Browsing by Author "Achieng, Therezah"

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    Investigating land use change in the Eastern Cape as a regime shift, a case study of Amakhala game reserve
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Achieng, Therezah; Maciejewski, Kristine; Dyer, Michelle; Biggs, Reinette, 1979-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Livestock farming in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, has recently undergone a shift to game farming. This research uses a regime shift lens to analyse the change in structure and function of the broader social-ecological system and identify the drivers of the change. The impacts of this land use change and the feedback mechanisms that lock the system into these alternate regimes are also explored. This is important because it has implications for the provision of ecosystem services and human well-being, and the resilience of the system. This research used a case study approach in Amakhala game reserve to understand how the shift from livestock to game farming affects ecosystems and different stakeholders, using participatory mapping and remote sensing approaches. A change in land cover over time indicates a newly vegetated state, which is an indicator of conservation. Results also indicate that the transition from livestock to game farming had different costs and benefits for landowners and farm workers. Social, cultural and even economic structures that held greater value to individuals on livestock farms, a condition that was definable as a community, have been traded off to economic and social structures that hold more value to an external group of people, usually visitors, than the value it holds to individuals on game farms, not definable as a community. The use of a social narrative approach, derived through the participatory methodologies, reveals an important understanding of how the shift of such a social-ecological system impacts differently on various groups of stakeholders.