Feasibility Study -- Establishment of an Amathole Mountains Biosphere

AMATHOLE DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY

Feasibility Study

Establishment of an Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve

1 1. Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Objective of the Report 1.3 Assumptions of the Report 2. Biosphere Reserves 2.1 UNESCO and Biosphere Reserves 2.2 Biosphere Reserve Establishment Process 2.3 Biosphere Reserve Establishment Recommendations 3. Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve Spatial Assessment 3.1 Bio-physical Environment 3.2 Environmental Feasibility 3.3 Incorporating Heritage and Cultural Diversity 3.4 Local Communities 3.5 Land Transformation 3.6 Cadastral Information 4. Current Land Use Patterns 5. Future and Potential Land Uses in the Biosphere Reserve 5.1 Land Use Recommendations 6. Institutional Arrangements 6.1 Current Management Institutions 6.2 Implementation Recommendations 7. Current Development Initiatives in the Area 8. Potential Links with other Conservation-based Initiatives 9. Consultative Data Base and Recommendation 10. Financial Feasibility 11. Implementation Action Plan 11.1 Logical Framework 11.2 Performance Tracking 11.3 Budget 12. Conclusions 13. Cost benefit Analysis 14. Feasibility Study Conclusions 15. Recommendations 16. Appendices 16.1 Consultative Process 16.1.1 Record of Consultations 16.1.2 Findings of Consultations 16.1.3 Stakeholder Data Base 16.2 Biophysical Data Layers 16.2.1 Index of Data Layers 16.2.2 Source of Data and History of Access 16.3 Social and Economic Data Layers

2 1. Introduction

This report involves the formulation of a project concept document and a feasibility analysis for the establishment of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve.

The idea of this biosphere reserve has been promoted, amongst others, through the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism (now the Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs), since the 1990s. Several other stakeholders have promoted the idea through the years. The Amathole District Municipality (ADM) has of late become the driving institution, and political and institutional champion of this initiative. The ADM has funded this report, and chaired the project steering committee structures.

This study has focused on the conceptualisation of the project concept, and further analysis of the feasibility of such an initiative. The project team considered the feasibility in terms of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) criteria of biosphere feasibility, namely: • The ecological feasibility and coherence of the proposed reserve,

• The contribution to sustainable development of the region while promoting the biodiversity conservation; and • The logistic and institution feasibility of managing the reserve.

The concept of a biosphere reserve has been found to be particularly well suited to the region in question. The domain of the area considered has expanded to almost 2 million hectares; more than twenty-fold the originally anticipated area of the tender process.

The proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve is located centrally in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

Eastern Cape, South Africa

Its location in the province straddling the area of commercial private landholdings and the community land of the former homelands, positions this Amathole Biosphere Reserve well to promote sustainable development through conservation economy initiatives that enable economic empowerment for poor people. It is thus proposed that the vision of the initiative be developed in the next phase of the project but that it encompasses at least a goal to:

• Conserve the natural and cultural heritage of the area

• Promote the conservation economy that uplifts the historical marginalized and poor people of the region • Strengthen institutions that promote the interests of the people of the

region.

Proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve

The area has emerged as a complex matrix of landholdings, some vested under state conservation areas, large portions under state ownership but controlled under traditional authorities, and larger portions still under private ownership, which are either in private conservation or agricultural land-uses. The commercial forestry sector has a significant presence in the region. Much private and community land is also conservation-worthy and thus suites the concept of a biosphere reserve well.

The tender team has come up with draft biosphere reserve configuration after considerations of baseline data sets and ecological opportunities and constraints, socio-economic realities and institutional arrangements. The report below will detail the rationale for the recommendations. The recommendations have identified core, buffer and transitions zones, in the format recommended by UNESCO. This draft reserve outline should form the basis and provide the focus of a detailed planning and consultation phase prior the reserve “establishment” and UNESCO nomination.

Draft Amathole Biosphere Reserve Configuration

The area considered in this report has stretched broadly from the towns of:

• Bedford in the west,

• Stutterheim and Bhisho in the east,

• Whittlesea and Cathcart in the north, and

• Peddie in the south.

While this gave the project team broad spatial parameters to refine the study focus, it was principally the biological priorities that have defined the boundary recommendations of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve of this report.

6 1.1 Background

The ultimate challenge of establishing a biosphere reserve is to establish systems and structures to enable the conservation of biodiversity patterns and processes, cultural and historical assets and the living landscapes contained in the area of focus, while meeting the material needs and desires of the people that live in the region. The biosphere reserve concept is an attempt to address the sustainable development of an area through the a land-use zonation that sets aside areas defined as the core area, the buffer zone and transition areas where different forms of land uses are promoted and tolerated.

Biosphere reserves aim to reconcile apparently conflicting ambitions of the conservation of biological and socio-cultural diversity, while promoting economic and social development.

The concepts of Biosphere Reserves originated in the 1960s & 1970s and emanated from the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) Conference on the Conservation and Rational Use of the Biosphere. The conference resulted in the launching of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, and the promotion of the biosphere reserves grew from this initiative. Biosphere reserves have to meet set criteria and are nominated by governments for admission to UNESCO’s “World Network” on qualification.

The proposed biosphere reserve is to fulfil three broad complementary functions as stipulated by UNESCO: • To conserve and protect landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic resources; • To enable and encourage sustainable economic development

compatible with the first function; and

• To coordinate and logistically enable the development of projects, education, training, research and monitoring that support the first two functions.

This is the ultimate objective of the feasibility study, which is to develop a feasibility of establishing, managing and developing a biosphere reserve in the Amathole Mountain Complex.

The structure of a “generic biosphere” is depicted in the figure below.

(DEAET 1999)

The core zone functions as a dedicated conservation area, which is not dominated by human activity and as such is under formal conservation management and monitoring. The Amathole Mountain Biosphere is likely to have several core areas, some linked and some separate. A pre-requisite of such a core area would be land under statutory conservation. Much of the conservation-worthy land in the region falls outside of statutory conservation area and thus will be contained in the buffer zones. In time more and more land can in fact move from one area of conation to another depending on its level of statutory recognition.

The buffer zone is clearly delineated and activities permitted augment the conservation objectives of the core areas. It is an area where research,

8 training, education, sustainable resource harvesting, “carbon-sink” economies and tourism are likely to be the major activities. A buffer zone may even have non-core conservation activities, like agriculture and forestry, but efforts are made to conserve the natural assets or impacts on the natural assets. Typically ecological restoration and conservation actions could and should be promoted in this zone, and conservation economy developments should be actively explored.

The transition zone is the area where most of the economic activities occur, and extractive commercial enterprises may make up the bulk of the commercial activities in such areas. This is the zone in which most of the communities, farmers and other commercial activities are currently active. In this zone cooperative strategies are to be developed to utilise natural resources sustainably. In the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve this would entail conservancies, community projects, e.g. the commercial utilisation of wattle infestations as a means to control the alien plant problems, and carbon trading through land restorations.

The biosphere must function to effectively conserve the biodiversity and cultural assets of the area, it must provide for economic and social development opportunities that are sustainable, and it must logistically provide for management, educational, research, monitoring and information sharing that enables to conservation estate’s development locally and internationally.

The biosphere reserve concept has several benefits. Communities will benefit through enhanced local economic development opportunities and a better- managed environment. This is a development imperative in the ADM. The area is located at an interface of commercial and private landholdings and impoverished community landholdings from the Apartheid homelands system. As such the development opportunities of a biosphere reserve, at least in theory, could provide for a tantalising development tool to utilise sustainable conservation economies to bring economic upliftment of poor people through efforts that conserve and improve their landscapes.

9 The statutory agencies and local governments could improve cooperation and shared objectives in managing areas, and develop a governance structure to operate the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve collectively. Private enterprise will benefit from a structure that creates opportunities from tourism and resource use that is sustainable. The conservation community will benefit from an area that is effectively conserved, both in terms of biological and cultural and historic assets of the region.

Biologically the Amatholes is an important area. It is a convergence zone of important biomes and represents a fantastic opportunity to capture landscape conservation opportunities.

Confluence of Biomes in the Amatholes

The area represents a convergence of the Nama Karoo, Afro-montaine forests, Grasslands, the Pondoland coastal flora, and elements of the Fynbos biome. It has species diversity of spectacular proportions with more than 1200 species identified, and in particular the forests of the region are especially

10 species diverse. This convergence gives an extremely rich bio-physical matrix to the region.

The Rich Biophysical Matrix of the Region

Institutionally the area is however complex. There is a complex matrix of land ownership and a myriad of government structures with statutory obligations as far as the land management of the area is concerned. To deal with such institutional complexities, it has been recommended by the tender that the initiative be managed by a dedicated legal entity. No single entity has the necessary focus or control of the land parcels at present to drive such a multi- stakeholder venture at present. (See recommendations below.)

The tender team has attempted to integrate the bioregional programmes such as STEP, the grasslands programme and the recently compiled Eastern Cape Biodiversity Strategy data into the recommendations of this report. Thousands

11 11 of data layers were analysed in the synthesis of the recommendations of this report.

As a starting point for the recommendations of the core area distributions several statutory protected areas are found in the region. This will form the bases of the core areas of the biosphere reserve. These include:

PROTECTED AREAS MANAGEMENT ENTITY Cata Forest Department of Water Affairs & Forestry Cwengcwe Forest Department of Water Affairs & Forestry Dontsa Forest Department of Water Affairs & Forestry Izeleni Forest Department of Water Affairs & Forestry Pirie Forest Department of Water Affairs & Forestry Rabula Forest Department of Water Affairs & Forestry Zingcuka Forest Department of Water Affairs & Forestry Fort Fordyce Nature Reserve Eastern Cape Parks Board Mpofu Game Reserve Eastern Cape Parks Board Great Fish River Reserve Complex Eastern Cape Parks Board Katberg State Forest (Grassland) SAFCOL/MTO Katberg State Forest (Indigenous) SAFCOL/MTO Kwandwe Private Game Reserve CC Africa

The feasibility study has ensured that remnants of the threatened forests of the Amatholes are accommodated in the proposed conservation areas.

Provisions were made for a biosphere reserve to qualify for registration to UNESCO. This assessment took into account the UNESCO provisions for the area to attain Biosphere Reserve Status. In doing so this report considered the area in terms of:

• Its importance for biodiversity conservation;

• It being representative as a collective of ecological systems of a biosphere; • It being representative of opportunities for serving the biosphere objectives of conservation, sustainable development and improving the coordination

12 12 of management, research, education etc. It included the three functions, through appropriate zonation, to; o Represent a gradient of human activity that is compatible with the zonation of a Biosphere Reserve; o Represent opportunities for large scale and regional sustainable development initiatives; o Explore the institutional arrangements between statutory and government organisations, communities, the civil society sector organisations and the private sector to establish a co-management structure to effectively manage the initiative in a cohesive manner. This is to include the consumptive land-uses, the strategies for management, institutional responsibilities and the specific programmes and projects that are to be undertaken at the outset.

13 13

1.2 Objective of the Report

This study has been commissioned by ADM to establish the feasibility of embarking on the nomination and implementation trajectory of establishing the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve.

It must be noted that there are several landscape conservation initiatives and modality that is currently in use. Biosphere reserves are merely one such mechanism. Others that are locally popular as landscape reserve processes are:

• Biosphere Reserves such as the Kogelberg, West Coast and recently the

Winelands Biosphere Reserves of the Western Cape.

• The Mega-reserves (or Corridor Initiatives) of the Cedarberg, Gouritz, Garden Route and Baviaanskloof areas. • Mega-conservancy Networks of STEP

• Transfrontier initiatives such as the Moloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier

Project.

• World Heritage Sites

• Conservancies, which are voluntary forums of landholdings working towards a common goal.

While all these initiatives have varying justifications for following a certain model of implementation, the fact that the Amathole is very fragmentised region as far as institutional authority is concerned in respect to land custody, a structured Biosphere nomination process and thus focused initiative that is required by a Biosphere Nomination process, would be of benefit to the area under consideration. It would give the process structure and focus, and furthermore necessitate the logistic coordination of management for the proposed reserve.

The status attained and international networks into which Biosphere Reserves coordinate would provide for international attention and status that could give the emerging project substantial momentum in implementation. The report that recommends that a biosphere reserve would be an appropriate route through which to drive the project.

The feasibility consideration of this report has thus set about the analysis of the opportunity to establish a biosphere reserve.

The report was intended to be a desktop analysis of available data, and broad-based consultative process that ascertained the general enthusiasm for the establishment of a biosphere reserve in the region. The report was not a research report that collected new data, nor detailed nomination consultative process. It merely aimed to establish the feasibility of moving forward with both the planning and implementation of the Biosphere Reserve.

If constraints emerge as far as the data is concerned and the recommendations emanating from it, it is important that further planning and implementation processes address the issue.

1.3 Assumptions of the Report

This report is a desktop study, and relied heavily on data collected and received from various sources.

Resources and time only permitted preliminary stakeholder consultations. Consultations have been done to establish the following:

• To identify stakeholders;

• To inform potential stakeholders;

• To Identify potential support and resistance to the establishment of a biosphere reserve in the Amathole Mountains region; • To develop a database of stakeholders to be engaged in the preparation phase of the Biosphere nomination process to UNESCO.

In the methodology of the study is was a contractual and operational assumption that ADM would supply all relevant data, reports, information to be considered in the development of this report. This assumption proved to be incorrect. The project was initiated on 1 March 2007, and only by the 29 June 2007 was the last of critical biodiversity data collected. While it was an assumption that the ADM would provide the relevant information, the contract team had to collect the data in own time, with own resources, and on own initiative. The ADM GIS department and staff were repeatedly asked to provide information, and it was not forthcoming. This had an extremely negative impact on the time availability to conduct the work planned in this tender, and on the time available to do the consultation work.

At the time of drafting the report the contract team were informed of KPMG tourism analysis of ADM that was done but such information was not available. This lack of information, and difficulty in data collection proved to be a major hindrance to the project delivery.

It must be noted that Buffalo City Municipality had recent ortho-rectified aerial images of some of the relevant areas, and despite a letter of request signed by the ADM Municipal Manager, were unwilling to part with this data to the project team. This lack of co-operative governance is concerning and limited the accuracy of analysed data.

Data was made available by DWAF, Working for Water, CES, Arcus Gibb, Dennis Moss Partnership, and Cape Nature. These institutions are gratefully acknowledged.

The collection of project information from the various municipal LED teams proved to be a difficult and incomplete endeavour, as was our efforts to get information from academic institutions.

2 Biosphere Reserves

2.1 UNESCO and Biosphere Reserves

More than 500 Biosphere Reserves have been declared across the world in more than 100 countries. Such reserves have to varying degrees of success tried to address the oft-conflicting agendas of conservation and development through the sustainable use of biological and natural resources in living landscapes.

The first Biosphere Reserve was recognised by UNESCO in 1976. Locally the Western Cape has three biosphere reserves, with the Winelands Biosphere Reserve currently awaiting recognition. Biosphere Reserves are reserves, or areas that are recognised by UNESCO, under their “Man and Biosphere” (MAB) Programme. This programme promotes the innovation of approaches to sustainable development that results in the conservation of the biodiversity and ecological patterns and processes of a nominated area.

The MAB governing body, the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, usually referred to as the MAB Council or ICC, consists of 34 Member States elected by UNESCO's biennial General Conference. In between meetings, the authority of the ICC is delegated to its Bureau, whose members are nominated from each of UNESCO's geopolitical regions. MAB's work over the years has concentrated on the development of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR).

Initially developed in 1974, but substantially revised after the 1995 Seville meetings (resulting in the UNESCO General Conference of Statutory Framework and the Seville Strategy for Biosphere Reserves.) The WNBR aims to utilise scientific knowledge and governance approaches to protect biological patterns and processes, through the promotion of sustainable development activities and the support of socio-economic and cultural specific modalities to ensure ecological sustainability. These efforts are also linked with achieving the Millennium Development Goals especially on biodiversity conservation.

MAB specifically recognises the role of places of cultural and historic significance, and their role on the conservation and management of Biosphere Reserves. In the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve s these aspects will play a critical role in involving people in the conservation and sustainable development of their reserve. Specifically Biosphere reserves aims to exploit and promote the linkages between cultural and biological diversity and the conservation of both.

Biosphere reserves targets the use of knowledge in the biological and ecological sciences at the policy and management levels to help minimise the loss of biodiversity, and thus the specific focus on research in these areas. The MAB programme promotes the interdisciplinary approach to capacity building and research to promote the inter-related relationship between people, their well-being and the environment. The WNBRs are thus a “vehicle for knowledge-sharing, research and monitoring, education and training, and participatory decision –making.” (UNESCO, 2007).

Biosphere Reserves are nominated by Governments, and in South Africa the designated authority rests with the National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). Once accepted by UNESCO, these areas remain under national sovereign jurisdiction, but benefit from the stature, experience and ideas shared locally and internationally by joining the UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

The reserves nominated may have various implementation arrangements, but a common thread is the promotion of living landscapes, in which people live and utilise the natural assets in sustainable ways. In the ADM it would be critically important that fears of being excluded from landscapes be addressed as many South Africans have experiences of reserves where they had been excluded and where conservation areas were the domain and playgrounds of the privileged. Biosphere reserves are not such reserves, but are rather reserves where people, their livelihoods and their prosperity, are integrated into the human interactions and conservation of the landscapes. Reserves should avoid becoming the establishment of areas that excludes human activities and presence, but rather seeks to be supportive of involving the people of the area in conservation actions, and the mitigation of negative environmental activities. Experience has demonstrated that the involvement of people in the reserve functions and opportunities has better results for conservation agendas.

In the process of the development of the nomination of the Biosphere Reserve the proponents would have to motivate the case for UNESCO’s three major functions of Biosphere Reserves relating to the proposed area. The proposed biosphere reserve is to fulfil three broad complementary functions as stipulated by UNESCO:

• To conserve and protect landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic resources;

• To enable and encourage sustainable economic development compatible with the first function; and • To coordinate and logistically enable the development of projects, education, training, research and monitoring that support the first two functions.

The reserve being proposed would have to be motivated in terms of its contribution to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic resources, and particularly why a specific area has importance for conservation at both the regional and global level. Development in the area has to be ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable and acceptable. This would determine the nature of the economic activities tolerated in the region, how it benefits people and affects the environment. The nomination requires the proponents to demonstrate projects that can be implemented, education and training opportunities in the reserve, and monitoring actions relevant to local, regional and global issues of conservation and development. The nomination process would also need to determine any past, present and planned research in the region.

Ecologically the area has to include ecological patterns and processes incorporating major bio-geographic regions with varying human impacts and utilisations. The Amathole Mountains represents a rich mosaic of this nature as will be demonstrated below. The Amathole Mountains have many significant species for conservation, biome interfaces and important conservation-worthy landscapes.

The area is to demonstrate opportunities for innovative approaches to sustainable development that is supportive of, and in synchronicity with biodiversity conservation. Tourism, sustainable resource harvesting and carbon-sink activities (that could benefit from the emerging Carbon Trading Economy) would be examples of such activities.

The Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve would have to demonstrate sufficient surface area to support the core and buffer zones to meet long-term conservation objectives, and still provide sufficient area and scope for people residing on living landscapes to conduct economically sustainable lives.

Structurally, the boundary of the Amathole Mountains Biosphere reserve would have to have a Core Area that would need to be of sufficient size, and have long-term conservation protection status (usually statutory protected areas), to meet conservation objectives of a biosphere reserve.

The Buffer Zone would comprise areas adjacent to the Core Areas in which land-uses are compatible to conservation objectives of the Core Area. These areas need not be statutory protected areas.

Outside the Buffer Zone would be a Transition Zone, which could be “fluid” in size. This area would focus on the development of sustainable conservation economy activities. Typically the key issues of development and conservation need to be addressed in this zone. It is in this zone, and in the buffer zone that complex engagement and extension work would need to be concentrated during implementation.

Draft Core, Buffer and Transition Zones of the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve

The nomination process also requires the proponents to address key institutional arrangements issues, inclusive of the roles and responsibilities of public entities, landowners, traditional authorities, civil society sector, and the private sector. This aspect needs careful consideration and this report will recommend the establishment of a dedicated legal entity to drive the establishment and management of the biosphere reserve. The nomination also requires the proponent to deal with the mechanisms of implementation, inclusive of detailing its policies, and if available its management plans, research, training, monitoring and education programmes.

The nomination process requires detailed consultation with interested and affected stakeholders. It also requires the development of management strategies, if plans are not yet established, for the relevant area. It also requires the consent of the relevant authorities and commitments to resourcing the proposed reserve.

The final application further requires the following supporting documentation:

• General location map of small or medium scale must be provided showing the location of the proposed Biosphere Reserve, and all included administrative areas, within the country, and its position with respect to major rivers, mountain ranges, principal towns, etc. The tender team have drafted these maps that should be seen as draft proposals at this stage and would require detailed endorsement following the consultative process of the nomination.

• Biosphere Reserve zonation map of a larger scale showing the delimitations of all core area(s) and buffer zone(s). The approximate extent of the transition area(s) should be shown.

• Vegetation map or land cover map showing the principal habitats and land cover types of the proposed Biosphere. This data has also been completed and would need to be adapted pending the outcomes of the detailed consultation process.

• List of legal documents authorizing the establishment and governing use and management of the proposed Biosphere Reserve and any administrative area(s) they contain. This would need to be negotiated in the consultative process.

• List of land use and management plans for the administrative area(s)

included within the proposed Biosphere Reserve.

• Species list (threatened species as well as economically important species) occurring within the proposed Biosphere Reserve, including common names, wherever possible.

• List of main bibliographic references

2.2 Biosphere Reserve Establishment Process

The nomination process for Biosphere Reserves is institutionally linked to government. This study details the advisability of embarking on such a process. The National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) is ultimately responsible for preparing nominations for Biosphere Reserves based on recommendations from the relevant Provinces.

Institutionally ADM could potentially lead the nomination process, but all institutions managing land in the region would need to endorse any nomination process that may follow. This would involve at least the following: Departments of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), Eastern Cape Parks Board (ECPB), Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs (DEDEA), District and Local Municipalities and any private landholder that would make out part of any core area, e.g. Kwandwe Private Game Reserve should they elect to be part of a core area.

Upon nomination by the DEAT, a UNESCO advisory committee considers the application. Then recommendations are presented to the International Co- ordinating Council of the MAB Programme. This Council takes a decision on nominations for designation and the Director-General of UNESCO notifies the State concerned of the decision.

This study has been the first step in preparing the nomination. It has embarked on the first part of the process of considering the data available, the institutional and stakeholder interest and detailed the process required to prepare a detailed application for nomination.

The data aggregated, and proposed configuration of the reserve will greatly assist any subsequent nomination process. Specifically the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve would require the following board process to follow this feasibility study to enable nomination to WNBR.

• Stakeholder Buy-in: While this project and report began the consultative process it was limited in time and resources, and thus in its reach to all the interested and affected stakeholders. A detailed consultative process would need to follow this report. This would initially serve to inform all stakeholders of the proposed reserve, and then consult with, and hopefully get majority endorsement for the proposed reserve. This process would take about 8 months to a year and could cost between R750 000 and R1 000 000.

• Institutional Endorsement: As part of the consultative process the various institutions involved in statutory management of reserve areas would need to formally support and endorse the nomination proposals, inclusive of their commitment to supporting the implementation of the reserve. This should form part of the consultative process above.

• Development of detailed Management Strategies and Management

Plans for the Amathole Biosphere Reserve: The various statutorily

managed areas would have management strategies/plans of the relevant statutory institutions. Initially such management plans would form part of the nomination process, but overarching management strategies would need to cohesively coordinate the management actions in the Core Zones. Amongst the early management actions of the nominated reserve would be the development of a detailed and appropriate management plans for the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve. Specifically an urgent need in the concerned area is detailed and current remote sensing data for the area. This would be important as part of the planning and nomination process. Although expensive at about R 1 000 000, it is an important management tool that is needed to inform planning and management decisions and actions. Much of the data and information that this report has relied on is more than 10 years old and no longer reliably informs management decisions. The report thus recommends that remote sensing be undertaken in the area as part of the next phase of the nomination, as it will inform detailed management strategies, and eventually, specific management plans.

• Compilation of the UNESCO Nomination Forms: The nomination documents are next needed for submission to UNESCO. This process needs to run concurrently with the above consultative and planning processes, and preferably with a single entity coordinating it.

• Submission by the DEAT: DEAT is ultimately responsible for the nomination of the reserve and would need to form part of the processes detailed above.

2.3 Biosphere Reserve Establishment Recommendations

3. Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve Spatial Assessment

3.1 Bio-physical Environment

The Amathole Mountains represents an area of significant biological interest, but is also extremely rich in history and cultural interest. This assessment has considered these aspects. The biophysical environment formed the basis of establishing the zones of the draft footprint represented in this report of the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve. Subsequent and detailed consultation with relevant stakeholders and additional and current data may influence the final Biosphere Reserve footprint.

Amathole Mountains and Indigenous Forests

The biophysical environment of the Amathole Mountains have been known to botanists since the early nineteenth century (Taylor, G. 2000) and have come

to be recognised as an area with high species diversity. They are of botanic and ecological importance for a number of reasons, including:

• The mountains lie in a region where six major phytochoria meet – the Indian Ocean Coastal belt, the Sudano-Zambezian region, the Karoo- Namib region, the Cape region and the Afro-montane archipeligo with its associated Afro Alpine areas (Wergner,1978) • The mountains, with its indigenous forest and wetlands receive a high rainfall and act as an important drainage sponge for the neighbouring lower lying semi arid areas (Phillipson,1987). • The Amathole mountain range has high species diversity with a total of

1215 species of vascular plants recorded representing 30% of the entire

Afromontane flora and 5% of South African Flora (PRECIS).

• White (1983) has described the Amathole Mountains as an “archipelago- like regional centre of endemism”. • Geldenhuys (1989) found that the forests of the Winterberg (of which the

Amathole Mountains are a part) are the species richest in Southern Africa.

Amathole Mountains Topography

The proposed boundary of the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve emerged with the analysis of all the data layers considered in this study. The proposed core incorporates current statutory protected areas, and the buffer areas includes all areas of significant biodiversity value, with the transition zones including all areas that are supportive of the Biosphere reserve integrity.

Future planning will refine these boundaries with new up to date remote sensing data.

Proposed Boundaries Of The Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve, Based On Available Data

3.2 Environmental Feasibility

The existing natural and cultural features of the region pointed to a most feasible area between Whittlesea in the north, the Great Fish River Complex of Reserves in the south, Bedford / Cradock road in the west and Kei Road / Stutterheim in the east. This encompassed an area of more than 1.9 million hectares.

Determining the environmental properties and making the case for biosphere reserves is a truly daunting task over such a vast area with such variable land-use patterns. Much work and environmental assessments have been done in the past by various institutions and consultants. Most significantly maybe to date is the Eastern Cape Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBA) study by Derek Berliner and Phil Desmet. Nevertheless other data layers and information were also obtained from ECPB (Jan Venter), ADM (Indra Reddy), Consultant Workshops (ArchusGIBB), DWAF and CES (Alan Carter).

Although strong emphasis resides with the natural features in terms of Biosphere Reserves, this particular assessment also leans strongly on socio- cultural heritage, opportunities and impacts, in fact the landscape is of such a nature that neither can be seen in isolation. Focal drivers were:

• To identify intact natural and cultural features for inclusion into the assessment area, • To connect critical features and actively search for corridors and linkages that would enhance feature integrity, • To consider ecological processes over the landscape-wide scale,

• To consider the distribution of ecosystem services and its potential capacity where possible, • To consider critical ecological habitats where information is available,

• To consider future impact scenarios especially related to climate change and development needs, and • Conservation Economy considerations.

At the outset the data assessment needed to lead to the determination of viable core, buffer and transition areas related to Biosphere Reserves. For this purpose dedicated biodiversity sensitivity layers were developed in order to point to focal areas of concern or opportunity. This led firstly to an overall biological footprint for the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve, and secondly it pointed to critical areas of concern (N.B. This was only to guide approximate boundaries and not necessarily be the boundaries).

It should be stressed that the criteria of Biosphere Reserves requires the Core Zone to be confined to statutory protected areas, whereas other landscape protected area initiatives are not subject to such a confinement.

Assessment was made of a number of data layers and it was decided to track and map areas of high biodiversity sensitivity. The scale of the project and the sheer volume of spatial data obtained made it virtually impossible to submit each of the hundreds of datasets to detailed analysis within the short time parameters of the project. However it was decided to filter out the most relevant base data offerings related to the issues and aspects of Biosphere and other landscape wide conservation initiatives. The result was a critical assessment of broad based issues like geomorphologic features, ecosystem features, distribution of people and infrastructure, current land-use and land- use potential. Since much of the Eastern Cape Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBA) data referred to the whole Eastern Cape it was necessary to determine the relevance of each data layer to the specific region of the Amathole district and similarly the ADM data needed to be defined to areas related to the Amathole’s and the current protected areas within the district municipality. The Amathole mountain range and associated processes were selected as a natural focal point within the context of a biosphere reserve. Although this area is vast it does contain specific biodiversity processes and patterns as well as landscape and cultural features that lend itself to a unique identity and character.

The assessment has been done on the assumption that the data is reflective of the situation on the ground and is up to date. The team is however aware of

the constraint that much of the original data, and subsequent deductions from various specialists, is based on antiquated data analysis. In the implementation phases of the project, it is emerging that new data collection, particularly new remote sensing data, needs to verify some of the assumptions on which this assessment has relied. Never-the-less this assessment provide for powerful direction and areas of concern and special interest with respect to biological and socio-cultural interest.

Determining focal areas

To determine focal areas it was decided to create a map that combines important or sensitive animal species and vegetation types. A first map was created by combining mostly terrestrial spatial data (expert mapping files) of relevant birds, mammals, frogs & reptiles and invertebrates. More than 20 different data sets (identified as present in the area) were evaluated and eventually combined into a single map. Each sensitivity feature was allocated a score and in every instance where a feature/s overlapped the score was added or calculated in a total occurrence score. Thereby a graduated feature rating was obtained and thus indicated areas of higher sensitivity with a darker colour (from light orange to crimson). (Fish data was considered and it appeared to correlate well with vulnerable rivers within the biosphere footprint with extensive overlap into transformed and community areas.)

The result of the terrestrial animal sensitivity map pointed to obvious focal areas.

Terrestrial Animal Sensitivity Areas

The next step was to correlate terrestrial animal sensitivity with botanical sensitivities. For this purpose another layer was created that combined expert mapping from Jan Vlok, Tony Dold and David Hoare as well as a grasslands priorities maps were considered (Ref: ADM_exp_bot_aa.shp). The resultant map not only correlated well with the terrestrial animal map but it also narrowed down the critical biodiversity areas.

Combined animal and botanical expert mapping (Ref: ADM biosensitivity_aa.shp)

The Subtropical Thicket Ecosystem Plan (STEP) priorities and a fine scale indigenous forest patch map were also incorporated in the biodiversity footprint. This was cross-referenced with latest vegetation maps from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

Amathole Bio-Sensitivity Including Nature Reserves And Corridors.

Leading up to an overall biodiversity footprint ecological corridors were also considered. Firstly named macro-ecological corridors from existing studies that merges mapped biodiversity corridors and, secondly a network of ecological corridors identified as part of the systematic conservation assessment that represents an integrated corridor design in that it considers all terrestrial and aquatic features and targets used in the assessment whilst attempting to minimizing conflict (cost) with existing production landscapes.

These two corridor maps from the Eastern Cape CBA study were integrated in the final footprint. Lastly, consideration was given to wilderness areas (as per land capability maps) and relevant legislated protected areas and nature reserves in various classes

The concluding biodiversity sensitivity footprint is proposed, which in the biosphere context, can also facilitate the rough outline for the outer boundaries of the transitional area.

A Draft Boundary For The Amathole Biosphere Reserve (Dark Green = Proposed Cores, Light Green = Proposed Buffer Areas, Olive = Areas For Potential Transition Zones).

In terms of the parameters/rules for biosphere reserves, a picture started emerging whereas certain core areas came into focus with associated buffer and transitional areas. At this point it is obvious that some of the proposed buffer areas do not totally surround some of the core areas and therefore recommended Cores Zones with associated Buffer Areas need to be established still. Similarly some proposed core areas do not have a “surrounding” buffer yet.

Nevertheless, significant areas of focus related to Biosphere Reserves and/or other initiatives (e.g. mega-reserves) were emerging from which environmental and socio-economic opportunities could be extracted.

3.3 Incorporating Heritage and Cultural Diversity

Socio-cultural heritage, opportunities and impacts are also central considerations in this assessment. The data available in this sphere has not been as comprehensive as the biophysical data. Subsequent consultative processes may well be highlighting further data that would need to be considered.

The approximate boundaries for biosphere core areas and heritage routes and sites.

An attempt was made to maximally include cultural heritage sites. Nearly 44% of all the heritage sites within the ADM fall within the final footprint.

38 38

Heritage Feature Nr Heritage Feature Nr Apartheid Landscape 1 Mountains 3 Battlesites 4 Resisted Removals 3 Bridges 3 Rock Art 4 Forts and Military Buildlings 39 Stones and rocks 1 Gravesites 15 Trees 3 Great Places 1 Water 6 Historic buildings 42 Xhosa Cultural sites 4 Hotel 2 Xhosa Heritage site 1 Monuments, Memorials and

Shrines 10 Other 45

Heritage sites and their number of occurrence within the biosphere footprint

The heritage roads depicted by ADM heritage assessment was useful as it also proved to play an important role in the planning process, since it not only laid out a route that could be utilised in tourism development to connect the heritage sites, but it also linked all the major biodiversity core areas into a viable route.

39 39 3.4 Local Communities

The socio-cultural heritage is very closely associated with the local communities in the area and therefore bears a visceral extraction of both environmental and cultural heritage within a living landscape. Although the distribution of local communities is also closely related to a variety of land-use impacts and personal land-use needs, it also provides for opportunities hitherto untapped in the realm of conservation economies and ecosystem services protection and support. It is important to see the people of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve as part of the solution and not as part of the problem.

The report sees the conservation of biological diversity and cultural diversity as one and the same efforts and mandate of the proposed Amathole Biosphere Reserve. The proposed Biosphere Reserve will unapologetically exploit the linkages between the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, and the repository of both within the confines of the proposed reserve.

A map that overlays communities with high bio-sensitivity and cultural heritage features illustrate that there is significant opportunities for a large number of communities within the proposed biosphere footprint to exploit the linkages between the biodiversity and culturo-historic sites and their opportunities in tourism. About 70% of all the heritage sites lie within 5 km (walking distance) of the main heritage routes through the ADM area.

40 40

Distribution Of Communities Within The Proposed Bio-Sensitivity Footprint.

Furthermore the distribution of people favours high access to natural and cultural heritage features. More than half of the ADM villages lie within 5 km access to the heritage routes

Heritage Route Buffer 5km Population % Route buffer villages

population 307,324.00 52.62 Total male 73,371.00 23.87 Total female 103,154.00 33.56 Total child 130,799.00 42.56

Distribution Of People Within 5 Km (Walking Distance) From Heritage Routes

41 41

Villages Within The Biosphere Footprint Within A 5 Km Buffer Area Of Cultural Heritage Sites

The map illustrates graphically in the area around Hogsback how cultural routes align and link with the Biosphere boundaries. This illustrates what is meant with the linkages between areas of biodiversity interest and that with cultural interests in the region.

42 42 3.5 Land Transformation

The proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve has large tracks of land that has been subject to intense land-use pressures and thus reflects substantial transformation and biodiversity degradation. The reasons for this is complex and multiple; and involved agricultural transformation, forestry impacts and last, but certainly not least, the impacts of the disastrous Apartheid homelands policies. The challenge lies with the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve to creatively and effectively engage areas with such transformation and their inhabitants to regain biodiversity benefits through conservation economies of tourism, game industry, carbon-trading rehabilitation and judicious and sustainable resource harvesting, and responsible agricultural practices.

The possibility exists that biodiversity conservation and its related conservation economy methodologies creates an opportunity for local economic development that creates economic empowerment opportunities for economically marginalized peoples of the area, and at the same time rehabilitating the ecological patterns and processes of the area.

Apart from the obvious transformation effected by communities and villages and their infrastructure needs, there is also associated transformation with regard to land use practices (commercial agriculture and forestry impacts) leading to an impression from the data available to the team that the land is mostly degraded, especially in the central parts. Although this is true, the reality is that important vestiges of biodiversity remain and continue to represent an opportunity for integrated conservation and sustainable development opportunities.

The map below has synthesised the information on the locality of community settlements and the levels of transformation. This depicts a rather negative impression of the landscape, especially as a result of the heavy land degradation around community land. Much of the central core and buffer

areas seem to be just about obliterated by the transformation especially in the central parts of the proposed biosphere footprint between Hogsback and Stutterheim, and southwards between Ngwenya and Bisho. But on closer inspection it is obvious that various land uses and their impacts may give that impression. It would also appear that this specialist mapping data may be outdated and be a coarse approximation of the landscapes, this being something that up to date remote sensing should be able to rectify.

Transformation and Villages

There is cultivation, subsistence farming and grazing associated with the villages and townships especially in the low-lying areas. In the higher altitudes plantation forestry and community forestry shows significant impacts. However there are significant potions of the landscape in the depicted areas that on inspection is still intact or at least salvageable.

Some data layers are outdated and don’t accurately reflect the information from recent aerial photography of the area, which in turn is also old in most

cases (1991 to 2001). This makes further remote sensing an urgent management imperative in the finalisation of the Reserve boundaries in the nomination process.

Further information about degradation on rangelands (grasslands, thicket and bush) and areas of cultivation, forest plantation and its timber industry impacts, and urban development were considered. This gave a more detailed analysis of the various causes of degradation, and would be informative of mitigation actions that need to be considered in the management practices that are to follow in the development of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve.

Degraded Land Representing Degraded Thicket & Bushland (Grey Areas In The Map) And Degraded Unimproved Grassland (Yellow In The Map).

3.6 Cadastral Information

Land ownership in the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve footprint is complex. The available information did not provide an absolutely clear picture of the ownership patters. However three broad categories of ownership existed; • State owned and managed land,

• State land under communal/ Traditional Authority management, and

• Privately owned land.

At the “fine” granular scale of cadastres there are approximately 7104 cadastral land parcels within the proposed Biosphere Reserve footprint, excluding un-alienated state land. This appears to include smallholdings and town erven. At the broader scale there are about 2119 “parent” farm parcels accounting for 2.313 million hectares of land.

Cadastral Information

There is very little available information as to the specific and individual land ownership with the current data. In detailed planning the identity of owners of individual land parcels need to be collected, this was however beyond the scope and the means of this report. This process would involve a time- consuming analysis of Deeds Office information on landownership, a laborious and lengthy process that would be essential in the reserve establishment period.

The nature of land holdings in specific areas are important to understand, as different ownership patterns require different consultative and management strategies to realise the vision of the Biosphere Reserve. The complexity of the area is illustrated by focusing in on the details of the cadastral levels in the area around Hogsback, for instance. As an illustration of the complexity of the landownership patters, this level of details illustrates the difference between general land parcels, parent farms and un-alienated land becomes evident, as seen in the maps below.

Cadastral Lines Around Hogsback

4. Current Land Use Patterns

Agriculture is the dominant current land use in the region, with livestock framing being by far and most the common agricultural activity.

Based on the data analysed, the area was mapped according to the various agricultural opportunities and capabilities of the land. This is an important exercise in the motivation of the proposed Biosphere Reserve development process, as economically the activities proposed in the reserves needs to provide people of the reserve with sustainable livelihoods. Although it is a complex map, it is important to know the major competitive land-uses in the region, as it will have bearing on the consultative and management process emerging in the reserve development phase.

Agricultural Land Capabilities

The relative proportions of land comprising different land capabilities are detailed in the table below. It becomes apparent that almost 80% of the areas

48 48 are captured in landholdings considered either wilderness, or non-arable and low to moderate grazing land. This represents a significant opportunity for concerted and innovative efforts for conservation economies to become viable and competitive economic land uses. This presents the concept and opportunity to develop a viable Biosphere Reserve with a real opportunity to become a viable commercial reality.

Land Capability Hectares %

Wilderness 423,697.19 22.07

Water features 1,109.51 0.06

High potential arable land 908.91 0.05

Moderate potential arable land 111,153.08 5.79

Marginal potential arable land 202,165.73 10.53

Non-arable; moderate potential grazing

land 99,659.66 5.19

Non-arable; low to moderate potential

grazing land 810,323.09 42.21

Non-arable; low potential grazing land 270,751.07 14.10 Total 1,919,768.24 100

The above map was further manipulated and superimposed on the available cadastral information. This enabled an assessment, on a granular cadastral level, of the dominant land-use per cadastre. The cadastral map below illustrates agricultural opportunities based on agricultural land capabilities for each cadastre. This cadastral query favoured the presence of arable land above grazing land, and therefore shows higher land use potential in overlap areas for arable land. It serves to illustrate the competing agricultural land- uses and capabilities within the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve.

49 49

The above land capability is thus reflective of the potential agricultural opportunities in the area. It demonstrated the potential for a range of agricultural practices.

This report went into some detail to assess the agricultural potential of a range of agricultural land uses, and their impact relative to the objectives of a Biosphere Reserve. In a Biosphere Reserve these land-uses would either exist in tandem to the Transitional or Buffer Zones, or would require substitution with newer innovative conservation economy land uses that better complements the Biosphere Reserve concept. These are also assessed.

An assessment was made on general agricultural potential of the following agricultural practices in livestock and crop farming:

• Cattle, • Maize,

• Citrus, • Ostrich,

• Game, • Pineapple, and

• Goat, • Sheep.

• Grape,

50 50 Sheep and Cattle

Based on available information from the various data sets an assessment of the best potential areas for cattle farming was made.

A map was created wherein agricultural land utilisation was compared with cattle potential within the ADM. Core and likely buffer areas of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve were also highlighted in relation to communities in the proposed biosphere footprint. Consideration of the level of degradation and its economic viability for ranching was assessed in each area. Thus the best areas remaining for cattle ranching, albeit already fully or heavily utilised, were considered in conjunction with lower or higher cattle potential. The indication of the areas thus best suited to cattle ranching pointed to the northern and western reaches of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve, and area associated with grasslands. Since conservation assessments indicate that most of these grasslands are threatened it is important to maximally understand the sustainability of cattle ranching in those areas.

Furthermore some of the identified likely areas for cattle falls within so-called wilderness areas one should consider the utilisation of afro-indigenous species like Nguni cattle.

Cattle areas in the south fall mostly in over-utilised land, or in already threatened thicket types with a much lower carrying capacity than the grassland areas. Professional and scientific agricultural planning needs to take place if cattle potential is going to be developed in these areas.

Likely Cattle And Sheep Areas Within The Suggested Biosphere Footprint

Agricultural potential for sheep was assumed to be the same geographically as those areas for cattle. Although is known to be a course assumption, it does provide broad land-use capability indications for the purposes of this study.

Citrus, Grapes and Ostriches

The current areas in which these agricultural practices are utilised don’t occur in suggested core or buffer areas of the proposes Biosphere Reserve. For ease of assessment it was decided that a single map would be created for the assessment of grapes, citrus and ostriches, although there are actually divergent agricultural practices.

Grape cultivation in the northeast of the proposed Amathole Biosphere Reserve footprint, and citrus in the south of this footprint (Keiskammahoek River Corridor), may be worth considering on the grounds that it lies within proximity of local communities as the map below illustrates. It is important to

stress that the Keiskammahoek River Corridor contains important thicket vegetation types (Great fish and Buffels thicket) that need to be considered in the process of land-use and conservation land-use decisions.

Likely Ostrich, Citrus And Grape Areas Within The ADM Suggested Biodiversity Footprint

Distribution of current ostrich, grape and citrus framing practices Note: Map need to indicate citrus production in the Kat River Valley

Goats

Although goats farming is a way of life for many South Africans the current sustainability of this agricultural practice need to be questioned within a context of increasing desertification and climate change.

Boer goats are the predominant goat type in the area. A number of characteristics make Boer goats very popular in terms livestock farming. Such characteristics include hardiness and adaptability to a wide variety of climatic and pasture conditions, resistance to diseases, high fertility and kidding percentage (twins are common), abundance of milk, longevity (economically

productive up to 10 years of age) and their ability to utilize plants normally less palatable to other stock breeds.

According to the data there are opportunities for goat farming in the far western sections of the proposed Biosphere Reserve footprint. According to the available data does not appear to co-inside with the significant presence of local communities. Most of the remaining area of the proposed Biosphere Reserve however have lower goat farming capability, especially on over- utilised or fully utilised land. The heavily degraded landscapes indicate only a remote or slight opportunity to farm goats, but currently it is in those areas where intensive utilisation of goats is being used (e.g. around Adelaide and Cathcart). However, it may be possible to sustainably combine goat farming in some of these areas with better rehabilitation and or grazing rotations.

Likely Goat Areas Within The Suggested Biosphere Footprint

The advantage of goat farming over other larger ruminant livestock as an agricultural tool for poverty reduction and development, include:

• Goats are easily acquired even by the poor as they require relatively modest starting capital investment, • Goats are easily tended by the weak, (old and young) and victims of disease (HIV/AIDS pandemic), • Goats can be owned by members of society that are often disadvantaged; such as women and children, hence focusing on them can help bridge gender disparities, • Goats provide nutrients (protein, vitamins, minerals and energy) in quantities and qualities that are convenient and therefore effectively contribute to a family’s food and nutritional needs besides income generation. • Goats provide manure that can help maintain and enhance soil fertility of small family plots hence further enhance family’s food security, (Onim et al. 1990). • Because of their small size, feeding goats may easily depend on common off-farm resources and not necessarily on owned land, hence ideal for the landless members of society • Because it takes less to invest in a goat, projects that focus on them reach many more needy members of society

However, the above positive attributes can only be taken advantage of when more biologically efficient and adaptable goat genotypes are kept and under sustainable feed resource management and improved husbandry practices (Winrock International 1992; FARM-Africa 1996).

Game Game potential is indicated for the western parts (mostly thornveldt) of the proposed Biosphere Reserve footprint as well as the central to northern parts up to Cathcart (mostly thicket).

There are vast land tracts of so called wilderness in the west and therefore many of the farms in the area (according to cadastral data) may already be engaging in game farming, sheep or cattle ranching.

The southwestern parts are also ideal for sustainable game farming practices. There are viable community opportunities around Doubledrift and Great Fish River Complex Provincial reserves, and already significant private sector game reserve and hunting operations. This presents the Proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve with a distinct and vable economic opportunities to expand into the Great Fish River corridor advocated by STEP.

Likely Game Areas Within The ADM Suggested Biodiversity Footprint

Private game reserves like Kwandwe and Trumpeters Drift may also provide opportunities especially with regard to increasing the conservation estate, providing buffer areas and providing opportunities for local communities to enter the fields of game farming, professional hunting, community nature reserves and community eco-tourism. Similarly in the north within the Cathcart, Stutterheim and Hogsback triangle there are land capability for

game farming in the thicket areas especially if associated with restoration and even carbon sequestration projects.

Maize

Maize cultivation potential is distributed in several areas and especially in the central proposed Biosphere Reserve buffer areas. This maize cultivation is however not on a major commercial basis.

Likely Maize Areas Within The ADM Suggested Biodiversity Footprint

Forestry

The area is known for its forestry industry and it is extensively practiced and distributed throughout the mountainous areas of the Amathole Mountains.

The map below illustrates how native forest and plantation forest are distributed, especially in the central parts of the biosphere footprint. (The areas indicated in red are indicative of data overlaps or boundary inaccuracy within the data layers. This indicates conflicting information where some data layers indicate indigenous forests and others cultivated plantations.)

Location Of Plantation And Native Forests In The Proposed Biosphere Footprint. Currently There Are Large Areas Of Overlap

In the map below indigenous forest lies within the yellow polygon and plantation forest within the light blue polygon. In this instance the truth appears to favour the indigenous forest map but in many other instances the inverse is true. New remote sensing data would enable detailed and accurate assessment of the land cover. The importance of illustrating this discrepancy relates to the importance of the indigenous forests in the area’s conservation priorities, and thus for implementation targets of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve.

At The Fine Scale These Overlaps Could Be Rather Misleading

Nevertheless, in the light of growing international concern about the viability of plantation forests against the backdrop of their impact on water resources, their ecological impact, climate change and increased forest fires over the last decade, plantation forestry appears to present a very high risk opportunity. Fires have noticeably been increasing over the last few years and tens of thousands of hectares have burnt in 2007 in Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Western and the Eastern Cape. These fires would compound the long-term softwood lumber shortage already facing South Africa. Alternative thinking leans toward community indigenous forestry where native species are used in plantings to provide in forest and non-forest products as well as potential for the growing market in carbon sequestration and trading.

5. Future and Potential Land-uses in the Biosphere Reserve

In view of the substantial degradation of natural habitats that is evident in the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve, the challenge for the developers of the proposed reserve would be to find land-uses that reverse or at very least stabilises this land degradation. It is proposed that the proponents of the reserve proactively embark on fostering and promoting conservation economy ventures in the region, this would involve tourism, game industry, resource harvesting, compatible and complementary agricultural activities, and most excitingly carbon trading rehabilitation activities.

Potential for Carbon Trading

Motivated by a dramatic warning that climate change is one of the greatest challenges in the history of humankind, the United Nations Climate Change Conference - Nairobi ended in November 2006 with a pledge by UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan of more international funding for African projects to fight Global Warming. World Bank data shows that Africa will be hardest hit by the climate change, yet has the smallest share of the global carbon trading market.

The economic context for this prospect has arisen under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where signatory countries must decrease emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, or increase rates of removal and storage. The Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows a country that emits carbon above agreed-upon limits to purchase carbon offsets from an entity that uses biological means to absorb or reduce greenhouse emissions.

The potential for carbon trading in the ADM is vested in carbon offsets (or credits) that can be traded by sequestering carbon through growing or rehabilitating natural forests, woodland or thicket and also potentially through avoided deforestation. In simple terms; “MONEY CAN GROW ON TREES!”

Through photosynthesis carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) is bound from the atmosphere where it has accumulated through excessive human combustion of fossil fuels. By growing back trees there is thus an opportunity to be paid for this carbon being bound from the atmosphere. Such ventures presents the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve with tantalising opportunities for creating economic opportunities that could benefit the environment and the poor people of the region.

Thus this reduction of carbon from the atmosphere helps to mitigate and reduce the impacts of climate change. It is most prudent to sequester carbon in areas suited for woody species and especially degraded afro-temperate forests as are found in the area, also thicket or other woodlands

Two maps were provided indicating the potential for Aforestation as well as Carbon Sequestration Potential. The fisrt map shows the forests of the region, both plantation and the indigenous forests. The shades of blue (0 least potential and 90 highest potential) on the map indicates potential for projects aimed at sequestering carbon in natural woody vegetative sinks, i.e. areas that could trade in carbon through replanting trees and growing them. Aforestation potential is highest in areas represented by both Native and Plantation forest.

Map Showing Aforestation Potential (Blue Areas) And Location Of Native And Plantation Forest.

If in addition to the sequestration potential of trees, the potential of the thicket is looked at and promoted as a carbon-trading possibility in rehabilitation, albeit less than forests, the aggregated maps suddenly increase the potential across the landscape of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve project.

This presents the region with a new economy to tap into that is complementary to tourism, resource harvesting and even some forms of agriculture. The trading technology and methodology is still in its infancy, but should the early potential prove to be true, this may in the next 5 – 10 years seethe economic landscape of this area and others transform. It would undoubtedly provide an area like the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve with a tremendous opportunity to effectively achieve the objectives of UNESCO’s biosphere goals.

Map Showing Carbon Sequestration Potential According To Vegetation Type

Forest and thicket types in the map above indicates a similar potential for carbon sequestration, but in reality on early measurements forests may have as much as a tenfold sequestering ability. This indicates a tremendous potential thus in the region to grow back indigenous afro-temperate forests in areas where it has been deforested.

Locally it’s been recognized (by DEAT) that there are increased incidents of droughts, fires and floods in South Africa, one of the driest countries in the world. The highly aggressive invasive alien plants (e.g. wattle, pine, bluegums) introduced in the colonial era are currently soaking up 7% of the countries annual water run off. The eradication of these harmful alien species is a national priority to conserve precious water resources.

The eradication of aliens together with the restoration of historical land cover by re-aforestation (the replanting of indigenous forests in areas where they were previously found) of Southern African Afro- temperate forest systems, where they historically existed, holds out a critical Local Economic

Development (LED) prospect for the region by providing large-scale employment, and much needed social transformation through the generation of wealth through the potential of carbon trading.

Importation and long-term sequestration of Carbon through re-aforestation will improve the livelihoods of local communities historically most devastated by exporting carbon as timber and the reduction of water sources. These communities are today still struggling with the after-effects of centuries of abuse that degraded the physical, social, and economic environment of Southern Africa.

The benefits of this rehabilitation is multiple:

• Alien trees are also fire driven species meaning they burn easily and thrive on regeneration after fires. It is essential to work with indigenous forest and thicket species that’s more fire resistant and that preserves water. • It also facilitates biodiversity conservation and the protection of critical ecosystem processes that impact positively on socio-economic and agricultural needs. • Indigenous Forests and thicket provide refugia for animals and plants on which people can sustainably depend for non-timber products, medicines and eco-tourism. • Indigenous forests and thicket preserve the water table and form barriers against fires that protect communities. • Indigenous forests and thicket prevent erosion and creates rich topsoil deposits. • Indigenous Afro-temperate forests mitigate climate change by cooling the earth and by creating rain. • Indigenous forests and thicket sequesters (sinks) carbon that can be traded on the international market • Indigenous forests and thicket have tremendous socio-cultural and

aesthetic value.

Map showing Carbon sequestration potential within the proposed biosphere footprint

Early estimates indicate that between 10 to 100 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare could be sequestered. At early estimates of about $20 per ton this indicates incomes far in excess to current incomes in the region.

Tourism & Game Industry

Tourism is a significant current land-use, but due to the fact that its potential has not been fully exploited it is dealt with and a potential and future land-use. As significant element in the conservation economy of the region will result from the growth potential of tourism in the region.

The proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve ends itself to several aspects of toursim: • Self drive tourism

• Big game experiences and lodges

• Hunting enterprises and game trading

• Adventure and outdoor tourism • Special interest tourism: culture, historical (battlefield, struggle sites), botanical, etc.

Although all these have emerged in the planning domain, much scope is available for significant expansion of the efforts in the future.

KPMG has recently been commission by ADM to do a full survey and tourism analysis of the region. At the time of drafting the report, the project team has requested the report to integrate findings in to this report, but the draft report that was already released to ADM was not release to the project team.

Resource Harvesting

Aloe Harvesting: Locally, aloe products are generally obtained from a single species of Aloe, namely Aloe ferox, which is the South African pharmacological equivalent of Aloe vera. Products include aloe sap (known as ‘bitter sap’ or ‘bitter aloe’), which is a bitter yellow juice tapped from just below the leaf surface, and aloe gel which originates from the inner fleshy part of the leaf (Van Wyk et al., 1997). The Eastern Cape Development Corporation already has a successful aloe harvesting, processing and exporting business in the area, and significant expansion thereof is possible.

Medicinal Plants: It is estimated that the medicinal plant trade industry is worth between R750 million and R1 billion per annum nationally in South Africa (Cocks & Dold 2000). Within the Eastern Cape 166 plant species are exploited for medicinal purposes, of which 38 species are from Thicket (23% of the 166 species traded). In terms of quantities traded annually, 24% is harvested from Thicket with an additional 14% harvested from both Thicket and Forest. Thicket species, which are particularly popular, include Rhoicissus digitata, Haworthia attenuata, Rubia petiolaris, Gasteria bicolor and Bulbine alooides. Typically, Gasteria bicolor sells at R29/kg and Bulbine alooides at R31/kg.

Fuel wood from aliens and woodlots can provide some income for poor communities, and if coordination could be established with Working for Water Programme, there are other potential income streams from the biomass waste of alien plants, like chipboard production, compost, poles production, etc. In the planning domain of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve

the is vast amounts of invasive alien biomass that could be utilised by community ventures supported by government programmes. This should be a programme that is actively supported by the local municipalities and the Biosphere Reserve.

Compatible and Complementary Agricultural Activities

Essential Oils production is an industry that is also emerging in the region, and could easily coincide with the development of the Biosphere Reserve. The organic essential oils industry potentially provides great opportunities for emerging operators. The organic farming principles, and the organic industry as a whole, is becoming increasingly popular with consumers, worldwide. Overall the demand for organic produce in South Africa far exceeds the supply. This industry grows by 32% per year, worldwide. In SA there are only 200 registered organic farmers, whereas in Mexico there are more than 35

000. It has also been shown in developing nations that the organics industry leads to extensive job creation.

Essential oils potential in the region is substantial. It is strongly supported by the Eastern Cape development Corporation and is compatible with the tourism and conservation agendas of the Biosphere Reserve development. It also provides excellent opportunities for LED.

Nguni farming / ranching is already being supported in the region through efforts of the University of Fort Hare. As cattle ranching is a popular and common land-use in the area, it is suggested that in the transition and buffer zones that Nguni ranching be actively promoted.

Nguni farming and tourism can easily be promoted together as it already done in the Adelaide region, but it could specifically be promoted as a means to bring communities into the tourism market. Such a project could see the establishment of an agro-tourism project on community land. It utilises the assets of indigenous herding practices on communal land to benefit from commercial agriculture, and tourism. This project could combine agriculture and tourism with the resources of the regional timber industry to add value to

agricultural produce through processing the Nguni hides, and producing high quality leather furniture. Such a venture could:

• Commercially farm Nguni cattle. Ngunis are indigenous, disease resistant animals ideally suited to the area of focus. • Establish a Nguni Meat Brand, sold through a retailer that partners this project. • Establish a partnership with communities and establish a farm with appropriate stocking rates and rotations. • Establish a commercial farming enterprise with professional advisors and managers to capacitate the farming enterprise. • Establish a tourism attraction with the theme “ranching holidays” in the scenically beautiful area. This will include accommodation and activities. • Add value to the agricultural produce by processing the hides and

establis h i ng a f u r n it u r e f acto r y s e l l i ng N g u n i le a t h e r f u r nit ure.

There are two species of cattle in the world: Bos taurus, or European cattle, are the more familiar brown-and-black breeds such as Jersey, Aberdeen Angus and Holstein. Bos indicus, on the other hand, are found mainly in India and Africa, and include more unusual creatures such as Zebu, Sanga and Nguni cattle. They are characterised by their enormous horns and magnificent hides.

Traditional commercial livestock farmers have only recently discovered the value of the Nguni cattle breed. Due to its diminutive, almost stunted, physical appearance and its predominant use as a draught animal, they previously believed the Nguni had little or no value as a source of beef, or for that matter, pelts. This assumption was incorrect.

The Biosphere Reserve could promote framing with an indigenous African breed of cattle, farmed commercially and productively, with correct land management techniques to help uplift subsistence farmers from poverty through an innovative product and professional partnerships.

The world has changed. Organic foods are in vogue. Meat that contains a high fat content is increasingly frowned upon. Animals that have been reared with artificial hormones have become unpopular. And the input costs of rearing these artificially fed, fatty animals have exceeded, over the past ten years, the prices they can fetch.

The Nguni breed is hardy, with virtually no input cost; lean, with very little fat content; pelts that are much sought after; and beautiful (at a recent auction a prize Nguni bull fetched a price of R12 000 plus). Nguni cattle have always

been very much part of African pastoral life. (Prof. Jan Raats, 2006, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Fort Hare)

Furthermore Nguni cattle have a high fertility rate, with a short calving time and long reproductive lifespan. They are also resistant to most parasites, and adapt easily to difficult grazing conditions.

However, the Nguni breed has historically been significantly diluted (genetically, by crossbreeding) in the Eastern Cape and it is therefore important to establish herds with as much genetic purity as possible. Some projects have been started by at the University of Fort Hare and the North West University in order to address the re-establishment of pure Nguni herds, and to address poverty alleviation. These projects are mostly based on providing a number of breeding stock Nguni’s to local farmers and once they have bred successfully the breeding stock needs to be passed on to the next farmer, and so on. With knowledge gained through these processes, a commercial Nguni farm based on traditional and modern (scientific) cattle farming practices is a very likely next step. The Nguni is by no means just a cattle breed for the non-commercial sector, and its excellent ability to thrive, good mothering abilities, and excellent inherent resistance make it an economically viable choice for all sectors of the market.

The proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve Agri-tourism potential is an ideal platform to introduce pure Nguni breeds to flourish on well- managed and scientifically stocked land in order to establish:

• Livelihoods to the people of the area through an agri-tourism business

• Improvement of the Nguni breed in the region by “breeding for genetic improvement” • Successful beef export and marketing from the region, and beef branding

• Successful skins export, value adding (furniture) and marketing

• Opportunities for crosscutting conservation economies (e.g. Indigenous

Nguni species breeding, use of forestry (maybe even alien tree species)

wood for Nguni skin furniture, sustainable utilisation of species and introduction of a tourism components) • Ranching and cattle-drive tourism with a pronounced Amathole flavour where tourists get to experience the “herd boy” lifestyle in a spectacular setting.

Nguni qualities according the Nguni Breeders Association:

• Exceptional fertility under harsh conditions

• Early sexual maturity – particularly heifers

• Good foraging (browsing and grazing) and walking ability

• Tolerant of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

• Heat tolerant

• Ease of calving and good mothering ability – ideal for crossing with large- framed beef breeds • Placid temperament

• Longevity

• Quality meat

• Thin hide producing top quality leather

The financial viability of this project seems promising. This project has detailed some figures that indicate this viability, although a detailed project business plan is to be undertaken next.

European Cattle Thrive In The Region, Certainly African Breads Like Nguni Will Too.

5.1 Land Use Recommendations

It is not for this report to make firm recommendations with respect to land use in the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve, particularly on a site specific basis. The purpose of the potential and future land-uses section of this report has been highlighted options available to the implementation of this effort. These proposed suggested land uses serve to provide the consultative and implementation process with examples of the land use opportunities for the Biosphere Reserve.

It should be through consultation and consensus that the project should be driven, as areas outside the statutory protected areas of the Biosphere Reserve will be heavily dependent on collaborative processes to see its vision implemented.

As far as the land uses in each zone are concerned, according to UNESCO criteria, the Core Area needs to be of sufficient size and have long-term conservation protection status (usually statutory protected areas), to meet conservation objectives of a biosphere reserve. This generally restricts the core zone to a conservation land uses. Such land uses may however involve tourism, resource harvesting and rehabilitative work.

The Buffer Zone would comprise areas adjacent to the Core Areas in which land-uses are compatible to conservation objectives of the Core Area. These areas need not be statutory protected areas. All the suggested land uses could be vigorously pursued in the buffer, and particularly rehabilitative and conservation land-uses that promote the integrity of the core and corridor areas. Game farming and tourism are also particularly suited to this type of zonation.

As the Transition Zone would be “fluid” area that would be heavily reliant on cooperative land management, this area would focus on the development of

sustainable conservation economy activities. Typically the key issues of development and conservation need to be addressed in this zone. It is in this zone, and in the buffer zone that complex engagement and extension work would need to be concentrated during implementation to promote the compatible and complementary land uses that are recommended.

Proposed boundaries of the Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve (Dark Green = Core, Mid Green = Buffer, Light Green = Transition)

The subsequent consultative process and remote sensing that is to follow this feasibility analysis will further define the zonations and potential for various land capabilities that are compatible with the development of the Biosphere Reserve.

6. Institutional Arrangements

The area has complex institutional arrangements and it is apparent that not a single agency is controlling the management of large enough land tracts or mandates over land tracks to be the natural manager of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve. ADM does have jurisdiction over almost the entire region (except in the far western region where the planning domain runs into the Cacadu District Municipality) and thus should naturally assume the champion role politically and institutionally. It is prudent that this study has been commissions by ADM.

It would be entirely appropriate for ADM to be the lead and champion agency for the initiative. It is the belief of the project team that and independent legal entity that is ENTIRELY focused on the development of the proposed Amathole Mountains Biosphere Reserve be established to drive the process. This entity can, and probably should be entirely independent of other bodies, or could be associated with the Amathole Development Agency.

6.1 Current Management Institutions

6.2 Implementation Recommendations

7. Current Development Initiatives in the Area 8. Potential Links with other Conservation-based Initiatives 9. Consultative Data Base and Recommendation 10. Financial Feasibility 11. Implementation Action Plan 11.1 Logical Framework 11.2 Performance Tracking 11.3 Budget 12. Conclusions 13. Cost benefit Analysis 14. Feasibility Study Conclusions 15. Recommendations 16. Appendices 16.1 Consultative Process 16.1.1 Record of Consultations 16.1.2 Findings of Consultations 16.1.3 Stakeholder Data Base 16.2 Biophysical Data Layers 16.2.1 Index of Data Layers 16.2.2 Source of Data and History of Access 16.3 Social and Economic Data Layers