A Social-Ecological Systems Understanding of Drivers of Degradation in the Tsitsa River Catchment to Inform Sustainable Land Management

Abstract

Understanding the interactions of the social and biophysical drivers of land degradation is crucial for developing adaptive management actions for future sustainability. A research-praxis project, the ‘Tsitsa Project’ (TP), applies a social-ecological systems (SES) approach where researchers, natural resource managers, and residents collaborate to support sustainable livelihoods and improved natural resource management for the degraded Tsitsa River Catchment (TRC) in South Africa. A system diagramming approach was coupled with findings from interviews, workshops, literature, and two conceptual frameworks. Data inputs were qualitatively integrated to provide a systemic snapshot of how the context-specific social and biophysical drivers are interlinked and how they interact, revealing multiple processes that operate simultaneously to cause and exacerbate land degradation. Physical and climatic variables, changes in land use and cover, and overgrazing were identified as key factors leading to degradation. Additionally, poverty and disempowerment were also important. While little can be done to influence the physical aspects (steep topography and duplex soils) and climatic variables (extreme rainfall and drought), carefully planned changes in land use and management could produce dual-benefits for improving landscape conditions and sustainable livelihoods. This analysis will inform integrated planning processes to monitor, avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation.

Suspended sediment load estimation in a severely eroded and data poor catchment

“…In highly erodible, hydrologically variable and communally owned areas such as the Gqukunqa and the lower parts of the Inxu and Tsitsa River catchments, landscape restoration and rehabilitation requires not only a better understanding of the relevant biophysical processes, but also collaborative approaches to land management involving communities, researchers, and practitioners (Blake et al, 2021; Itzkin et al, 2021). Poverty has a recognized impact on land use and management: communally developed and implemented strategies such as grazing and fire management that improve and sustain rural livelihoods would also improve landscape conditions, reducing erosion and suspended sediment transport (Rowntree et al, 2018).…”

Implementasi Kebijakan Peraturan Gubernur Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Nomor 9 Tahun 2009 Tentang Pengelolaan Kawasan Waduk Sermo Kabupaten Kulon Progo

“…Berkaitan dengan pemanfaatan bendungan menurut (Ismail, 2014) dalam penelitiannya menyatakan bahwa sistem pengelolaan bendungan secara signifikan mengarah pada aktivitas manusia dalam pemanfaatan dan pemeliharaan bendungan tersebut dimana daerah tangkapan air justru dijadikan sebagai tempat pembuangan sampah dari aktivitas manusia yang disebabkan oleh konflik penggunaan lahan yang terjadi disekitar daerah tangkapan air. Hal tersebut kemudian di dukung penelitian yang dilakukan oleh (Itzkin, 2021) pada penelitiaannya mengemukakan bahwa perubahan tata guna dan pengelolaan lahan pada kawasan yang dikelola yang direncanakan dengan hati-hati dapat menghasilkan manfaat ganda untuk memperbaiki kondisi lanskap sungai dan menghasilkan mata pencaharian berkelanjutan.…”

Developing a taxa‐related physical habitat score based on the response of macroinvertebrate community structure to fine bed sediment composition in the Tsitsa River, Eastern Cape, South Africa

“…There are a number of factors that result in increased sediment in the Tsitsa River (Itzkin et al, 2021). These include highly erodible duplex soils, a high rural population density in the former Transkei homeland, unsustainable land use practices including lack of grazing controls and abandoned cultivated land, and increased landscape connectivity due to gully erosion.…”