SHRUBS
5.8. Integrated Catchment Management (feM) 1. Community conservation
5.8.2. Multiple use management
The infrastructure required to manage the resources needs to be multi-faceted and with a focus on protection and sustainable yield. Infrastructure is defined as the basic facilities needed for the efficient functioning of an organisation/country etc. A facility is defined as something that provides you with the means to do things.
KNR hasmultiple uses, with particular areas associated with particular uses. The management of these areas, their protection and development are then based on different objectives. A blanket approach to management activities may not always be appropriate in some cases or for some areas.
Dividing areas into manageable units will allow easier facilitation of management objectives. These manageable units can be linked with other manageable units within the Emolweni and Nkutu catchments, including feeder streams and surrounding private properties.
The KNR Management Plan (part 4.8,2003) is to divide areas into blocks for vegetation inventory / research purposes (random blocks, fife exclusion blocks and exclusion of riparian belt).
The regeneration of the woody component as a potential resource (in a fife exclusion block) could be studied.
Those areas that get significant alien invasion, have a generally low conservation status and are located at a forest fringe can be compared by dividing the block into two, on the one hand, using handpicking and, on the other, using herbicidal treatment for invader control. The nature and extent of regeneration (in terms of biodiversity and quantity) and the relative costs/gains of herbicidal and handpicking can then be determined.
The facilities required to manage KNR for multiple-use activities are varied and will require the input and support from various stakeholders. Forums need to be well represented and assessed for skills that might support multiple-use management in KNR
Multiple-use management in KNR implies the management of the following:
the biota, that is, protected flora and fauna and alien invaders the people, that is, recreational, educational and subsistence users
the riverine system, including the riparian zone and wetlands and any activity that impacts on the quantity and quality of water
the substrate, specifically measures to curb erosion of river banks etc.
Managing the above will naturally contribute towards the management of fire and floods.
To achieve these management goals, people who use KNR and people who can offer expertise to support the management of the use of KNR need to be included in the ESF.
The Emolweni and its tributaries need to be monitored for quality and quantity on an ongoing basis. This will offerprotection and a sustained yield for subsistence downstream communities and will add to the water budget in the Umgeni. The input of the Nkutu River and the Nkonka and other streams must be monitored as well as the passage of the Emolweni River itself from its source in Hillcrest until it leaves KNR.
Thereafter it needs to be monitored up till the point where it enters the Umgeni River. Part of this task lies outside KNR, but will still be important information required by the ESF since it will impact on the quantity and quality of water feeding the Umgeni system.
Since no major industrial development occurs in the Outer West there is unlikely to be much pollution, but because of rapid housing development in these areas, a decrease in quality due to sediment load is likely as well as a possible decrease in quantity due to low aquifier replenishment. Increased risks of flooding outside KNR may occur due to greater surface run-off. Thus the substrate too must be managed to ensure that stream/river banks are protected and measures toward flood attenuation are followed.
Technical support should be drawn from members of CMCs, for example the type of expertise offered by Umgeni Water, especially with tasks involving the monitoring of water quality and quantity. Training of local people to do the surveys, monitoring, inventories etc. should take place through the Emolweni SMF.
A management plan should promote the enhancement, protection and controlled utilisation of resources.
These resources include recreational areas, funding, fauna and flora, soil and water. The interaction between these resources and between these resources and the surrounding communities requires an integrated approach to their management.
For example, alien vegetation impact on both the quantity and quality of water e.g. they can reduce the quantity of water in feeder streams and reduce the quality of water by causing erosion on riverbanks. Thus alien control must be integrated with the enhancement and protection of water resources.
Thus there is reason enough to manage resources more in terms of a geographical unit than as separate compartments. This involves finding ways to describe resources collectively. Common terms of legislation should be made available that attempt to satisfy the criteria for the protection and enhancement of all resources.
Consider the quality and quantity requirements for water resources. This phrase may describe biota as easily as it is used to describe water. Abundance would be the synonym for quantity and quality criteria would be related to the degree of biodiversity as well as the "protected" value of scarce plants and also the market value of a particular species.
All communities who use or abuse these resources, directly or indirectly, must be incorporated into the management plan. Thus the management plan must follow a community outreach programme that incorporates:
the various socio-economic communities that impact on the nature reserve;
the educational community ; the scientific community ;
people involved in conservation work and
people involved in urban maintenance and development.
People who are resident in any of the riparian zones and people who have feeder streams within their area should also be part of the participatory management. Joint efforts amongst community members may extend the wildlife corridors (and smaller passages) by promoting the urban conservancy concept. In the protection of feeder streams "green belt" areas have been proclaimed in which development is to be limited. This has led to a clash between landowners and the council concerning rights to build. The problem is that green belt areas were imposed after the subdivision of land in some areas resulting in for example (resident, pers.
comm., 2006) the available area allowed for building covering only 20 m2.
Open areas are highly valued in the Durban Metropolitan area and are given an estimated value of several Billion Rand (Kloof Conservancy, pers. comm., 2003). KNR is one of the largest open spaces and this research project took a conservative estimate of the true value, and is essentially a qualitative study, pointing out the type of values and to discuss ways in which they may be quantified. Biodiversity indicators are important indicators of whether the goals of the enhancement ofbiodiversity and the resultant development of wildlife corridors are achieved i.e low biodiversity in infested areas, increasing diversity in regenerating areas which then declines as the climax is approached. Indicators based on the criteria that the biodiversity of an
area should be appropriately enhanced is not really relevant to KNR itself where ground disturbance is minmized and biota are "conserved rather than enhanced.
Extending corridors for wildlife aJso has problems, as some wildJife may not be compatible with urban existence as was noted when bush pigs looking for forage in winter, dug out banana tree roots and attacked a resident's dog. On the other hand, packs of dogs that escape from surrounding properties catch and kill buck and rabbits. A special management plan will be needed for this. AJthough fencing keeps dogs out of KNR, it also inhibits the movement of some fauna (e.g. buck), that would allow for greater genetic variation in offspring.
The management plan for KNR will be incorporated into the larger subcatchment plans for the Emolweni and Nkutu rivers. The subcatchment plans should incorporate the entire subcatchment area from the source to the point where it enters the Umgeni. This includes the monitoring and mapping of feeder streams entering the two rivers as well as the type of impact made on the riverine area by the different bordering communities.
A proposal to build cluster housing in an area (upper end of the reserve) traversed by the Nkonka stream has recently undergone an EnvironmentaJ Impact Assessment (EIA). InitiaJly the developers hoped to get away with dumping treated effluent in the stream, but have since retracted this approach.
To facilitate a holistic and integrated approach to catchment management, terminology should favour collective phrases like The National Resource Strategy (NRS) stemming from the NWRS. This involves substituting the letter of a specific resource to a generaJ term. WMAs become RMAs, WMls become RMls WUAs become RUAs. Sustainable forestry management (SFM) becomes SRM, FMUs become RMUs. This aJlows consideration of resources together when managed as a single unit.
The term "enforcement" may have to be changed to "co-operative or participatory management" in terms of the constitution. Education and service is the key to co-operation. Hopefully forums could provide these two key issues of education and service that will help in the success of management at local level. Furthermore there is a need to provide education for the local authority.
Laws pertaining to the controlled removal of forest produce need toberevised in order to provide controlled access to subsistence users and nursery workers.
Lnspections along the entire length of the rivers willbetaking place since commercial water users are required toberegistered. They will pay a levy that wiJJ beused for local management. People who are entrusted in doing this job could aJso be trained to conduct surveys and report on alien invader infestations and/or the vegetative covering of the stream bank. Water use charges may cover some of these costs. Teams may be required.
The inspection for any erosion of soil on riverbanks may be incorporated in the survey. The service of providing alternative vegetation for the bank through the conservancies should be considered.
The extent of use of forest produce in KNR is hard to quantify, and efforts to capture the perpetrators extremely difficult. Monitoring of the effect on quality and quantity of biota is important and inventories and mapping of these areas is required.
Teams working for the WWP in the Outer West were supposed to have removed some of the indigenous pLants (conservancy member, pers. comm.). Perpetrators once more are hard to catch since they can always dig the plants out at a later date. It is assumed that these plants have greater value than the income from labour practices.
Before these teams begin their work, an inventory of indigenous plants should be conducted and mapped in tenns of their location.