Nature Divided – Land degradation in South Africa
Timm Hoffman and Ally Ashwell.2001 University of Cape Town Press ISBN 1-919713-54-9.
During the years of apartheid in South Africa, the country's land was divided along racial lines, along with its people. The types and intensity of land use in the homelands and self-governing territories, which were predominantly communally farmed, differed greatly from the commercially farmed areas. Since the 1940s, soil conservation initiatives have been concentrated on commercially farmed areas. Despite the end of apartheid and the return to inclusive democratic rule, this division still has a profound effect on current patterns of land degradation, which is a major problem in much of South Africa today. The problem is still particularly severe in areas of communal farming. Soil degradation alone is estimated to cost South Africa nearly two billion rand per year ($200 million).
In 1997 a major study was commissioned by the South African Government Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism to establish the status of land degradation in the country. This study was designed to meet the country's commitment to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification which requires the development of a national action plan to combat desertification. The study resulted in a detailed technical report and this book is a popular summary of the report. The term desertification in the UNCCD is used to mean land degradation in dry areas. The authors describe this as more of an ‘outbreak of rash’ rather than an ‘advancing tide of sand.’ Patches of degradation can result from a combination of climatic factors and poor land management. As the authors point out, land degradation may be most obvious to those living on and farming that land, but can affect everyone in different ways, even those living in distant cities.
The book starts with an introduction to the problem of land degradation in South Africa, the physical and political environment in the country, and a brief history of efforts to date to combat the problem. The study is then described. Information was first gathered from participant experiences at 34 workshops and verified by comparison with literature and seven in-depth case studies. Land use patterns are compared across districts with predominantly freehold, commercially farmed systems and communally farmed areas, and the impacts of different land use on water, soil and vegetation resources are examined. Using a combined index of land degradation, the authors calculate that communal areas are generally twice as badly degraded as commercially farmed area. They use this data to develop a system for predicting which districts are most likely to suffer degradation. A series of recommendations are developed, and a final chapter draws on lessons from elsewhere in charting ways forward for combating land degradation in South Africa.
I found the book quite an eye-opener in pointing out some of the ways in which the political history of the country has had far reaching consequences. For example, many immigrant labourers brought in to work in cities were poorly paid, on the assumption that their families living back home on the farms were growing enough food to live on. However, this meant that these workers were unable to send home enough money to invest in their farms and maintain productivity, which has in turn contributed to land degradation.
Overall, this is an interesting book written in a clear and easy-to-follow style which will be of use and interest to farmers and government workers as well as students and academics. A scientific audience might want more technical details of the study, but I assume these could be obtained from the full technical report if it is readily available. The book presents an excellent step by step account of the problem, the context, the study and its findings and conclusions. As such it should be quite effective in helping to transform the results of the original study into concrete changes in land management that will reduce the problem of land degradation in South Africa.
