The Use of a 60-Year Series of Aerial Photographs to Assess Local Agricultural Transformations of West Coast Renosterveld, an Endangered South African Vegetation Type

Soil seed banks of remnant and degraded Swartland Shale Renosterveld

“…). Abandonment of agricultural fields began in the 1980s, due political and policy changes (Newton & Knight ) and today renosterveld remnants are often surrounded near such fields, which are areas dominated by non‐indigenous species, mostly southern European arable weeds and pasture grasses. Although anthropogenically altered and degraded by exotic species, these fields also provide opportunities for restoration (Cramer & Hobbs ).…”

“…8% of the former renosterveld extent remains, so that it is now one of the most endangered vegetation types in South Africa, occuring in small, frequently isolated fragments (von Hase et al 2003;Rebelo et al 2006). Abandonment of agricultural fields began in the 1980s, due political and policy changes (Newton & Knight 2005) and today renosterveld remnants are often surrounded near such fields, which are areas dominated by non-indigenous species, mostly southern European arable weeds and pasture grasses. Although anthropogenically altered and degraded by exotic species, these fields also provide opportunities for restoration (Cramer & Hobbs 2007).…”

Fifty years of land use change in the Swartland, Western Cape, South Africa: characteristics, causes and consequences

“…The range of West Coast Renosterveld has declined for much of the past 60 years, although more sustainable farming practices are certainly feasible and may even increasingly be adopted (Krug, 2004;Metelerkamp, 2011). The implementation of the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act of 1983 seems partly to have slowed the destruction of renosterveld, although existing remnants are located largely on land unsuitable either for agriculture or urban development and may, therefore, be conserved, if only by default (McDowell & Moll, 1992;Meadows et al, 2006;Newton & Knight, 2005).…”

“…The substantial extent of natural plant community transformation relates partly to the long history of human occupation of the region (Newton & Knight, 2005). There has been human presence in the Swartland for more than 2000 years, with San hunter-gatherers and Khoikhoi pastoralists active during pre-colonial times (Smith, 1983).…”

The Cape Winelands

“…During the 1940s, the region was described as on the verge of economic collapse due to the severity of soil erosion, but concerted soil conservation and education efforts under the political dispensation of the time appear to have averted that scenario (Meadows 2003). Notwithstanding this, the Swartland has been virtually completely transformed for agriculture and only tiny remnants of the once widespread natural vegetation (Renosterveld) remain (Newton and Knight 2005). The region now faces the combined challenges of potentially rapid climate change under a considerably altered socioeconomic and political order and a dynamic land use situation which has seen substantial areas traditionally under wheat being converted to vineyards with, as yet, unknown environmental consequences (Halpern and Meadows 2013).…”