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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10756 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Whyte, Michelle |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MSc |
| Format | ix, 193 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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