A Social-Ecological Systems Understanding of Drivers of Degradation in the Tsitsa River Catchment to Inform Sustainable Land Management

Adela Itzkin, Mary C. Scholes, Jai Kumar Clifford-Holmes, Kate Rowntree, Bennie van der Waal and Kaera Coetzer
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Adela Itzkin: School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES), University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Mary C. Scholes: School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES), University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Jai Kumar Clifford-Holmes: Institute for Water Research (IWR), Rhodes University, Makhanda 6139, South Africa
Kate Rowntree: Geography Department, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6139, South Africa
Bennie van der Waal: Geography Department, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6139, South Africa
Kaera Coetzer: Global Change Institute, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-28

Abstract: Understanding the interactions of the social and biophysical drivers of land degradation is crucial for developing adaptive management actions for future sustainability. A research-praxis project, the ‘Tsitsa Project’ (TP), applies a social-ecological systems (SES) approach where researchers, natural resource managers, and residents collaborate to support sustainable livelihoods and improved natural resource management for the degraded Tsitsa River Catchment (TRC) in South Africa. A system diagramming approach was coupled with findings from interviews, workshops, literature, and two conceptual frameworks. Data inputs were qualitatively integrated to provide a systemic snapshot of how the context-specific social and biophysical drivers are interlinked and how they interact, revealing multiple processes that operate simultaneously to cause and exacerbate land degradation. Physical and climatic variables, changes in land use and cover, and overgrazing were identified as key factors leading to degradation. Additionally, poverty and disempowerment were also important. While little can be done to influence the physical aspects (steep topography and duplex soils) and climatic variables (extreme rainfall and drought), carefully planned changes in land use and management could produce dual-benefits for improving landscape conditions and sustainable livelihoods. This analysis will inform integrated planning processes to monitor, avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation.

Keywords: land degradation; social-ecological systems; systems thinking; sustainable land management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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