OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Ramutsindela, Maano"

Browsing by Author "Ramutsindela, Maano"

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Open Access
Community development trusts: brokering property rights on ‘communal' land in the Richtersveld
(2022) Ntombini, Kolosa; Ramutsindela, Maano
Property is a concept that gained traction by the ways in which it organises human relations and access and ownership resources. Research in legal geography has shown that property is mobilised to justify or resist dispossession. Colonial powers invoked problematic ideas of the property rights of indigenous people to justify land dispossession through trusts. The British empire was particularly well-versed in this, adopting a trusteeship model whereby indigenous land was held in trust. Placing indigenous land in trust enabled the empire to appropriate indigenous land without the moral hazard of violent land dispossession. The empire used trusts under the pretext that it sought to protect indigenous people and their land from increased competition for land triggered by settler influx. However, the trusteeship model fundamentally altered the property rights of indigenous people by redefining historical owners of the land as beneficiaries with no decision-making powers over property. This study shows that the trusteeship model that was instrumental for land dispossession in South Africa re-emerged in the democratic era in the form of community development trusts. These trusts are not community-driven but are instead designed and created by the state to serve as an avenue for the state to exercise control over natural resources and to manage the relations between communities and the state. This study locates these dual roles within the broader political history of South Africa to demonstrate that the democratic state has maintained the symbiotic relationship between trusts and the state and that this enables the state to manage contestations over property.
Open Access
Constructions of Nature and Environmental Justice in Driftsands nature reserve, South Africa
(2009) Daraghma, Anis; Ramutsindela, Maano
This thesis provides an analysis of the discourses of nature conservation in South Africa and Driftsands provincial nature reserve from constructionist and environmental justice perspectives. At the outset I examine the theoretical framework on the social construction of nature and that of environmental justice. I then discuss the history of nature conservation in South Africa. Finally I analyse the discourse (nature conservation and local communities) surrounding the Driftsands Provincial Nature Reserve (DNR). This nature reserve is located one kilometre east of Cape Town International Airport, in the Western Cape, South Africa. My analysis of the first theoretical framework (the social construction of nature) confirms that a) the idea of nature is constructed over time; b) nature, as a concept and a phenomenon, is complex; c) nature discourses reveal, hide, and create 'truths' about nature which are accepted as being truthful yet are a question of social struggle and power politics; d) humans have amassed countless definitions of the word 'nature'. Those definitions are categorised by Castree and Braun (2001) into three groups: external, intrinsic, and universal. My analysis of the second theoretical framework (environmental justice) suggests that the idea of nature can be used constructively or negatively depending on who uses it and why. The link between both theoretical frameworks suggests that nature is bound up with agendas. Humans construct natures to pursue individual, social or political agendas. From this standpoint the focus of the thesis shifts from debating whether or not nature is socially constructed to examining what type of agendas were pursued to achieve those 'natural' constructions, and what their consequences were for local communities living in and around protected areas. In order to achieve this, I employed four interlinked analytical methods (stakeholder, discourse, critical and ideological analysis). My analysis of the case study of DNR and that of the history of nature conservation in South Africa suggests ideological similarities. First, in both cases nature conservation is inspired by external environmental views. In the colonial period of South Africa, nature conservation policies and practices were shaped by English and Afrikaner protectionist ideas and aimed also to address the demand of their naturalists, sportsmen, and explorers for hunting and exploiting wild animals. In post-apartheid South Africa, nature has been 12 constructed in protected areas according to universalised environmental views and to some extent has been proactive, meaning that it aimed to address some of the social challenges. Likewise, at DNR, nature conservation was adopted in the early 1980s by the white government to pursue political agendas. In the late 1980s nature conservation began to be influenced by universalised environmental views. Second, the ideological nexus of both discourses regarding nature and local communities suggests conformity with global environmental models. Under these models the normal course is: a) to fence local communities from protected areas or to fence protected areas from local communities, b) to maximise the boundaries of protected areas, or to minimise the settlements of local communities in protected areas, c) to regulate local communities' access to protected areas and natural resources, d) to promote persuasive concepts of ecotourism to achieve nature conservation goals through community participation, co-benefiting local communities from protected areas, co-managing protected areas with local communities, and local socio-economic development, e) to aim for the removal of the on-site communities from protected areas. The impoverishment of the DNR on-site communities has been effected by means of three ideological principles. Since 1990, DNR's on-site communities have been labouring under a state of emergency - the state of living below the flood line; the state of high level of house robbery and a worrying level of rape and child abuse. Their dispossession has led to the spaces of temporality - a state of informality and limited public services and hopelessness (there is no hope of sustaining settlements on the site). Currently, these communities are cornered between two choices. Either they voluntarily relocate their shacks into the surrounding townships or they live with the state of emergency, hopelessness and temporality. Local communities of other protected areas in South Africa have been similarly impoverished by these states of emergency, temporality and hopelessness. During the colonial period, South Africa's conservation discourses were predominantly white-based. Whites constructed the common sense among themselves that they own the land and wildlife. Constructing the idea that they are the people of the land meant also suppressing the non-white sovereignty over land and natural resources. For example, Until late in the twentieth century [South African children's literature in English] 13 usually endorsed the assumption held by whites that they had exclusive ownership of the land and wildlife' (Jenkins, 2004: 107). While whites were protecting South Africa's wildlife, they also alienated blacks from nature. It is just recently, after 1994 that, 'English-Language children's writers and translators of indigenous folktales for children have begun to explore traditional beliefs about and practices in conservation (Jenkins, 2004: 107). These statements do not state or imply that English literature on humannature discourse begun to explore the idea of harmony where indigenous people live and depend on wildlife. In South Africa, it is typical for non-white communities living in or around protected areas to be relocated voluntarily or by force from their land or their settlements, and to be denied resources they had traditionally used within protected areas. Finally, both contemporary discourses continue to be in line with various universalised conservation models. Although both discourses have evolved over time, the status quo of local communities has remained the same: impoverished by exclusion from protected areas, permitted participation in only insignificant co-management models and recipients of intangible benefits. Although the contemporary discourse on nature conservation appears to be more considerate of local communities, I suggest that it is early days for this young discourse to achieve harmony between people and nature. It is up to local and national governmental and non-governmental agencies to modify global environmental views rather than fully adopting them, in order to be more respectful and accommodating of local communities.
Open Access
Eco-Africa and facilitated community participation in the /AI-/AIS Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Area
(2017) Classen Monique, Ann; Ramutsindela, Maano
This research investigates how environmental consultancies frame participation as a tool for project implementation using a cross-border conservation initiative as a case study. The study focuses on the facilitation process led by Eco-Africa Environmental Consultants during the establishment of the /Ai-/Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Area. This study analyzes the promise of participation as a crucial component for Transfrontier Conservation Areas. Analyzing participation of the Richtersvelders is necessary for understanding the work that was carried out and how it was experienced by the stakeholders. The study refers to participation in conservancies in community-based resource management, where the role of non-government organizations and environmental consultancies is well established. Primary data were collected through qualitative document analysis, semi-structured interviews with members of the four communities and with Eco-Africa Environmental Consultants. The findings of the study are that there was a strong attempt towards an all-inclusive bottom-up approach to participation. However, such the success of such an approach was hampered by local mismanagement, politics of money, and a marketing strategy favoring the South African National Parks and the Transfrontier Conservation project.
Open Access
Expanding the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA: Experiences from Botswana
(2019) Webster, Kelly Celeste; Ramutsindela, Maano
Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) have emerged in recent years to become an important means of governing conservation land across the national boundaries of contemporary states. Southern Africa’s TFCAs have developed as ‘new conservation’ spaces, which are considered to promote a more holistic approach to managing protected areas by effectively integrating conservation and development ideals. However, these initiatives require complex management structures that extend across and engage with a complex mosaic of land uses, while effectively trying to reconcile diverse ecological, social, and economic agendas. The Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA is the largest of these initiatives extending across the borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This research traces the expansion of the TFCA from its formation in 2003 to 2018, with a particular focus on its land integration and resource management processes in Botswana. To examine this expansion, this research utilizes the concept of ‘territory’ as a lens of land control which draws attention to the ways in which land within various spaces is valued, utilized and accessed. For this research, territory provides a useful perspective with which land and resource valuation, land-use conflict and resource rights within the TFCA’s boundaries can be critically engaged with. In order to better understand the territorial expansion processes of the TFCA, this research examines firstly, the objectives of the Botswana state in terms of the growth of the TFCA; secondly, the motives behind the expansion processes; thirdly, the ways in which land under various tenure regimes is involved within the expansion processes; and finally, the impacts of these processes on local communities within these areas. The methodology adopted in this research involves (a) document analysis primarily focused on Botswana’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the KAZA to understand the planned political processes of expansion; (b) GIS mapping activities to identify the areas and types of land tenure that have been integrated into the TFCA; and (c) interviews with stakeholders and local communities to understand the expansion processes on the ground. From this territorial orientation, this research demonstrates how the Botswana state has placed a strong strategic focus on the development of a luxury tourism industry based on wildlife and non-consumptive resource uses. This focus aligns with the growth of the KAZA TFCA in the region, which aims to develop the region’s tourist potential by expanding its conservation estate. Within these processes, land and natural resources are increasingly being seen as a means of revenue and capital accumulation in the KAZA region. These revaluations of land and resources have translated into changing land dynamics in areas that have been integrated into the TFCA. For communities in these areas, this has resulted in increasing resource restrictions, land-use and human-wildlife conflict, as well as a disengagement from resource management activities. These processes lead to unintended consequences in that they pit local communities against conservation agendas in the area.
Open Access
Foreign direct investments in large-scale agriculture: the policy environment and its implications in Ethiopia
(2016) Persson, Atkeyelsh G M; Whittal, Jennifer; Ramutsindela, Maano
In most African states, arable land and other natural resources play a pivotal role for economic growth and development. Ethiopia is one of those countries where agriculture is the backbone of the economy. Since the time of Emperor Haile Selassie I, Ethiopia has been attempting to advance the transformation of its agricultural sector by moving away from small-scale subsistence farming to large-scale commercial farming. It thus encouraged Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in largescale agriculture. However, the military government that took power in 1974 reversed this. The current government of Ethiopia seized power from the military regime in 1991. Today the government once again advocates FDI in large-scale agriculture. This has led to an influx of foreign investors, especially in Gambella and Benshanguel-Gumuz Regional States. Various scholars, however, criticize the manner in which these investments have been taking place, arguing that the investments are neither pro-poor nor sustainable. Against this backdrop this research seeks to examine current policies, the patterns of investment they promote, and how these affect land-based resources and the wellbeing of communities. The study intends to provide information that may help improve the performance of FDI in terms of their sensitivity to poverty alleviation and sustainability. It also aims to boost current knowledge on FDI in agriculture in Ethiopia. The study was conducted using multiple data collection methods, including documentation, interviews, focus group discussions with the affected communities and direct observations in the case study areas. The results are analysed using pro-poor and sustainability frameworks for FDI in large-scale agriculture, along with findings of empirical studies on national FDI policies and practices in various parts of the globe. The analyses reveal that the Ethiopian investment policy's support to FDI in large-scale agriculture is inadequate. It focuses on giving incentives to attract FDI rather than ensuring the availability of quality institutions and sufficient infrastructure, which are vital for facilitating the operation and productivity of FDIs. Furthermore, the absence of community participation in the decision-making process for the agricultural investment projects in the case study areas portends significant negative implications for the wellbeing of local communities and the sustainability of the natural environment. The study recommends further research to investigate the economic viability of alternative land-based investments, such as eco-tourism, which is shown to be environmentally sustainable and can be shaped to be pro-poor. Also recommended is additional research into good practices for large-scale agricultural investments, that can be adapted to Ethiopian conditions, should the government opt to continue promoting FDI.
Open Access
Game ranching and land reform : Claims for the land exclaim tension : a case study of the Mapungubwe region
(2013) Jivanji, Yogini; Ramutsindela, Maano
South Africa’s game ranching industry is perceived both positively and negatively. Positive perceptions of the industry exist owing to the argument that game ranching carries the prospect of augmenting sustainable conservation. Notwithstanding, negative associations of the industry arise from a growing body of evidence that game ranchers are thwarting the land reform process by fencing off their land to secure game ownership . Such perceptions are embedded within a sense of tension; wherein, if game ranching practices are a form of conservation, then such conservation practices may be contributing to conflict over land ownership and associated land usage. Accordingly, further investigation to ascertain what ranching practices entail and furthermore, what sustainable conservation involves could clarify the tension. A contextual analysis of ranching in the Mapungubwe region was thus sought. Fieldwork involving interviews with available key informants was conducted in the region. It was found, firstly, that a conceptual tension underpins game ranching; secondly, not all ranching can be deemed sustainable conservation and finally, that the sustainability of ranching itself is conditioned upon a range of factors. Tension between game ranching and land reform was discovered; yet such tension could not be attributed to nor felt by all of the key informants interviewed. It was concluded that tension is indeed present, but the tension is multi-dimensional in nature.
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Geographical Knowledge, Case Studies and the Division of Labour
(2007) Ramutsindela, Maano
Though a case study is commonly viewed as a unit of analysis with some form of bounded territory, the abstraction that it represents goes beyond a specific place. After all, case studies are conventionally used to provide the empirical evidence of, or test ideas that are, by nature mobile. This methodological view of case studies masks the division of the world into different knowledge production sites and the processes by which the authenticity of knowledge is approved or disapproved. This is evident in geographical scholarships in the global North and South, and within each of these 'regions'. The South has theoretically been constructed as a 'case study' through which theories, coming mainly from the North, can be tested or verified. These practices raise the question of the place of case study research in human geography and the contribution of case studies to theory. This paper uses experiences from South Africa to argue that local researchers play an equally important role in the conceptions and use of the South as a case study lacking in theoretical contributions. Conceptually, the hegemony of Anglo-American geography and the marginalisation of geographic knowledge from the South find expression in both the North and the South, with the South participating in its own marginalisation. It concludes that South Africa, as a part of the South, offers opportunities for rethinking the artificial gap between theory and case studies at various scales. However, local geographers have not yet fully exploited these opportunities.
Open Access
Land use change and bordering in the Greater Mapungubwe transfrontier conservation area
(2014) Sinthumule, Ndidzulafhi Innocent; Ramutsindela, Maano
This study uses bioregionalism and bordering as a lens for understanding the construction of Mapungubwe as a transfrontier conservation area and the effects of that process on biodiversity, the local economy and local communities. The main assumption underlying the study is that transfrontier conservation areas are founded on principles of bioregionalism. The study is motivated by three main claims that are advanced in support of the establishment of bioregions across international borders, namely, that transfrontier conservation areas enhance biodiversity, promote economic development and improve the livelihoods of local communities. Whereas research by ecologists and conservation biologists provide scientific data on which transfrontier conservation areas are anchored, social science research has criticized these areas for neglecting, marginalizing and disempowering local communities. The nascent body of literature on transfrontier conservation is yet to clarify how transfrontier conservation areas are created as bioregions. This study pays attention to this process; concentrating on the change in land use that transpired to encourage the construction of a bioregion, and the outcome of this process on biodiversity, the local economy and local communities. It is essential to understand the bioregional process because any outcome from, or consequences of transfrontier conservation areas, hinges on that process. The study uses theoretical insights from bodies of work on bioregionalism and border studies to identify aspects of bioregionalism that support the creation of transfrontier conservation areas. These areas are a product of a conservation planning paradigm that embraces bioregion at a larger scale as opposed to a bioregionalist social movement that encourages bioregionalism at a smaller scale. As with all types of regions, bioregions are not prearranged, but are rather socially constructed in both biophysical and social settings. This is made possible through the establishment of conservation corridors that connect patches of various land use activities across international borders.
Open Access
Modes of land control in transfrontier conservation areas : a case of green grabbing
(2016) Thakholi, Lerato; Ramutsindela, Maano
In light of the current literature on green grabbing, this study is motivated by the need to understand whether TFCAs are characterized by green grabbing and what form they take if indeed they are unfolding there. It investigated the modes of land control and transfer - within the Lesotho component of the Maloti Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area and South Africa's Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area - in order to explore the politics of land in TFCAs through the green grabbing lens. Global environmental organizations are increasingly calling for more terrestrial and marine resources to be protected from the looming global environmental crisis. The knowledge production about environmental problems, threats and solutions are often articulated at the global level through reports and conventions and are expected to be adopted at the local level. One such solution to loss of biodiversity that has enjoyed increasing support in southern Africa is the concept of the Peace Parks in the form of Transfrontier Conservation Areas. With the land question an ever brooding cloud over southern Africa, this study finds itself interrogating TFCAs and the land questions they raise. Taking into consideration the current land claims in South Africa, the contested issue of traditional authorities and the problems associated with communal land tenure. The study used hegemony as a lens through which to understand how conservation initiatives at the local level are an amalgamation of how the global environmental bloc has conceptualized conservation both as a practice and an idea. One such idea that has been widely popularised is the need for more land for conservation purposes. This approach allowed the identification of environmental international conventions and protocols as a first step in a series of prongs that legitimizes green grabbing. Furthermore, it used property rights to explore how legal green grabbing occur, that is, how property rights are used by private land owners as well as the state to appropriate more land, and in some instances how property rights were used to resist the encroachment of conservation in the frontier.
Open Access
Nature conservation in changing socio-political conditions at Londolozi Private Game Reserve
(2008) Hendry, James Ridley Angus; Ramutsindela, Maano
Worldwide, nature conservation paradigms have changed markedly since the turn of the 19th century. These changes have affected the way that conservation has been practiced in the eastern lowveld of South Africa. At the same time sociopolitical conditions in South Africa have also undergone enormous shifts which have affected the distribution of rural people and land use practices in the rural lowveld. This study examines private nature conservation and its relationship to local rural people in the lowveld using Londolozi Private Game Reserve as a case study. Various methods of data collection were used. These included focus group interviews with local rural people, a survey questionnaire with lodge staff, informal interviews with land owners, and visits to rural homes and schools. In addition the author drew on eight years of work and research experience on private game reserves in and around the study area. The application of fortress conservation in the lowveld resulted in the removal of black people from Crown and privately owned land, land that they were living on. They were removed to the western borders of the current Sabi Sand Wildtuin (SSW). This complete exclusion of local people from the conservation land in the Kruger National Park (KNP) and SSW remained the status quo until Londolozi, in 1976 and almost at least a decade before the rest of the conservation world began to engage with local black people on its borders. Londolozi paid particular attention to the rural staff working at the lodge. In the 1990's fortress conservation was replaced with community conservation approaches which sought to use market-based strategies to demonstrate the value of conservation to rural people bordering conservation areas. Londolozi retracted from its essentially bottom-up approach and implemented a number of infrastructural, management devised, top-down community projects in the local areas. It did this through the Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) Rural Investment Fund. These projects, although more obvious to the wider community outside the reserve, were inefficient and wasted money in some cases. In 2007, Londolozi returned to focussing on individual rural staff members rather than on infrastructural community development projects. The effect has been very positive for the 200 or so rural staff at Londolozi, but the wider community outside the fences sees little benefit or point to this approach. The community lodged a number of land claims on the SSW and Londolozi. The merits of the only gazetted claim on Londolozi would seem to be tenuous at best.
Open Access
The neo-liberalisation of nature : contextualising the resolution of land claims in the Kruger National Park
(2014) Shabangu, Medupi; Ramutsindela, Maano
The history of the nature conservation in South Africa’s protected areas is marked by the unfortunate reality of forced removals and land dispossession. Ultimately landlessness created an unequal society in terms of land holding, use and ownership. Nature conservation was also not spared. The land reform program in South Africa more especially the land restitution in the Kruger National Park re-defined the relationship between nature and society. However, such redefinition of nature and society takes place at the confluence of neo-liberalisation of nature and neoliberal land reform. The thesis provides insight into variants of neo-liberalism which point to ways in which nature conservation is increasingly being incorporated into market conditions and ideals. In the case of South Africa, the neo-liberalisation of nature takes place through a market-based approach to land reform. This brings together two threads of neo-liberalism, namely, the neo-liberalisation of nature and neo-liberal land reform. The study focuses on the land restoration debate which revolves around whether it is feasible to restore all land that was lost as a result of apartheid’s discriminatory practices; the appropriate method for achieving an equitable land restitution; and the method by which such restitution can be achieved with due consideration to all other national imperatives and long term goals.
Open Access
Neoliberalisation of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park as a tourist region
(2015) Rattle, Jessica Mary; Ramutsindela, Maano
Proponents of transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) make a number of claims in favour of this relatively new conservation strategy, one of which is that it leads to an increase in tourism. Despite the growing body of literature on the subject of TFCAs, very little research has been conducted on whether or not this assumption is true. This study therefore draws on and situates itself within this literature on TFCAs and the neoliberalisation of nature and seeks to test this claim through the use of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) as a case study. This is achieved firstly by assessing the changes in tourism development that have taken place both within the Park and in the area surrounding it as a result of the KTP's formation, and secondly by comparing the KTP's tourist levels prior to becoming a TFCA with those from after the TFCA was established, in order to determine what trends and changes have taken place as a result of this development. In doing so, this paper challenges the claim that TFCAs automatically lead to an increase in tourism and tourist development by showing that the link between the two is tenuous at best. It also broadens the scope of enquiry on the subject of TFCAs by analysing the relationship between TFCAs and the small scale, nature-based economic activities that take place around them, a matter which is largely ignored in the literature and, in doing so, critiques the assumption that all nature-based economic activities are part of a wider neoliberal agenda.
Open Access
The politics of Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA in Botswana
(2016) Mogende, Emmanuel; Ramutsindela, Maano
Transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) are considered the latest evolution of a more holistic approach to transnational environmental management that brings together conservation and development agendas. As part of bio political governance, TFCAs are ecologically, economically and politically motivated. Using a discourse analytical perspective of claims advanced for TFCAs in Southern Africa, this study explores how Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA has been motivated. The study questions the interests of Botswana government participation in the KAZA TFCA and examines the effects of the KAZA TFCA on local communities. This study employs a qualitative approach employing triangulation methods of data collection. KAZA is one of the largest and most ambitious transboundary initiative in the world that stretches across the political borders of five sovereign states. KAZA acknowledges that nature knows no boundaries hence conservation corridors should traverse political boundaries and borders of the state. Against this backdrop, the rationale for KAZA is to provide the large herds of elephants (approximately 120,000) in Botswana with access to large area of grazing land. The study demonstrates how the burgeoning elephant population is inextricably linked with border policing, tourism and conservation. KAZA considers participation and local community involvement in planning and decision making as legitimate for sustainable natural resource management. However, the current realities exist in contrast to these considerations. The study reveals that there is a disparity between theory and practice as KAZA is yet to deliver its promises to the local communities. The thesis asserts that it is critical to view KAZA as a complex, evolving and long-term initiative that will be interesting to follow in the future.
Open Access
Renewed promises conservation for development in the Kaza, Angola
(2012) Dias, D'Jenane; Ramutsindela, Maano
Since the end of white minority rule in southern Africa in the 1990s, transfrontier conservation initiatives have become the dominant conservation strategy in the region and have received international support. This dissertation focuses on the Kavango Zambezi TFCA involving Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The general objectives of TFCAs - conservation of biodiversity, socio-economic and tourism development and peaceful political cooperation - have been under scrutiny. Literature has paid attention to these TFCAs because of the promises made by supporters of these initiatives on the one hand, and reports and experiences on the ground that suggests that there are political and economic interests in TFCAs, on the other hand. Critical literature has highlighted the effects of TFCAs on local populations. This dissertation addresses two research questions, the first being the rationale for Angola's involvement in the Kavango Zambezi TFCA initiative and the country's modes of participation. Second, it seeks to highlight the place of local communities in this initiative and how it affects these populations.
Open Access
The role of land reform and rural development in sustaining small-scale agriculture : a case study of the Comprehensive Rural Development Program (CRDP) in Dysselsdorp, Western Cape
(2013) Magnusson, Angela R; Ramutsindela, Maano
This short dissertation aims to contribute to the academic discussion centered on land reform and rural development efforts to date and their effectiveness in supporting livelihoods rooted in small-scale agriculture for those living in a former Group Area. Research was conducted in February/March 2013 in the Karoo community of Dysselsdorp in the Western Cape. Dysselsdorp was identified as a pilot location for Comprehensive Rural Development, a relatively recent program by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform blending rural development and land reform efforts for the first time. This study used a combination of quantitative survey and questionnaire data with extensive qualitative data in the form of farmer focus groups and key informant interviews. Results gathered from this demonstrated conflicting views about the capacity of the Comprehensive Rural Development Program to support livelihoods based on small-scale agriculture. Coupling discussions with community members and government officials with literature written on rural development in southern Africa revealed that stakeholder involvement within the CRDP structure is both a bane and a benefit to the progress of economic development in the community.
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South African Goegraphers and the Spatial Division of Labour
(2007) Mather, Charles; Ramutsindela, Maano
The role and status of geographical traditions that exist outside of the Anglo-American heartland of the discipline has generated considerable debate in the last decade. The context for these debates is a growing recognition of the dominance of Anglo-American geographical scholarship and the relative marginality of geographies of and from the periphery. Research and writing on the limited international scope of so-called 'international' geography journals, the exclusionary practices of editors and referees of the discipline's flagship journals involved in assessing papers produced from the margins, and the challenges faced by geographers attempting to contribute to broader geographical scholarship from non-Anglophone speaking contexts point to the specific practices that underpin the marginal position of geographical traditions outside the discipline's heartland.
Open Access
Sustainable tourism awareness and environmental practices in luxury safari lodges
(2015) Logan, Alexandra Joanna; Ramutsindela, Maano
Sustainable tourism requires accommodation businesses to balance economic, environmental and social issues, taking into account the needs of current and future generations. However, despite the ever E increasing attention on sustainable tourism and the acknowledgement of the impacts of tourism on the environment, this form of tourism only represents a minor share of all tourism. Ecotourism forms part of sustainable tourism and is one of the most common forms of commercially focused wildlife management on privately owned land. Luxury safari lodges are expected to provide a high level of hospitality , luxurious facilities and exquisite cui sine . Consequently, these lodges consume large quantities of resources and are reliant on the adequate supply of water and energy. Safari lodges are also reliant on the natural environment to attract guests. Therefore it is prudent of these businesses to conserve and protect water, energy and ecological resources to ensure the perpetuity of the lodge. Furthermore, both the environment and society benefit from the conservation of these resources. This study investigates the awareness of sustainable tourism and environmental practices in luxury safari lodges. Twenty-five luxury safari lodges in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa were approached and a total of six safari lodges participated in an email E based questionnaire and one took part in semi -structured interviews. The research reveals that luxury safari lodges are aware of sustainable tourism and its importance. In addition, they involved in a number of environmental activities in order to achieve sustainability. The environment is emphasized as central to sustainable tourism, stemming from the fact that these lodges rely on the natural environment to attract guests. Balancing financial commitments to sustainability was found to have an impact on certain aspects of the luxury safari lodges attitudes and actions. The research indicated two key directions to pursue to sustain environmental activities in the luxury safari lodge industry. Firstly, education and awareness of staff and guests is acknowledged as central to supporting and achieving sustainability in luxury safari lodges. Secondly, lodges affiliated with voluntary initiatives such as FTT and Greenleaf are audited regularly to ensure a specific standard has been achieved, thus maintaining sustainable best practices in the lodges. The research concluded that the motivation for achieving sustainable tourism within luxury safari lodges can be seen as driven by: the need to preserve the natural environment, the opportunity to reduce operating costs (increase profitability) and the growing demand for environmentally friendly safari lodges.
Open Access
The Kavango-Zambezi Conservation Area (KAZA) and its dynamics in Zambia
(2019) Lupiya, Astridah; Ramutsindela, Maano
Transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) have emerged as one of the 21st century’s contemporary approaches to management of natural resources which span the borders of two or more countries. Robust arguments exist that boundaries hamper the conservation objectives of migratory species. On the basis of the claimed potential of TFCAs to reconcile the conservation and economic development objectives of nations through tourism, TFCAs have been widely embraced in Southern Africa as a model for governing shared resources. TFCAs in Southern Africa have been motivated by both ecological and socio-economic factors, TFCAs are also politically motivated. This study uses the lens of political ecology to understand the motivation of Zambia’s participation in the Kavango–Zambezi TFCA (KAZA TFCA). KAZA TFCA is one of the largest TFCAs in the world and is said to be home to the largest number of the remaining African elephants (approximately 120,000). This five-country TFCA spans large rural landscapes that are a potential site for extensive tourism and currently provide livelihood opportunities for many poor rural households. This study assesses the investments of Zambia’s government in the KAZA TFCA. It uses the case study of Simalaha Community Conservancy in the Western Province of Zambia to examine the implications of the KAZA TFCAs on the local population in the conservancy. The research uses semi-structured interviews, field observations and secondary data to advance an argument that TFCAs do not always yield positive gains for both governments and local communities. Gains depend on several factors, such as level of development of a country, level of tourism development and the preparedness of a participating nation to invest in and benefit from a TFCA. The study establishes that KAZA is an unequal investment landscape, with Zambia being one of the lesser investors in the KAZA TFCA. In addition, the notion that the TFCA model embodies the poverty reduction objectives meant to benefit local populations is contestable as the KAZA on the Zambian side (Simalaha community) has not improved the welfare of the local people.
Open Access
Unworkable formula? : decentralization, development and natural resource conservation in Sehlabathebe, Lesotho
(2006) Shale, Moliehi T; Ramutsindela, Maano
Includes bibliographical references.

Browsing by Author "Ramutsindela, Maano"

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