People-centered environmental management and municipal commonage in the Nama Karoo
Date
2005
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Publisher
Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, ZA
Abstract
This paper makes the following argument: Municipalities need assistance with establishing viable commonage management systems; such systems need to be based on the voluntary and committed participation by the users (that is ‘people-centred’); and this, in turn, requires an understanding of the emergent farmers’ knowledge base of the environment.
This paper considers the prospects for commonage use in the arid areas of South Africa, notably the Nama-Karoo, or non-succulent Karoo, characterised by small shrubs and grass species. This
geographic area should be differentiated from the Succulent Karoo of the Namaqualand and southern Cape areas, which have different rainfall and vegetative patterns. The Nama Karoo is the northern part of the Karoo, and is the largest biome in South Africa. It is characterised by low and variable rainfall, mainly in the summer months. It stretches up to the southern Free State. This geographical demarcation is also significant because of its land tenure characteristics. The phenomenon of ‘commonage’ in the Nama-Karoo area refers to municipally-owned land, whose
overriding purpose has been for the use of urban residents.
Description
Copublished with Centre for Applied Social Sciences, University of Zimbabwe
CASS/PLAAS occasion paper series
CASS/PLAAS occasion paper series
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Working Paper
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Keywords
COMMUNAL LAND, LAND USE, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, COMMONS MANAGEMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION, SOUTH AFRICA