Perceived impacts of woody encroachment on ecosystem services in Hluhluwe, South Africa

Abstract

Anticipating, avoiding, and managing disruptive environmental change such as regime shifts and the impacts it has on human well-being is a key sustainability challenge. Woody encroachment is a globally important example of a regime shift that occurs in savanna systems, where a large fraction of the world's poor live. Woody encroachment is known to negatively impact a variety of ecosystem services, but few studies have investigated the impact of woody encroachment on local land users and their livelihoods. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews to determine how different land users-local subsistence communities and managers of conservation tourism areas-perceive woody encroachment in the Hluhluwe region of South Africa, how it affects the ecosystem services they rely upon, and what costs they incur in undertaking activities to reverse woody encroachment. Most interviewees perceived trees to be increasing in the landscape (83%). However, perceptions about the causes of woody encroachment differed: community members cited the reduced usage of trees as the reason for woody encroachment, whereas conservation managers mostly attributed the change to increased CO 2 . Most community members felt woody encroachment was harmful to their household and general wellbeing, citing loss of grazing for livestock, and fear of attacks by wild animals and criminals as the main impacts. In contrast, conservation managers perceived woody encroachment to have both harmful and beneficial impacts, with the main negative impacts being loss of grazing for wildlife and impacts on tourism through reduced visibility for game viewing. All the conservation areas invested in tree clearing compared to only 20% of respondents in the community areas, where an average of ZAR367 (US$25) was spent per year on clearing, compared to ZAR293,751 (US$20,000) and ZAR163,000 (US$11,000) spent in private game reserves and government reserves, respectively. Our findings highlight the negative impacts of ongoing woody encroachment, the differentiated impacts it has on different land users, and differences in capacity to combat encroachment. These findings highlight the need for state-funded management interventions to support clearing of trees in encroached areas, particularly in communal areas.

The extent, perceived causes and impacts of land use and land cover change in Tyhume Valley, South Africa

“…It is now used for fuel when there are community events such as cultural, religious, and burial ceremonies, which require large quantities of energy for cooking. A similar case was reported in KwaZulu-Natal where bush encroachment was associated with a decline in fuelwood harvesting (Luvuno et al, 2022).…”

Ecological restoration and water‐related ecosystem services, one step ahead: a reply to Dib et al. (2023)

“…The truth is that the more trees, the less rain reaching the ground. This trade-off was well documented by Jackson et al (2005), and explored from the point of view of ecosystem services by Luvuno et al (2022). The consequences are even more dramatic after afforestation in regions with low rainfall where, historically, there was low-biomass vegetation.…”

The impacts of Cape porcupines on woody plant mortality

“…The biomass, basal cover and abundance of herbaceous vegetation have been shown to improve after the removal of encroaching trees (Mndela et al, 2022). Promoting the growth of herbaceous instead of woody plants is important in savannas, which are prone to woody plant encroachment, which in turn depreciates the state of savanna ecosystems (Luvuno et al, 2022; O'Connor et al, 2014). In essence, Cape porcupines killed V. nilotica trees by detaching the stem from the root and eating the roots, which may enhance the establishment and growth of herbaceous plants where a tree seedling previously occupied.…”