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Hindawi e Scientific World Journal Volume 2017, Article ID 3763607, 12 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3763607 Research Article Assessment of Useful Plants in the Catchment Area of the Proposed Ntabelanga Dam in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa Alfred Maroyi Medicinal Plants and Economic Development (MPED) Research Center, Department of Botany, University of Fort Hare, PrivateBagX1314,Alice5700,SouthAfrica Correspondence should be addressed to Alfred Maroyi; [email protected] Received 13 May 2017; Accepted 2 July 2017; Published 30 July 2017 Academic Editor: Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos Copyright © 2017 Alfred Maroyi. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. The developmental projects, particularly construction of dams, result in permanent changes of terrestrial ecosystems through inundation. Objective. The present study was undertaken aiming at documenting useful plant species in Ntabelanga dam catchment area that will be impacted by the construction of the proposed dam. Methods. A total of 55 randomly selected quadrats were used to assess plant species diversity and composition. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods were used to identify useful plant species growing in the catchment area through interviews with 108 randomly selected participants. Results. Atotal of 197 plant species were recorded with 95 species (48.2%) utilized for various purposes. Use categories included ethnoveterinary and herbal medicines (46 species), food plants (37 species), construction timber and thatching (14 species), firewood (five species), browse, live fence, and ornamental (four species each), and brooms and crafts (two species). Conclusion. This study showed that plant species play an important role in the daily life and culture of local people. The construction of Ntabelanga dam is, therefore, associated with several positive and negative impacts on plant resources which are not fully integrated into current decision-making, largely because of lack of multistakeholder dialogue on the socioeconomic issues of such an important project. 1. Introduction resources [2]. For many local communities, the use of plant resources is a source of cultural identity, reflecting a deep Local vegetation provides local people with a variety of andimportantbodyofknowledgeabouttheenvironment, services and goods that support human well-being and survival, and sustainable living known widely as traditional survival. According to Hamilton et al. [1], plant resources ecological knowledge (TEK) [3]. Berkes [4] defined TEK as a provide local communities with food, fuel, and medicine, as cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving well as materials for construction and the manufacture of by adaptive processes and handed down through generations crafts and many other household products. Plant resources by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living play a central role in the everyday lives of rural people beings with one another and with their environment. TEK in developing countries and marginalized areas, with their systems, therefore, incorporate means of communicating and daily round of activities revolving around agriculture, the transmitting environmental knowledge including informa- gathering of edible fruits, leafy vegetables, herbal medicines, tion on the harvesting, processing, and sustainable use of fuelwood, the cooking and eating of largely plant-based plant resources, their seasons and cycles of production, their food, and the construction of buildings and fences [1]. Local habitats and their use by other species [4]. The significance people are known to harbour important information on of TEK as an important vehicle for sustainable development plant resources that are important for their livelihoods and was recognized in the Brundtland Commission’s report, our such information is important for management strategies common future [5], and at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro aimed at sustainable use and conservation of such plant in 1992 [6]. Traditional ecological knowledge has also been 2 The Scientific World Journal incorporated into the Agenda 21 document of the United Republic of South Africa in 1963, with the Ciskei homeland Nations and International Convention on Biodiversity [6, 7] following suit in 1972. The Transkei and Ciskei are today emphasizing the critical role of indigenous people and local characterized by pervasive chronic poverty, low levels of communities and their knowledge in achieving sustainable economic activity, dearth of employment opportunities, and environmental and natural resource management. Previous high levels of dependency on welfare [16]. An estimated 72% research in South Africa revealed that plant resources serve of the population in the Eastern Cape province lives below a number of functions including daily subsistence, income- the poverty line, which is more than the national average generation, cash saving [8], safety nets during times of of 60% and this is attributed to the legacies of Apartheid, adversity [9, 10], and meeting spiritual and cultural needs [11]. where the Eastern Cape provincial administration inherited It is within this context that an assessment of useful plants in the largely impoverished and corrupt former Transkei and the catchment area of the proposed Ntabelanga dam in the Ciskei homelands [17]. EasternCapeprovince,SouthAfrica,wascarriedout. Ntabelanga catchment area receives an annual rainfall The Department of Water and Sanitation, South Africa, of about 749 mm, with most of it falling in December and commissioned the construction of Ntabelanga dam on the January [18]. The lowest (15 mm) average rainfall is received Tsitsa river, an integrated multipurpose project aimed at reju- in June and the highest (108 mm) in January [18]. The venating domestic and industrial water supply, irrigation, and area is underlain by sedimentary rocks of the Tarkastad hydroelectric power purposes, tourism, conservation, and subgroup and Beaufort karoo supergroup with post-karoo other related activities. This is a multipurpose project aimed doleritic intrusions [18, 19]. The area is characterized by at providing socioeconomic development opportunities for highly unstable soils that are prone to erosion, as evidenced by the Eastern Cape province [12]. According to the Department extensive areas of severe gully erosion on the interfluvial areas of Water and Sanitation [12], the proposed Ntabelanga dam adjacent to stream channels [13]. Mucina and Rutherford [20] 3 has a storage capacity of 490 million m and is estimated described the vegetation of the study area as subescarpment to supply potable water to 730,000 people by the year 2050. grassland and subescarpment savanna bioregions dominated Thedamwillalsoprovidewatertoirrigateapproximately by moist grasslands and Acacia spp. This vegetation type 2,900haofarablelandandtherewillbeasmallhydropower occurs at an altitude of 880–1860 m above sea level with plant at the dam to generate between 0.75 MW and 5 MW the landscape characterized by moderately rolling hills [20]. (average 2.1 MW) [12]. Research by Van Tol et al. [13] revealed Households in Ntemalanga catchment area have small per- that large dams play an important role in rejuvenating eco- manent arable land between 0.1 ha and 0.5 ha of the 1 ha nomic and social development but are often associated with homestead land allocated to them by the tribal authorities environmental degradation through permanent inundation tosubsistenceagriculture[13].Thearablelandsaretypically of previously dry areas, alteration of stream flow regimes, consolidated rainfed farming areas, which can be made up reduction in natural flooding, and fragmentation of river of several plots (1 to 3 ha or more). With poverty, low levels ecosystems, thereby reducing species diversity. The present of economic activity, and the poor quality land allocated to study reports on plant diversity and useful plant species in the Ntabelanga catchment area residents, nonfarm activities are Ntabelanga dam catchment area that will be impacted by the potentially an important source of livelihood. construction of the dam. Results of this study are of interest to the scientific community interested in the uses and values 2.2. Data Collection. Plant diversity within the Ntabelanga of plant diversity to local communities and associated TEK catchment area was inventoried in March 2016, Novem- in the context of large-scale socioeconomic developmental ber 2016, and February 2017. A total of 55 randomly projects. selected quadrats covering potential areas to be impacted by Ntabelangadamwereusedtoassessplantspeciesdiversity 2. Methods and composition (Figure 1(b)). Plant species were identi- fied in the field and the taxon names conform to those 2.1. Study Area. The Ntabelanga dam catchment area (Fig- of Germishuizen et al. [21]. Unknown plant species were ure 1) falls within the semiarid area of the former Transkei collected, pressed, oven-dried, and identified by taxonomists homeland in the Eastern Cape province. Large parts of the at the Giffen Herbarium (UFH) at the University of Fort Eastern Cape province are made up of former homelands Hare and Schonland Herbarium (GRA) at Rhodes University, of the Apartheid period, namely, Transkei and Ciskei. One Grahamstown, South Africa. of the Apartheid government’s acts of segregation