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Amplifying Local Livelihood and Green-Preneurship Transformations for the Improvement and Management of the Degraded Tsitsa River Catchment in a Changing Climate
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INTRODUCTION TO THE TSITSA PROJECT
The Tsitsa Project is a sustainable landscape management initiative that was co-initiated by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and Rhodes University in 2014. The initiative now includes a wide range of partners, including local catchment residents and authorities, and LIMA Rural Development Foundation. The project promotes the development of capabilities for local stakeholders and residents to be able to meaningfully participate in planning and decision-making processes pertaining to land use, restoration and livelihood activities in the Tsitsa River Catchment. Certain
critical capabilities have been identified as stepping stones or pathways for the achievement and sustainability of catchment management/land use initiatives and practices, including adaptation to climate risks and vulnerabilities, and increasing capabilities for critical skills of several kinds for many people. Different facets of the project are described in the Tsitsa Project Practice and Policy Brief Series (see pg. 4 and the references to other briefs throughout).
OVERVIEW
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed 2021–2030 to be the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the primary aim being to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. The UN Decade also acknowledges the critical role that healthy ecosystems play towards achieving the 2030 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) to end poverty, conserve biodiversity, combat climate change and improve livelihoods across borders. The dual focus on achieving ecological and socio-economic outcomes calls for integrated landscape approaches such as the sustainable land management approach endorsed by the Tsitsa Project to meet the local and national development plans and climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities (see Introduction to the Tsitsa Project above) .
It is predicted that climate change will expose the Tsitsa River catchment to increases in temperature and greater rainfall variability, leading to severe droughts and floods, a trend already experienced in recent years.
As the risk of these hydro-meteorological hazards increases, so too will the risk to local agricultural production, water availability and water supply to homesteads and livestock. Heavy rain over land with low vegetation cover (due to drought or mismanagement) increases soil erosion and promotes the loss of productive grazing land.
Furthermore, there are various health risks, including direct effects such as heat stress on people, livestock and plants, as well as indirect effects related, for example to malnutrition.
KEY MESSAGE
Investments in ecosystem restoration, as promoted by the UN Decade on restoration, can have a catalytic effect on reversing the poverty cycle characteristic of heavily degraded and impoverished rural contexts such as the Tsitsa area, as well as responding to the socio-economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. Restoration-linked employment, green- preneurship and livelihood related activities can lift local communities from their status quo to a position of effective governance of the natural resources, greater sustainable land use capability, improved socio-economic returns and better living conditions.
Investment in sustainable livelihoods, integrated into the local catchment vision and plans, plays a strong supporting role in ecosystem restoration through inputs with amplifying effects such as ‘start-up’ and
‘incentive’ packages, secured financing streams, access to local, viable markets, capacity development and learning opportunities.
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INTRODUCING LIVELIHOOD AND GREEN-PRENEURSHIP OPPORTUNTIES FOR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS
OVERVIEW OF THE TSITSA RIVER CATCHMENT, ITS PEOPLE, AND ITS CHALLENGES
The Tsitsa River forms part of the upper reaches of the Mzimvubu River catchment in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa (see map). The Mzimvubu Water Project (MWP) – a large dam-building project – was proposed, to alleviate poverty in the area through job creation, water supply and hydroelectric power. The Tsitsa Project was initiated in response to concerns about the feasibility of the MWP relating to erosion, land degradation, dam sedimentation, and financial feasibility. Land degradation in the catchment is attributed to a bundle of interconnected issues including geology and topography, climate, and poor landscape management and governance. Despite delays to the dam-building project, landscape rehabilitation to underpin livelihoods, continues in the catchment.
The Tsitsa River landscape falls within the grassland biome. The land is utilised for private commercial farming (including plantation forestry) in the upper western part of the catchment, and for extensive grazing and small-scale subsistence cropping in the lower eastern part of the catchment. Invasive alien plants are a challenge in drainage lines and in many headwater catchments. The majority of Tsitsa Project’s work has been focused on communal land in the Tsitsa River catchment, where low levels of formal education, high unemployment and low household incomes result in dependency on government grants and remittances. A large proportion of the employed/employable population lives outside of the Tsitsa River catchment in larger urban centres, leaving youth and pensioners to remain in the landscape. Crime, violence and abuse are widespread concerns.
Figure 1. Integrating livelihoods into restoration planning. Resilience to climate change can be achieved through restoration of both the ecological and social systems
Livelihood options are limited in the Tsitsa catchment area. Sustainable land management and restoration avail new opportunities that can contribute to income and food security, especially in the light of climate change stresses and post Covid-19 responses. Opportunities being developed in the Tsitsa Project include:
a. local residents (or ‘green-preneurs’) having multipurpose gardens to grow vegetables and grass plugs, with the grass plugs being sold to the rehabilitation implementer for vegetation hedges that control soil erosion;
b. grazing management linked to grazing agreements that support grassland restoration improves livelihoods derived from livestock production. These agreements facilitate effective access to appropriate livestock markets such as offered by MeatNaturally Ltd.
These activities, together with landscape scale rehabilitation, support Ecosystem-based Adaptation as a sustainable response to manage the risks arising from climate change. The links were highlighted through village level climate change workshops piloted in Elangeni.
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CASE EXAMPLES OF GREEN ECONOMY, RURAL LIVELIHOODS AND CCA INNOVATIONS
Green-preneurs and multi-purpose gardens in Elangeni node
Networks of green-preneurs (forming an established SMME) with focus on home- based nurseries have been established across the Tsitsa River catchment. The initiative is situated within the integrated catchment planning processes in place locally. The focus of these micro-enterprises is to derive income by supplying the land restoration work with grass plugs (vetiver grass and indigenous grasses) for establishing vegetation barriers or grass hedges as erosion control interventions. New market opportunities are opening up outside the Tsitsa catchment. In some gardens, the nurseries are designed in a way that also contributes to the improvement of food security through the introduction of rain water harvesting techniques, soil conservation and fertility. The integration of rain water harvesting methods in these multipurpose gardens also helps to control erosion within and around the household gardens and is an important climate change adaptation practice.
The Elangeni node in the Tsitsa catchment, for instance, where the first vetiver growers network was established, Figure 2 shows potential for such a need and direct market opportunity.
Livestock production, grazing management and health: beef market opportunities in Upper Sinxaku
In order to improve the grass cover, a combination of rest and rotation of grazing camps, livestock herding and high-density kraaling is promoted. This requires the development of integrated local plans that align land use management with restoration activities, promoting more effective erosion control by allowing vegetation establishment and seeding. Rangeland management interventions are therefore co-created with the community through livestock associations, and sanctioned by the Traditional Authority.
The objective is that local people will be able to manage their land through locally planned rules and procedures, and negotiate conservation agreements. Adhering to the grazing agreement for sustainable rangeland management can encourage incentive packages from beef and wool market brokers. Mobile auctions and shearing sheds are organised to provide local opportunities for livestock owners to market their stock as the transport cost and travel time to auctions is decreased. The initiative is bringing local economic development, improved income and more secure livelihoods into the rural areas.
Community members and livestock owners are key to setting the rules, guiding their livestock to graze in designated areas, and to the overall success of the process.
Figure 3 presents a map of the grazing camps agreed by the Upper Sinxaku grazing association in the Tsitsa catchment.
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Figure 2. Areas that are suitable for grass hedges within the Elangeni Node
(Source: DEFF, 2020) Figure 3. Grazing camps identified for the Upper Sinxaku by the
grazing association (Source: DEFF, 2020)
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1. The Tsitsa Approach to Sustainable Land Management and Rehabilitation
2. Sustained Praxis is the Key to Sustainable Social-Ecological Systems
3. Amplifying Local Livelihood and Green- Preneurship Transformations for the Improvement and Management of the Degraded Tsitsa River Catchment in a Changing Climate
4. Supporting Boundary Workers in
Integrated Natural Resource Management 5. PMERL: Building a Participatory and
Sustainable System for Evaluating Impact Further briefs in the series are forthcoming.
INSIGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Tsitsa Project explored ways in which to grow and secure rural livelihoods, involve local people in the green economy and prepare for the anticipated climatic changes. Key insights and recommendations for Sustainable Land Management and Restoration programmes are therefore::
1. Integrating locally-driven livelihood strategies with rehabilitation interventions is essential for sustained social-ecological and economic transformation of the Tsitsa landscape and thus increased resilience against climate change. As an example, the local residents made the link between the restoration interventions and benefits in term of reducing sedimentation, income generation opportunities derived from selling vetiver grass to the implementers, as well as employment opportunities.
2. Land use management and practices are most likely to be sustained by catchment residents who have developed a common understanding of the Tsitsa Project objectives and vision for their catchment, and are actively engaged in decision-making processes to guide restoration interventions and livelihood opportunities. These processes and successes, however, are often filled with tensions and power dynamics among different catchment stakeholders, so it is crucial to mediate these interactions and conflicts objectively and fairly.
3. Sustainable land use management and practices require 'capable' resource users to actively engage in decision-making processes, to guide restoration interventions, and to
able to respond to future climate change risks through livelihood and adaptation opportunities. These practices should be supported with capacity development inputs and transformative learning opportunities such as workshops, practical demonstrations, learning exchange and field visits, attendance at conferences and events, and co- learning interactions among residents and stakeholders.
4. The prototyping of green-preneurs and livelihoods initiatives, coupled with ‘start-up’
inputs, ‘incentives’ packages and optimal and sustained funding flow can have a catalytic and amplifying effect on achieving successful project outputs. The uptake or consolidation of these ‘pilot’ initiatives requires substantial and sustained input over time to allow for the various reconceptualisation and development stages that are required for the long- term sustainability of these projects.
5. Securing access to markets reinforces the green-preneurs, and livestock owner’s motivation to engage in new ventures as a way to increase their income generating opportunities and contribute to their overall Tsitsa catchment vision. The establishment of a plug-preneur network, for instance, with the focus on vetiver grass, was catalysed as a result of the local Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Natural Resource Management implementer committing to purchase produce for the restoration interventions.
THE TSITSA PROJECT PRACTICE AND POLICY BRIEF SERIES
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The Tsitsa Approach to sustainable land management and rehabilitation
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Pathway 2 Supporting green livelihoods and catalysing
green innovations Pathway 1 The research praxis pathway
Pathway 3 Building capacity to enable local agency
and capabilities
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Acknowledgements
This policy brief is the result of an extensive collaborative process and we thank all the partners who contribute to the work of the Tsitsa Project. Drawing on this collective body of work, this policy brief was authored by Laura Conde-Aller, Bukho Gusha, and Kate Rowntree. We thank the reviewers from the broader Tsitsa Project network for their helpful contributions.
The Tsitsa Project acknowledges funding from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). The Tsitsa Project also acknowledges support from numerous partners including Rhodes University (Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes Restoration Research Group, Institute for Water Research, Geography Department and
the Environmental Learning Research Centre), and Lima Rural Development Foundation.
Photo credits: We thank Nosiseko Mtati, Kyra Lunderstedt, Siphakamise Ngobhane, Nicholaus Huchzermeyer, Dylan Weyer, Kate Rowntree, and Laura Conde-Aller for photographs used in the briefs. Our thanks to the following project participants for permission to use their photographs in these briefs: Sinethemba Msada, Sibongile Nodolo, Simphiwe Godola, Chumani Majikija, Ncediswa Grace Saunders, Nolitha Madakana, Mr M.G Nofemele, Chris Jackson and Nosiseko Mtati.
References
Conde-Aller, L. (2019). Green-preneur report: Vetiver nurseries 2018/19. Report prepared for the Tsitsa Project March 2019.
Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) (2020). Sustainable land management and restoration plan for the Elangeni Node, T35E, Tsitsa River catchment.
DEFF, Natural Resource Management Programme, Cape Town.
Rowntree, K.M. (2019). Embedding Climate Change Response and Disaster Risk Reduction into the Tsitsa project Summary of Progress 2019-2020 and Way Forward.
Tsitsa Project Report to the Department of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries.
Tsitsa Project (2021). The Tsitsa Approach to Sustainable Land Management and Rehabilitation. February 2021. Rhodes University.
How to cite this brief
Tsitsa Project, Conde-Aller, L., Gusha, B. & Rowntree, K. 2021. Amplifying Local Livelihood and Green-Preneurship Transformations for the Improvement and Management of the Degraded Tsitsa River Catchment in a Changing Climate. Tsitsa Project Practice and Policy Brief #3.
Tsitsa Project, Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Makhanda.
Corresponding author
Laura Conde-Aller: [email protected]