Gender-based violence and environment linkages: summary for policy makers

The Biodiversity, Food Security, and Poverty Nexus in the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone of South Africa

“…Despite the mandatory EIA process (DEAT 2004;Hochkirch et al 2021) and contrary to the Constitutional tenet of a healthy environment for all, communities located next to megadevelopments (e.g., mines) often lack basic services, such as health care, while sexually transmitted diseases and gender-based violence are rife (Castañeda Camey et al 2021;Pretorius and Blaauw 2021;Rubin and Harrison 2015). For example, a 2015 study in Rustenburg, North West province-where platinum group metals are mined-reported that one in four women aged 18 to 49 years had been raped (Médecins Sans Frontières 2016).…”

“…Traditionally, communities in the Vhembe District Municipality of the Limpopo province practice organic farming, agroforestry, and crop diversification, supplemented by food gathering from the wild. Such livelihood strategies are threatened by land clearing to make way for megadevelopments (Castañeda Camey et al 2021) such as the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ), which will destroy large tracts of wilderness and pollute soil, water, and air (Semenya 2021). Pereira, Cuneo and Twine (2014) found, in another district of Limpopo province where food acquisition had switched from being grown or gathered to being purchased, the diets of the local community had become less nutritious.…”