Social processes promoting the adaptive capacity of rangeland managers to achieve resilience in the Karoo, South Africa

Abstract

There is a recognized need to find working examples of structures that transfer the abstract concept of resilience to practical action for land management. Holistic Management™ is a decision-making framework promoting an adaptive land management across semi-arid and arid rangelands. We determined if Holistic Management™ promoted adaptive capacity among land managers in comparison to conventional management approaches within the context of the Karoo rangeland, South Africa. An Adaptive Capacity Index was developed which quantified the extent to which practices of land managers were aligned with six key traits of adaptive capacity. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 20 self-defined Holistic Management™ land managers and 20 self-defined non-Holistic Management™ land managers. Social capital amongst land managers was explored using a social network analysis. Holistic Management™ land managers demonstrated higher adaptive capacity and greater participation in study groups. Holistic Management™ therefore appears to be a working example of a land management framework that promotes adaptive capacity of land managers in semi-arid to arid rangelands. Holistic Management™ may connect individual decision-makers to collective decision-making through social learning networks in the form of study groups. These study groups are thought to promote learning and innovation, which is key for implementing adaptive management.

Holistic Management and Adaptive Grazing: A Trainers’ View

“…However, HM practitioners themselves are avid proponents, and their positive feedback is widely documented by social scientists and whole-farm studies [14,17]. Some of the benefits HM producers or researchers report in various regions include: biodiversity, landscape heterogeneity, quality of life, drought resilience, adaptive capacity, and social capital [34][35][36][37]. Experimental studies have been criticized for excluding the farmer and thus the goals for which farmers are managing [17], on the assumption that farmers' management decisions solely consider productivity [38].…”

Social networks and environmental management at multiple levels: soil conservation in Sumatra

“…However, most of the work on humanand nature-coupled systems has been theoretical because the complex webs of interactions in these systems are difficult to identify in empirical, and particularly in quantitative, assessments . Promisingly, in recent years, researchers have begun to conceptualize these complex relationships successfully as empirically measurable networks (Johnson et al 2009, PahlWostl 2009, Crona and Bodin 2010, Bodin and Tengö 2012, Prell 2012, Dell'Apa et al 2013, Bergsten et al 2014, Brockhaus and Di Gregorio 2014, Carien De Villiers et al 2014, Deehr et al 2014, Lubell et al 2014, Moeliono et al 2014 and to quantify how social networks may influence environmental behavior such as farmers' practices (Solano et al 2003, Hoang et al 2006, Isaac et al 2007, 2014, Schneider et al 2009, Conley and Udry 2010, Bodin and Prell 2011, Spielman et al 2011, Isaac 2012, Matouš et al 2013b. However, it is less widely recognized that the effectiveness of diverse network structures may depend on the scale at which environmental problems are approached (Lebel et al 2010).…”

Does Holistic Planned Grazing™ work on native rangelands?

“…Finally, the paper acknowledges that the perceived benefits of HPG may lie more in the realm of socioecology. Farmers using this approach gain benefits such as increased learning and adaptive behaviour because of an increased 'social capital' within a defined social group (de Villiers et al 2014). In addition, the daily moving of camps and/or herding provides the opportunity for decision-making, early observation of sick animals or broken infrastructure, while the formation of camps allows for diverse management objectives on one farm such as restoration, conservation and production.…”