Management of some commons in southern Africa: Implications for policy No. 23 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Management of some commons in southern Africa: Implications for policy
Policy Brief, 2006
Profound transformations in communal land tenure systems are taking place in parts of southern Africa that have resulted from decades of interventions, particularly the shrinking of the commonage through capture of extensive tracts of lands by private interests. Some policies have been into place that envisage improved management of common rangeland resources through privatisation. However, empirical evidence is lacking as to what extent these may have been successful. Traditional management systems in communal areas ...
Land Use Policy, 2010
This paper takes as its starting point the assertion that current rangeland management in the central Eastern Cape Province (former Ciskei) of South Africa, is characterised primarily by an 'open-access' approach. Empirical material drawn from three case-study communities in the region is used to examine the main barriers to management of rangeland as a 'commons'. The general inability to define and enforce rights to particular grazing resources in the face of competing claims from 'outsiders', as well as inadequate local institutions responsible for rangeland management are highlighted as being of key importance. These are often exacerbated by lack of available grazing land, diffuse user groups and local political and ethnic divisions. Many of these problems have a strong legacy in historical apartheid policies such as forced resettlement and betterment planning.
Tackling 'the most avoided issue': communal rangeland management in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
African Journal of Range & Forage Science, 2005
Democratisation in 1994 resulted in a shift in state focus from white commercial farmers to small-scale and subsistence black farmers living in communal areas in South Africa. The LandCare Program of the National Department of Agriculture aimed to improve productivity at the same time as promoting sustainable land-use practices. However, agriculture officials have remained reluctant to tackle communal rangeland management. This paper examines the experiences of stakeholders who undertook communal rangeland management and rehabilitation on the Okhombe LandCare project in the northern Drakensberg. The paper explores how community facilitators can be trained and supported in their work. Facilitator training for communal rangeland management should include social skills, the social context of communal rangelands and novice facilitators should be supported by mentors. There is a need for greater financial support and law enforcement from the state in the area of communal grazing management.
Towards an effective commons governance system in Southern Africa?
2010
This special feature presents several papers generated under the EUfunded 'Cross Sectoral Commons Governance in Southern Africa' (CROSCOG) project. The feature builds on knowledge generated in case studies which explored existing integrated resource knowledge and governance practices of rural people living in Southern African commons. In earlier generations, especially during the pre-colonial periods, most Southern African societies developed quite effective indigenous institutions for the management of entire landscapes and their component ecosystems, when this was in their interest. Few of these integrated Southern African systems are effective today as they have gone through massive changes, for example due to colonial influences, the increased role of the market and/or conflicts over use and access to natural resources. Meanwhile, most efforts to rebuild or affirm (the management of) the commons through various initiatives, have been specific to certain resources or localised areas. Conversely, the smaller number of ecosystem-wide land use planning initiatives that sought to enhance overall environmental health have been dominated by technical, antipolitical approaches that failed to understood the differential roles of resources in the spectrum of local livelihoods, and failed to achieve the required broader reinforcement of local governance. This introduction and the papers it introduces Editorial: Towards an effective commons governance system 603 explore opportunities and challenges with respect to integrating scale-landscapes, ecosystems, and governing systems-into the local commons.
2009
Dr. Marshall Murphree is a prominent scholar in the yelds of common property theory, rural development, and natural resource management. After graduating from the London School of Economics with a doctorate in social anthropology, he returned home to Zimbabwe to work as a missionary before joining the University of Zimbabwe, where he became director, and subsequently Professor Emeritus, of the Centre for Applied Social Sciences. Beyond Proprietorship presents a range of contributions to the May 2007 conference held to honour Murphree’s work, and it conveys his central concerns of equality and fairness. The focus is on marginalised people living in poor and remote regions of Zimbabwe, but also includes important discussions about the policy implications of regional tenure regimes, and the place of local resource management in global conservation politics. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the recent history and experience of remote area development, semi-arid agr...
Institutions, governance and incentives in common property regimes for African rangelands
Environmental & Resource Economics, 1995
The general distinctions between open access, state property, common property and private property are now well established in the academic literature. When applied to African rangelands, however, common property admits a wide variety of resource management regimes. To formulate effective policies it is necessary to understand the structure and operations of particular regimes. In this paper we discuss three examples of common property regimes, two from the southern African nation of Lesotho and one from the west African nation of Senegal, to illustrate some of the key characteristics of common property regimes. In particular, it is important to understand the structure of governance, the types of institutions that govern behavior, and the compatibility between governance, institutions and individual incentives. A common property regime can only be effective if its institutions are compatible with the structure of governance. The extent of its effectiveness also depends upon the incentives and expectations of individuals expected to enforce the rules of the institutions or comply with their terms. At present, most African governments lack the organizational capacity and political will necessary to implement state property regimes, official regulations on resource use, or individual property rights for rangelands resources. In many cases it is more appropriate for governments to define and enforce group rights to particular resources, then help to establish conditions in which internal group dynamics yield efficient resource management outcomes.
Property rights and governance of Africa's rangelands: A policy overview
Natural Resources Forum, 2009
Recent efforts at securing property rights in dryland Africa have generally involved several interrelated processes such as legal and policy reforms that recognize and strengthen customary rights or the seasonal rights of pastoralists, and the decentralization of land allocation and administration to lower governance levels. These solutions are in turn beset by new problems, key among them are establishing norms for local participation in decision making, preventing manipulation and capture by elites, lack of accountability of local level institutions and authorities, and the onset of a new generation of resource user conflicts. Increasing avenues through which dialogue and communication can occur among policy actors (including local communities) in order to mobilize multiple experiences, information, and to manage power relationshipsa collaborative approach to policy governance-is one way of approaching the complexity paradox. This is anticipated to provide opportunity for learning, innovation and adaptability.n arf_1219 160..
Governance of the commons in southern Africa: knowledge, political economy and power
Millions of southern African livelihoods continue to depend on the successful management and sustainable use of the commons – land and natural resources that are supposedly or actually managed, with varying degrees of success, as common property. This, above all, is the challenge to governance. The poor must tackle it – and governments and development agencies must support their endeavours – in the triple context of knowledge, political economy and power. This paper highlights the major factors and trends in these three areas that we must understand if we are to optimise support for the governance of the commons in southern Africa. If more commons around the region are studied from the same analytical perspectives, it will be easier to share experience and lessons in ways that can usefully inform development and conservation policy and programmes. This is what the Cross-Sectoral Commons Governance in Southern Africa project, reported in this special issue, has tried to do.
Where to draw the line: Mapping of land rights in a South African commons
Political Geography, 2008
In South Africa, formal titles to land have generally been restricted to ‘commercial’ farms under white ownership. However, in Namaqualand in the Northern Cape Province, mapping of individual dryland plots became part of the land reform process. In this study, we take a critical look at this mapping exercise in the communal area of Concordia. While securing the rights of individual dryland plot holders, the mapping also resulted in unintended impacts. Separate plots were joined together, enclosing the communal corridors in between, and new individual plots were created, reducing the communal grazing area. Furthermore, the mapping and surveying process has triggered an upsurge in the fencing of dryland plots. The case demonstrates that formalisation may cause changes in rights in general, and may promote privatisation of communal rights more specifically. This experience from Namaqualand can be seen as a test case for possible effects of planned surveying and registration of individual plots in other South African communal areas.