parents' safety fears strongly impacted upon children's access to the environment, resulting in gendered environmental knowledge. The study compared differing vegetation types and degrees of environmental access. The differing environments produced similar cultural environmental narratives, leading to new understandings in community environment relationships. Children living near the state administered forest had significantly less environmental knowledge, bringing about questions of sustainable bio-cultural diversity in the future. The recognition of cultural environmental values is especially important in the rural areas of South Africa, where unemployment and increased poverty levels have led to greater dependence on natural resources for social, economic and cultural purposes. It is proposed that local cultural environmental narratives and landscape perceptions be included into community conservation and environmental education policies and programmes to provide local solutions to the problem of biodiversity conservation in local contexts.

This study was conducted in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is a qualitative case study located within the interpretive paradigm and was carried out over a period of a year. The theory implicit in the interpretive paradigm is of human beings as interpreters and constructors of a meaningful world. Thus, the focus of this study was on investigating the benefits of indigenous ways of knowing about wild food plants (imifino) in conjunction with hands-on activity-based lessons. This was done with the view to promote a conceptual understanding of nutrition and conservation in the Natural Sciences. The transformation of the school curriculum in South Africa called Curriculum 2005 (C2005) underpinned by the outcomes-based education (OBE) philosophy also triggered this study. The C2005 and OBE emphasise that learners’ prior everyday knowledge should be taken into account during the teaching and learning processes. The intention of the curriculum is to promote the idea of grounding knowledge in local contexts, while being sensitive to global imperatives. Although the acquisition of western knowledge has been and still is invaluable to all, on its own, it has been incapable of responding adequately to modern society in the face of massive and intensifying disparities, untrammeled exploitation of resources, and rapid depletion of the earth’s natural resources. Essentially, indigenous knowledge systems represent both a heritage and resource that should be protected, promoted, developed and, where appropriate, conserved. It is a resource that should serve the present and succeeding generations as many people’s cultural practices still rely on the use of wild plants. Within this context it should be borne in mind that the overexploitation of natural resources threatens not only biodiversity but also local traditional knowledge systems and ultimately cultural heritage; and research has a role to play in this regard. The research process in this study evolved into two main phases. The initial phase involved mobilising Grade 7 learners’ prior everyday knowledge on wild food plants (imifino). This led to the second phase of the research project, which was aimed at developing concepts through three hands-on activity-based lessons. I invited a community member to give a lesson on what imifino is and how to collect and prepare it, with the belief that the involvement of parents and community members in learners’ education can help bridge the gap between everyday life and school science. It is for these reasons that I believe that the constructive perspective can provide an appropriate methodological framework, conceptual structure and terminology for analysis of teaching and learning activities on the use of wild food plants in this study. The data generation techniques used in this study were questionnaires, observations and interviews (semi structured and focus group). A wide range of data generation techniques were employed to crystallise and validate the data generated using triangulation. The results from the analysed data revealed that consideration of indigenous ways of knowing in conjuction with hands-on practical activities enhanced interaction and learning among the learners. Also, linking of scientific knowledge to learners’ everyday lives was useful in fostering meaning-making and conceptual development.

In the face of rapid urbanization and global climate change, urban trees and green spaces (UTGS) can contribute to the welfare of people and the urban environment. Urban trees and green spaces can assist to address urbanization challenges related to environmental degradation. While functions of UTGS have been well documented in the developed world, they have not yet received full attention in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, UTGS are under threat from urban development and fragmentation. Notably, the problems associated with UTGS also fall into the governance realm and indications are that poor governance and management of UTGS can negatively influence the potential benefits of UTGS to local people and the environment. This formed a basis for this research. The main objective of the study was to determine the current governance and management approaches to UTGS in South Africa. Through document search and review, the study determined the governance institutions influencing UTGS at national level and at provincial level (in the Limpopo and Eastern Cape Provinces). Face-to-face and online survey methods were used to determine the extent to which 28 local municipalities had adopted planned, systematic and integrated management of UTGS. The snowball approach was used to determine the key actors involved in UTGS activities and interviews were conducted to establish the roles and capabilities of these actors. A total of 540 household interviews were conducted to determine the institutional factors influencing local peoples’ ability to access, plant and use UTGS. The findings of the study showed that UTGS have not been adequately covered in existing governance institutions and practice at national and provincial levels. Local government municipalities were not managing their UTGS in a planned or systematic manner due to constraining factors such as insufficient funds, insufficient personnel, lack of equipment and lack of political support. Only 7.1 % of the surveyed municipalities had an urban tree management plan and an estimate of the urban tree stock; 32.1 % had tree policies; 28.6 % had tree bylaws; 21.4 % had tree planting schedules; 10.7 % had tree maintenance schedules and only 3.6 % had tree inspection schedules. Key actors involved in UTGS activities differed among levels of government. The actors included national and provincial government departments, local government municipalities, Non-Governmental Organizations, private sector companies and local volunteers. Most of the actors, however, either planted trees or provided tree seedlings to municipalities and the local people. Tenure security was a key institutional factor affecting peoples’ ability to plant, use or even remove trees from their residential plots. The same applied to trees in the streets and public parks. Whereas most respondents did not require permission to plant (79.8 %) or remove (75 %) trees on their residential plots, a majority of them required permission to plant and remove trees from streets (over 70 %) and public parks (over 80 %). However, with regard to planting and removing urban trees in public open spaces, 54% of the respondents indicated that permission was not required suggesting a lack of clarity among local residents on the issue. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that there is no political recognition and support for UTGS at almost all levels of government. This has resulted in the lack of incorporation of UTGS in urban planning and development and has caused UTGS to receive limited funding to permit planned and systematic management. Given the current rates of urbanization and urban development, the lowly prioritised UTGS are vulnerable to exploitation. To conserve UTGS and promote their potential contribution to local people and the environment, UTGS must be recognized and placed on political and development agendas. There is a need to develop national guidelines for UTGS management, assess the extent of the urban forest resource in local municipalities, clearly define the roles and capabilities of different actors, integrate UTGS in the urban planning and development system, and most of all seek to involve the local people in overall management and governance of UTGS.

The project was initiated by Eastern Cape Parks (ECP) as a request for the construction of inventories of priority species and their population levels inside three nature reserves on the Eastern Cape Wild Coast, South Africa, and to develop a strategic management plan to manage these natural resources in each reserve. Thirty key species were identified by local communities in and around Dwesa-Cwebe, Silaka and Mkambati Nature Reserves through community workshops. For forested areas belt transects of 100 m x 6 m where used. The basal circumference of key tree species within the belt transect was measured as well as the height of saplings (height < 150 m). Tree species were categorized based on densities, size class distribution (SCD) curves and values, and spatial grain. For grassland areas straight transects of 200 m long were used, along which ten 3 m x 3 m quadrates were placed at 20 m intervals. Within each grassland transect the height of herbs or tuft diameter of grasses was recorded and percentage cover estimated. Grassland species were categorized based on density, SCD curves and percentage cover. All species were placed into harvesting categories based on analysed ecological data that was collected in the field. Category 1 species were very rare or not found in the reserve and it was recommended that species be conserved and monitored. Category 2 species had low densities in the reserve indicating declining populations and was suggested that these be monitored and not harvested. Category 3 species had high densities and have potential for harvesting with strict limitations. Category 4 species were most abundant with very high densities and can be harvested within management guidelines. These categories were grouped further using social and ecological data such as harvesting risk, frequency of collection, use value and number of uses. This highlighted which species have conservation priority within each category and a decision can be made as to how intense or limited extraction should be. By incorporating GIS the distribution of each species was looked at and harvesting and non-harvesting zones established to determine where species can be extracted. Monitoring plans must consider the quantity of plant material collected, fire regimes, optimal harvesting rates and harvesting zones, and be able to pick up changes in populations. Also, it is important that the community be involved in conserving and monitoring these species. Adaptive monitoring and management must be used to steer harvesting practices in the Wild Coast reserves. This allows for the development of harvesting practices through ‘learning by doing’, and the evolution of good questions to guide monitoring decisions