Magister Artium - MA / Wetlands provide various ecosystem services such as provisioning, regulating, supporting, and
cultural services which may be directly or indirectly beneficial to humans. The manner in which
such wetlands are managed is partly determined by human perceptions of their value. However,
climatic variability and climate change put the continued provision of such ecosystems under
stress. The result is that certain ecosystem services may be provided to differing extents during
anomalously wet or dry years. There is thus uncertainty as to the values ascribed to wetlands by
people during varying climatic phases. This thesis focuses on understanding how people perceive
the functioning of wetlands within our current climate against a background of climatic
variability and climate change.
This study explores people’s perceptions regarding the functioning of wetlands and ecosystem
services provided during dry and wet years, as an indication of how climatic variability and
climate change impact peoples’ perceptions. The data was collected in the wetlands of the
Agulhas Plain in the Nuwejaars Catchment. Five wetlands classified and scored using the WETEcoServices
tool. In addition, five semi-structured interviews and three participatory mapping
exercises with landowners were also undertaken. The study reports on the landowners’
awareness of wetland ecosystems, ecosystem services and climatic variability and climate
change. Provisioning, supporting, and cultural ecosystem services are frequently used by
landowners, which can be impacted by climatic variability and climate change. The WETEcoService
benefits and landowners perceptions of ecosystem services varies, as the WETEcoService
direct and indirect ecosystem services are either effective or ineffective in dry and
wet years. In contrast to landowners perceptions emphasising the importance of ecosystem
services directly beneficial to them. The study recommends that the ecosystem services
landowners perceive as important is linked to their interest to guarantee their participation in
catchment management. WET-EcoService benefits can inform landowners and managers about
ecosystem services degradation and whether their conservation methods are either positively or
negatively impacting wetlands.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6599 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Williams, Samantha |
| Contributors | Grenfell, Suzanne, Carolissen, Mandy |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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