Co-Managing the Commons in the ‘New ’ South Africa: Room for Manoeuvre? (original) (raw)

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.

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.

Constituting the commons in the new South Africa

2000

Abstract:" Co-managing the commons within the new governance structures of South Africa has the potential to promote participatory democracy and improve natural resource management. Inequitable access to and use of natural resources characterised apartheid-era policies and practices. In line with post-1990 democratisation processes, public involvement, participation, community-based initiatives and co-management have been promoted as key aspects of natural resource management policies. Power sharing, ...

Legal frameworks for and the practice of participatory natural resources management in South Africa

Forest Policy and Economics, 2008

This study evaluated the role of rural communities in the conservation of natural resources in South Africa. South Africa has sufficient legal instruments that promote interactive participation of rural people in the management of natural resources. These national laws operate within the policy frameworks provided by the multilateral environmental conventions and protocols to which South Africa is signatory. However, these legal commitments to participatory management of natural resources are not matched by the practice on the ground by South African conservationists. Grassroots conservation officials who are responsible for administering participatory processes primarily focus their attention on the establishment of participatory natural resources management forums. However, these forums typically die out, as they fail to meet local people's expectations. Lack of capacity, experience and innovation underlie the absence of institutional culture for effective integration of rural people's needs into the management of protected natural resources. Strategic recommendations are provided to overcome these inadequacies identified in the implementation of participatory management of natural resources in South Africa.

Commons governance in Southern Africa

2009

This Policy Brief is based on synthetic studies undertaken by participants in the Cross Sectoral Commons Governance in Southern Africa (CROSCOG) project between 2007 and 2009, funded by the European Commission (European Commission: FP6-2002-INCO-DEV/SSA-1, contract no. 043982). The objective of the project was to share existing research and experience in the governance of large-scale natural resource commons across various ecosystem types in southern Africa.

At the threshold between governance and management: community-based natural resource management in Southern Africa

Public Administration and Development, 2001

In this article, we use the threshold-based management framework to analyse and make policy recommendations for community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). We introduce the concept, present two examples from Southern Africa, and lay out the fundamentals of the threshold-based resource management approach. We then analyse the two cases using the framework to assess whether it can provide solutions to CBNRM implementation problems or whether the conditions characterizing many CBNRM sites would preclude use of the approach.

Management of some commons in southern Africa: Implications for policy No. 23

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 have been broken down to the extent that many of them are now more characteristic of open access systems. An alternative to meeting the challenge of managing resources in common rangelands is to develop community-based rangeland resource management systems that build on the strengths of traditional management approaches. Therefore a call is made on the use of indigenous knowledge systems and empowering communities to manage their rangeland resources, in order to prevent...

An institutional approach for developing South African inland freshwater fisheries for improved food security and rural livelihoods

Water SA, 2014

South Africa has over 4 700 storage dams, about 700 of which are owned and controlled by Government. Public dams were primarily constructed for domestic, irrigation and industrial water supply. Over time secondary uses for recreation and tourism have been established. Many of the public dams have been stocked with indigenous and alien fish species, predominantly for recreational angling. Given widespread rural unemployment, poverty and undernourishment, the development of inland fisheries on public dams and natural water bodies has much potential for improving rural livelihoods and food security. There is also potential for inclusion of communities in other value chains linked to economic activities around public dams such as recreational fishing and tourism. The public dams and natural water bodies fall under various implicit institutional arrangements depending on primary and secondary activities on a given water body. These determine the existing formal and informal power dynamics and related decision-making arrangements and controls under current use-right practices. This paper analyses the existing property rights that determine access, co-management options and governance arrangements necessary to promote sustainable development of inland fisheries in South Africa. Attention needs to be given to the various ways of explicit definition and enforcement of property and access rights if communities are to realise the potential benefits from use of public dams for fisheries and other economic activities. Achieving this will require a developmental approach based on principles of inclusive, representative, equitable, accountable and effective governance. Leadership by the line agency-Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries-will be critical for success of such an initiative.