Land reform, sustainable rural livelihoods and gender relations: A case study of Gallawater A farm: Volume 2
Date
2000Author
Vetter, Susanne
Goqwana, Wiseman M
Bobo, Joseph
Marsh, Alan
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Show full item recordAbstract
There is an ongoing debate about the
sustainability of South African
communal rangelands as old views
on overgrazing and degradation are being
widely challenged. The degradation issue
has recently received renewed attention in
the light of land reform, as this is expected
to lead to an increase in the area of South
Africa which is held under some form of
communal tenure. District-level data on
vegetation and soil degradation (Hoffman
et al. 1999) have shown that communal
districts have significantly higher levels of
soil erosion, and that communal and
commercial districts experience very
different vegetation changes under the
same environmental conditions, even if
livestock densities are similar. The implications
of this for communal livestock
farmers are still under debate, and the
interrelationships between high human
population density, high stocking rates,
land degradation and people’s livelihoods
need to be better understood for land
reform to result in economically and
ecologically sustainable land use.
This case study of a land reform pilot
project in the Eastern Cape focuses on the
changes in the biophysical environment,
particularly soils and vegetation, which are
likely to result from the change of land
tenure and land use on Gallawater A.