Biodiversity Conservation Through Farming: A Landscape Assessment in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Torquebiau, Emmanuel; Dosso, Mireille; Nakaggwa, Flavia; Philippon, Olivier

doi:10.1080/10440046.2011.620227

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Key informant interviews in the present study revealed that the enactment and enforcement of the National Veld and Forest Fire Act of 1998 (Government of South Africa, 1998) led to a significant reduction in the use of fire as an agent for clearing land for cultivation resulting in increases in flora and fauna diversity in the area. These findings confirm the findings by Torquebiau et al (2012) that since 1942 the MTA landscape has been experiencing an increase in woody cover.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Analysis of landscape performance assessment by key stakeholders in a transfrontier conservation area

et al. 2017

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Stakeholder engagement has become an important aspect of sustainable natural resources management. This study analysed a landscape performance assessment by local and 'external' stakeholders in a transfrontier conservation area in Southern Africa. The landscape was divided into three agro-ecological zones and focus group discussions were facilitated for stakeholders to evaluate the landscape based on four ecoagriculture dimensions (production, conservation, livelihoods and institutions). The conservation dimension showed the best performance and the overall score for the landscape was 2.97, implying a fairly good performance. Perceptions and ratings did not significantly differ by age, gender or stakeholder groups. We conclude that despite their low levels of formal education and training, communal farmers can assess the performance of local landscapes in a consistent way. This study provides information about the degree to which the landscape under focus conformed to the main ecoagriculture goals and can guide development planning and extension service provision.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Analysis of landscape performance assessment by key stakeholders in a transfrontier conservation area

et al. 2017

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“…It is indeed congruent with other findings in the area [29] indicating that existing institutions (e.g., Wildlife service; Ministry of agriculture) do not have any landscape-level actions and that the policy context poses a potential barrier to landscape-level management (e.g., inconsistencies between customary norms and public legislation). This could also be related to the complex tenure and governance system existing in the area, where several authorities coexist [23]. Alternatively, the two groups of interviewees agree on the fact that the KZN landscape can provide cultural services, an interesting finding to be correlated with strong Zulu traditions in the area.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The Mathenjwa people, who had been raising cattle extensively since their arrival in the area around the 17th century, were progressively forced to abandon subsistence nomadic pastoralism and shifting cultivation at the profit of sedentary peasant farming [23]. This change in farming practices was followed by an evolution of the landscape in the last 70 years towards an increase of wooded areas on long fallows and abandoned grazing areas.…”

Section: South African Site (Kzn)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing an Index to Reveal the Potential of Multipurpose Landscapes in Southern Africa

Torquebiau

Cholet

Ferguson

et al. 2013

Land

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Multipurpose mosaic ("ecoagriculture") landscapes can serve the purpose of land sharing to combine objectives of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. Rewarding the people who shape and maintain those landscapes could act as a mechanism to generate added-value representing an indirect payment for ecosystem services. We investigated the feasibility of such an approach in two areas in Southern Africa differing in spatial configurations, history and socio-economic context. We designed and tested a composite index describing the state of each landscape in terms of ecoagriculture criteria (conservation, production, institutions and livelihood) and ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating and cultural services). The resulting index is made up of different sets of data each comprising 40 scores, obtained from stakeholders' participatory interviews. Ecosystem services are in general assigned more importance than ecoagriculture criteria. In both cases, cultural services receive the highest scores, whereas the lowest ones are attributed to the livelihood and institutions in the Zimbabwean and South African sites, respectively. Index values reveal that the South African site, where there is more integration between land-use units, does better in terms of a landscape performing multiple functions. Provided relevant stakeholders are involved and a certification mechanism is developed, the landscape labelling index can be used to recognize and reward the value of outstanding rural landscapes. OPEN ACCESSLand 2013, 2 706

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“…Farmers are taught to be reliant on external sources for inputs which often come at high costs that are practically unaffordable to many poor farming households. In a context in which the presence of extension often pushes farmers toward conventional agriculture, it is not surprising that Torquebiau et al (2012) remarked in their findings from a study that examined the factors responsible for a well-balanced landscape in an area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, that: "The absence of extension services so far has probably played an important role in maintaining the landscape in its current form. Farmers tend to copy existing practices.…”

Section: Role Of Extension In Biodiversity Conservationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Exploring the Role of Agricultural Extension in Promoting Biodiversity Conservation in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

Abdu-Raheem

2014

Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems

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Biodiversity conservation outside designated protected areas remains challenging in South Africa, where 80% of the biodiversity resources occur on private and communal lands. This applies to the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, which is the focus of this study. Landholders logically choose agricultural production ahead of conservation, which they often perform using non-ecological methods. Extension is well positioned to promote ecological agriculture, but its current contribution is unknown. This study examined the role of extension in ecological agriculture in KZN by investigating extension's promotion of ecological agriculture among smallholder farmers and the factors impacting their employment of ecologically compatible practices. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with 44 respondents, comprising 5 provincial biodiversity conservation practitioners, 1 national biodiversity conservation manager, and 1 national and 4 provincial agricultural extension managers, selected by purposive sampling; as well as 25 extension officers and 8 farmers, selected by convenience sampling. The study found that extension mainly engages in technology transfer and distribution of production inputs, which poses challenges to biodiversity conservation. Extension shows little concern for biodiversity, and effectively promotes its degradation. Four sets of factors impacting extension's capacity to promote ecological agriculture emerged: household/community-level, governmental, extension management, and ecological factors. Key among these were inadequate involvement of youth and men in K. A. Abdu-Raheem agriculture; inadequate household production resources; poor collaboration and coordination between extension and biodiversity conservation institutions; top-down extension intervention; poor extension management and delivery capacities; and irregular and inadequate rainfall, as well as droughts and flooding. The study concluded that there is a need for a clearly articulated extension and biodiversity conservation policy supporting appropriate linkages and better coordination and integration of services among extension and biodiversity agencies within the National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture and with farmers; more effective agricultural education in schools; strengthening extension support systems; and creating conducive atmospheres for effective extension.

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Biodiversity Conservation Through Farming: A Landscape Assessment in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Cited by 8 publications

References 22 publications

Analysis of landscape performance assessment by key stakeholders in a transfrontier conservation area

Analysis of landscape performance assessment by key stakeholders in a transfrontier conservation area

Designing an Index to Reveal the Potential of Multipurpose Landscapes in Southern Africa

Exploring the Role of Agricultural Extension in Promoting Biodiversity Conservation in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

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