Commercial exploitation of natural vegetation: an exploratory model for management of the wildflower industry in the Fynbos Biome of the Cape, South Africa

Davis, George W.

doi:10.1016/s0301-4797(05)80125-2

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…It also requires a profound reorientation, including openness to learning from the ontologies of Indigenous peoples. This is challenging in the context of South Africa, where colonial genocide resulted in significant losses for Indigenous peoples, languages and cultures, and where diversity of ethnicities and ancestral heritages intersect with complex migration histories to generate status uncertainty and political complexity (Guodaar and Bardsley, 2021). Consequently, it is extremely difficult to connect storytelling with proteas with the stories, meanings or linguistic practices of the diverse inhabitants who have occupied this landscape and related to these plants over time.…”

Section: Phytography and The Ethics Of Writing With/listening To Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardenthe scientific and activist hub for 'floral nativism'was established in Cape Town in 1913, the same year that the Native Land Act dispossessed Africans of all but 7% of South Africa's land (Boehi, 2016). Lobbying by local white residents, amateur botanists and wildflower enthusiasts culminated in the Flower Protection Bill of 1905 and the Wildflower Protection Ordinance of 1937 (Davis, 1990). The latter had disproportionately negative effects on Black 9 flower-pickers whilst simultaneously creating a valuable commodity from what were previously considered 'weeds' on white-owned farmland (Acocks, 1953).…”

Section: Protea As Icon: Interwoven Botanical and Human Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: The creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies

McEwan

2022

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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This paper argues for engaging in multispecies storytelling with plants to better conceptualise the ethics and contested ecologies associated with biodiversity loss. It focuses specifically on proteas, the iconic species of South Africa's threatened fynbos biome, to explore the possibilities of an ethical dialogue between human and more-than-human diversities, and to consider what might be gained from understanding plants as both agentic in contested ecologies and as storytelling figures worthy of attention. The paper draws on John Ryan’s conceptualization of phytography as a way of engaging in multispecies storytelling with plants. It teases out interwoven botanic and human histories, and the ways in which iconic proteas have written themselves into the narratives of their human interlocutors in the context of European settler colonialism, conservation, floral nativism and post-apartheid nation-building. The case for phytography is developed through an examination of the corporeal rhetoric of proteas in two examples. The first concerns the Mace Pagoda, a protea that resists narratives of extinction by writing back its percipience, agency, and resilience into human stories of anthropogenic habitat loss. The second focuses on botanical traces that result from absence, specifically the non-appearance in recent years of proteas in the Cederberg area of the Western Cape. The paper suggests that absence is a form of corporeal rhetoric through which plants write themselves into narratives of rapid climate change and multispecies loss. The final section of the paper explores questions of ethics that emerge from engaging with plants as storytellers, reflects on the kinds of human-plant relationships that are possible in the context of environmental catastrophe, and examines the possibilities that phytography provides for more-than-human engagements with plant life.

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Section: Phytography and The Ethics Of Writing With/listening To Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Protea As Icon: Interwoven Botanical and Human Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: The creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies

McEwan

2022

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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“…Formal regulation was introduced in 1938 when a harvesting permit system was initiated to protect vulnerable species (Davis, 1992). Harvesters, landowners, packsheds and sellers require annual licences awarded by CapeNature in order to pick, process or sell specific species.…”

Section: Wildflower Harvesting Within the Cape Floristic Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation in the context of wildflower harvesting: the development and implementation of a Vulnerability Index on the Agulhas Plain of South Africa

Privett

Bek

Bailey

et al. 2019

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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This paper focuses upon the role that science-based interventions allied to effective regulatory regimes can play in reducing the threat posed by inappropriate harvesting of wild flora. A Vulnerability Index (VI) has been developed for 150 natural fynbos species that exist on South Africa's Agulhas Plain, where intense wildflower harvesting occurs. The methodology underpinning the generation of the VI is outlined and justified in this paper. The VI comprises a range of characteristics relating to species distribution and biology that are likely to influence vulnerability to harvesting. The VI is proving to be an important tool for regulating the harvesting of wild fynbos and maintaining the resilience of natural ecosystems threatened by climate change. Furthermore, economic development and livelihood stability are promoted by protecting the resource base of marketable species. The paper discusses issues that have arisen relating to the application and rollout of the VI in practice.

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“…Fynbos has been harvested from the wild for more than a century. Prior to the 1960s, a local fynbos industry existed, serving various small‐scale markets, before fynbos products began to be traded on an international scale, albeit mainly to Europe (Davis ). Increasing commercialization of the industry led to focal flowers being cultivated in order to ensure consistency in supply and quality.…”

Section: The Biodiversity‐economy Paradigm As a Route To Social And Ementioning

confidence: 99%

“…From 1938, the industry became subject to a degree of regulation as a harvesting permit system was introduced, designed to protect vulnerable species (Davis ; Treurnicht ). In reality, such oversight has proven to be light touch at best, as the responsible provincial body, CapeNature, has lacked the resources and capacity to regulate the industry effectively.…”

Section: The Biodiversity‐economy Paradigm As a Route To Social And Ementioning

confidence: 99%

A High Road to Sustainability? Wildflower Harvesting, Ethical Trade and Social Upgrading in South Africa's Western Cape

Bek

Binns

Blokker

et al. 2016

Journal of Agrarian Change

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This paper evaluates the outcomes from an ambitious wildflower harvesting programme in South Africa's Western Cape, which has sought to achieve positive outcomes in terms of socio‐economic development and biodiversity conservation. Indigenous wildflowers, harvested according to conservation principles, are processed into ‘Cape Flora’ bouquets and sold into international and domestic markets. The principal supply chain provides an example of ethical trade due to the explicit environmental and social standards that are required at local sites of production. The incorporation of such standards represents an attempt to engender economic and social upgrading within the value chain. In this sense, the programme is consistent with dominant policy discourses, which suggest that exploiting potentially profitable niches within international trade flows represents a ‘high road’ to economic growth and transformation. The paper focuses upon the job creation and social impacts of the programme in the context of efforts to overcome South Africa's deeply entrenched socio‐economic disparities and high poverty levels. Despite impressive growth in production and exports during the global financial crisis, there have been mixed outcomes in terms of benefits to stakeholders at the upstream end of the supply chain. The paper concludes by considering the extent to which local initiatives operating under the framework of ethical trade possess the potential to facilitate effective social and economic upgrading.

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Commercial exploitation of natural vegetation: an exploratory model for management of the wildflower industry in the Fynbos Biome of the Cape, South Africa

Cited by 4 publications

References 23 publications

Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: The creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies

Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: The creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies

Conservation in the context of wildflower harvesting: the development and implementation of a Vulnerability Index on the Agulhas Plain of South Africa

A High Road to Sustainability? Wildflower Harvesting, Ethical Trade and Social Upgrading in South Africa's Western Cape

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