Analysis of Stakeholders Involvement in the Subtropical Thicket Restoration Project, in Western Baviaanskloof, South Africa
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This file has been cleaned of potential threats. If you confirm that the file is coming from a trusted source, you can send the following SHA-256 hash value to your admin for the original file. f4712bc2de7650182712f2dad39c70bca6540f08d59c6ec1ee7ea03823c0c73f To view the reconstructed contents, please SCROLL DOWN to next page. Analysis of stakeholder interactions and involvement in thicket restoration, Western Baviaanskloof, South Africa Who is willing to restore and why? Emmanuelle Noirtin Thesis report April 2008 Analysis of stakeholder interactions and involvement in thicket restoration, Western Baviaanskloof, South Africa Who is willing to restore and why? As part of Ecosystem Approach for Subtropical Thicket Conservation And Restoration (Eastern Cape, South Africa) Emmanuelle Noirtin Supervisors Matthew Zylstra, Dieter van den Dr Dolf de Groot, Broeck, Environmental Systems Analysis group, EarthCollective Wageningen UR Email: [email protected] PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, [email protected] The Netherlands Email: [email protected] Master thesis project assigned by Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme - STRP, South Africa. Co-funded and supported by Speerpunt Ecosysteem- en Landschap Services (SELS)- WUR Department of Water Affairs and Forestry – DWAF/ Working for Water and Gamtoos Irrigation Board - GIB, South Africa. In collaboration with Rhodes Restoration Research Group - R3G, South Africa and Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), The Netherlands. Facilitated by PRESENCE - Participatory Restoration of Ecosystem Services & Natural Capital (Eastern Cape) platform and EarthCollective. This thesis has also been supported by Région Picardie (France) and European Union. Front page Pictures: Portulacaria Afra, “spekboom”, from an STRP experimental plot in Rooihoek, Baviaanskloof, and Baviaanskloof landscape, by Kim Janssen Citation: Noirtin E. 2008. Analysis of stakeholder interactions and involvement in thicket restoration, Western Baviaanskloof, South Africa: Who is willing to restore and why? MSc thesis. Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Commissioned by the PRESENCE learning network Aknowlegements This report is the result of a research field work that was carried out in the Western Baviaanskloof in South Africa between September and December 2007 in the framework of the Master of Science degree in Environmental Sciences and more specifically under the Environmental Systems Analysis Group. First of all, I would like to thank Dolf de Groot for his valuable comments and advises during the whole process of this thesis. I am very grateful for the time he took to guide me. I would like to thank also the EarthCollective team who facilitates this research and helped us to feel comfortable. Many thanks to Silvia, Coen, Bas, Dieter and Matt for the nice memories and positive ideas. Thank you specifically to Matt and Dieter for your supervision and good advice. Your help was priceless. Thank you to the two other member of the Kouga team, Lea Ezzy and Jannecke Spekkie for their good mood. I would like to thank Mike Powell from R3G for taking time to answer our questions, for welcoming us in Grahamstown and for your friendship. Thank you also to DWAF, GIB, R3G and WUR for their support during this research. Thank you to Edwill Moore, Pierre Joubert, Reinette Colesky, from GIB for facilitating our stay in Kouga Dam and answering our questions. Your help was very precious. Special thank to Yolandi Vermaak for helping us gaining time… I would like to thank also Wayne Erlank and Hein from Eastern Cape Parks for their assistance and for letting us staying in the beautiful Geelhoutbos during the interview time. Many thanks to all the farmers and their wives for their welcome, their collaboration and their friendship. You really took the time to answer our long questionnaire. Without your collaboration, this research would not have been possible. Thank you especially to Pieter Kruger and Chris Lamprecht for their precious help. You made the field work much easier for us. Thank you for sharing your stories and your “braais”. Thank you also to the communities, Sewefontein, Saaimanshoek and Tchnuganoo, and all other interviewee for their collaboration and time. This research depended on their willingness to collaborate. Finally, thank you to all my friends in Wageningen for supporting me during these last two years. Special thanks to Sugandha Gurung and Carolina Lemarie for welcoming me in your rooms. You collaborated to this thesis too by supporting me. The last but not the least, thanks to the three other “scientific officers”, Kim Janssen, Eliska Lorencova and Ignacio de la Flor for the nice group work. I really enjoyed working with you three. ii List of acronyms BMR Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve CAPE Cape Action for People and the Environment CFR Cape Floristic Region CI Conservation International DWAF Department of Water Affairs and Forestry DEAT Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (provincial level) DEAET Department of Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism (national level) EASTCARE Ecosystem Approach for Subtropical Thicket Conservation And Restoration (Eastern Cape, South Africa) ECPB Eastern Cape Parks Board EIA Environmental Impact Assessment GIB Gamtoos Irrigation Board MCA Multi criteria analysis PRESENCE Participatory Restoration of Ecosystem SErvices and Natural Capital (Eastern Cape) SA South Africa STEP Subtropical Thicket Ecosystem Planning STRP Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization WF Wilderness Foundation WUR Wageningen University and Research Centre iii Summary With its nomination as a World heritage site by UNESCO in 2004, the Baviaanskloof Natural Reserve of Eastern Cape, South Africa, has received much attention. Several programs are developed to increase the sustainability of the country and protect its biodiversity, of which the Baviaanskloof Mega-reserve and Subtropical Thicket Restoration Program are the main ones and both occur in the study area of this thesis which is the Western Baviaanskloof. This thesis is part of an integrated assessment project directed by EarthCollective1 concerning an Ecosystem Approach for Subtropical Thicket Conservation And Restoration (Eastern Cape, South Africa) (EASTCARE) in the Western Baviaanskloof as a pilot case study for implementation under PRESENCE (Participatory Restoration of Ecosystem SErvices & Natural Capital (Eastern Cape) (see box 1)). The study has been realised in collaboration with three other thesis-projects studying the socio-cultural values, economical values and institutional capacity of the study area, respectively. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the involvement of stakeholders in land restoration in relation to the thicket ecosystem of western Baviaanskloof. To reach this objective, a stakeholder analysis has been conducted in combination with a so-called „ecosystem function analysis‟ to select the six main thicket ecosystems services that are relevant to the stakeholders in the western Baviaanskloof: food production, medicinal resources, water supply, carbon sequestration, refugium (i.e. biodiversity protection) and recreation and tourism. Stakeholders have been identified and categorised in primary (mostly local people), secondary (mostly conservation organisations and municipalities) and tertiary stakeholders (mostly governmental departments), according to their influence and dependence on the thicket services considered. In order to determine the relationship between the different stakeholders and the thicket ecosystem, the eleven farmers having an activity in the study area have been interviewed through a questionnaire as well as three communities living in the area, Sewefontein, Saaimanshoek and Tchnuganoo. Other stakeholders having an interest in the study area have been interviewed through more open-questions, among which Eastern Cape Parks, Gamtoos Irrigation Board, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, the Cacadu district, the Baviaans municipality and the tourism association. The main negative impact that the thicket ecosystem is facing is the overgrazing due to intensive farming activities that are developed in the Western Baviaanskloof. However, the growing tourism activity is developing over the farming activities as well as is growing the general awareness about the necessity to restore the lands. As degradation is a big general issue in Eastern Cape, some programmes are created to counterbalance the negative impacts 1 EarthCollective is a network bringing together diverse groups to build new partnerships and synergies. It acts as a catalyst in creating, supporting and facilitating initiatives that reinforce links between a healthy natural environment and human well-being (EarthCollective website). iv of human activities on the ecosystems in order to facilitate the restoration and conservation of the ecosystems, such as the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve that aims at creating biologically, economically and socially sustainable conservation area including private landowners, state protected areas and communal concerns; and the Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme that aims at researching the scientific and practical feasibility of restoring thicket at the farm scale in a pilot project. Both projects involve the Western Baviaanskloof in their Planning domain. Since not all stakeholders have the same interests in the ecosystem services, depending