Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Land settlement – Social aspects – Zimbabwe'

The thesis seeks to understand how emerging communities borne out of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe have been able to ensure social cohesion and social service provision using farm level institutions. The Fast Track Programme brought together people from diverse backgrounds into new communities in the former commercial farming areas. The formation of new communities meant that, often, there were 'stranger households'living next to each other. Since 2000, these people have been involved in various processes aimed at turning clusters of homesteads into functioning communities through farm level institutions. Fast track land reform precipitated economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe characterised by a rapidly devaluating Zimbabwean dollar, enormous inflation and high unemployment figures. This economic crisis has impacted heavily on new farmers who find it increasingly difficult to afford inputs and access loans. They have formed social networks in response to these challenges, taking the form of farm level institutions such as farm committees, irrigation committees and health committees. The study uses case studies from small-scale 'A1 farmers‘ in Mazowe district which is in Mashonaland Central Province. It employs qualitative methodologies to enable a nuanced understanding of associational life in the new communities. Through focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, narratives, key informant interviews and institutional mapping the study outlines the formation, taxonomy, activities, roles, internal dynamics and social organisation of farm level institutions. The study also uses secondary data collected in 2007-08 by the Centre for Rural Development in the newly resettled areas in Mazowe. The major finding of the study is that farmers are organising in novel ways at grassroots levels to meet everyday challenges. These institutional forms however are internally weak, lacking leadership with a clear vision and they appear as if they are transitory in nature. They remain marginalised from national and global processes and isolated from critical connections to policy makers at all levels; thus A1 farmers remain voiceless and unable to have their interests addressed. Farm level institutions are at the forefront of the microeconomics of survival among these rural farmers. They are survivalist in nature and form, and this requires a major shift in focus if they are to be involved in developmental work. The institutions remain fragmented and compete amongst themselves for services from government without uniting as A1 farmers with similar interests and challenges.

The fast track land reform programme resulted in a fundamental reorganisation of rural relations in Zimbabwe, changing the landscape in an irreversible way with people from diverse backgrounds converging on former white-owned farms. This thesis tells the story of how the newly resettled land beneficiaries are organising themselves socially in response to various economic challenges. It makes a contribution towards understanding how redistributive land reforms and local government restructuring influence rural social organisation and agency. Furthermore the study examines local perceptions on the meanings of the „farm‟ and „land redistribution‟. An utterance by one war veteran “what used to be your farm is now our land and you are free to take your farm but leave our land” provides an alternative rendition to contestations of restitution versus a purely farm productionist discourse. The study, through an analysis of primary and secondary data, provides a fresh understanding of the social outcomes of fast track. It traces the evolution of land and agrarian reforms in post-independence Zimbabwe and the political and social economic context that led to „fast track‟. Through an analysis of field findings the thesis is able to define the dominant social groups that were resettled during fast track and the challenges they face in utilising the land. The findings show that the majority of the land beneficiaries were from the customary areas, with limited agricultural experiences. Local cooperation within informal networks and local farmer groups has been identified as one of the ways in which social reproduction is being organised. These groups are responsible for enhancing production capacity but they face a number of constraints. The study derives its theoretical foundation from the post 1980s debates on rural society dominated by Mafeje (1993, 2003), Rahmato (1991) and Mamdani (1996). The debates centred on how institutions of inclusion, authority and cooperation such as the lineage groups, local farmer groups and traditional authority remain relevant in the organisation of post-independent rural African society especially in a context of increased commoditisation of rural relations of production. Using theoretical insights derived from analysing the role of the lineage groups in the allocation of critical resources such as land and the influence of traditional authority (indirect rule) as a form of local government, the study examines how social organisation is emerging in areas where neither lineage nor traditional authority are not dominant. The thesis of rural cooperation through local groups as advanced by Rahmato (1991) and Moyo (2002) provides partial insights into the response mechanisms that land beneficiaries invoke in this instance. It is not necessarily an autonomous space of organisation but rather the state is actively involved through various functionaries including extension officers who invariably advance a very productionist approach. The state‟s monopoly through its local functionaries hides its political cooptation effect by emphasising organisation for production without questioning the manner in which that production is externally controlled through limited rights over land, the state‟s monopoly over inputs supply and markets for commodities. Whilst land reform has been driven by local participation through land occupations, local government reform has been technocratically determined through Ministerial directives. There is however little innovation in the form of local government that is being introduced. It expands the fusion of authority between elected Rural District Councils and unelected traditional authority functionaries. The forms of social organisation and agency that have emerged remain subordinated to the state with no links to other networks of rural producers‟ associations and urban civil society organisations. These developments form part of a longheld tradition within the Zimbabwean state where the legitimacy of local organisation and authority is usurped to service the interests of the state. Thus whilst land reform has to a certain extent accommodated the majority poor, the ensuing local government and agrarian reforms are more focused on limiting their participation in broader processes of political engagement around distribution and accumulation and their own governance.

The land reform that has unfolded in Zimbabwe since 1980 used different models and had diverse consequences. Since the implementation of the fast tract land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe experienced heavy reduction in yield and output at farm level that led to a 70% shortfall in production to meet annual food requirements (Richardson, 2005). The economic crisis in Zimbabwe has been characterized by worsening food insecurity especially in the rural areas where harvests continue to be poor. In the beef sector, Zimbabwe has failed to meet its export quota to the EU. The shortfall in production to meet annual food requirements shows a very grim situation but do not tell us about the performance of resettled farmers who now occupy much of the productive land. The broad objective of the study was to determine and compare the production efficiency of resettled farmers in Zimbabwe across land reform models. In addition, the study determined land use intensity. The study was conducted in the Mashonaland Central Province of Zimbabwe mainly because a wide variety of field crops were grown by resettled farmers. The respondents were stratified into three groups. These were: beneficiaries of land reform before 2000 (resettle scheme), fast track A1 model and fast track A2 model. The three models differ on how they were implemented and supported and this might result in different efficiencies of the models. A total of 245 copies structured questionnaire were administered on the resettled farmers from June to September 2010. Descriptive statistics was applied to the basic characteristics of the sampled households. The effect of model of land reform, gender of the household head, marital status, age of the household head, education, household size, religion, dependence ratio, whether the farmer was fulltime or part-time in farming, experience of the farmers in farming at that environment, total land size owned by the farmers and soil type on revenue per hectare and land use rate were determined using the GLM procedure of SAS (2003). Significance differences between least-square group means were compared using the PDIFF test of SAS (2003). The relationship between Revenue and land utilization was examined using the Pearson‟s correlations analysis. Dependance between response variables that had an effect on either revenue per hectare or land utilization with all the other response variables was tested using the Chi-square test for dependance. To find the effect of arable land used and herd size on revenue per hectare and land use the RSREG Procedure of SAS (2003) was used. Input oriented DEA model under the assumption of constant return to scale was used to estimate efficiency in this study. To identify factors that influence efficiency, a Tobit model censored at zero was selected. The mean land use rate varied significantly (p<0.05) with the land reform model with A2 having highest land use rate of 67%. The A1 and old resettlement households had land use rates of 53% and 46%, respectively. Sex, marital status, age of the household head, education and household size significantly affected land use (P<0.05). Revenue per hectare was not affected by any the factors that were inputted in the model. Results from the DEA approach showed that A2 farmers (large land owners) had an average technical efficiency score of 0.839, while the lowest ranking model (A1) had an average score of 0.618. Small land holders (A1 and the old resettled farmers) are on average less cost-efficient than large land owners, with a score of 0.29 for the former compared with 0.45 for the latter. From the factors that were entered in the Tobit model, age of household head, excellent production knowledge and farmer status affected technical efficiency whereas allocative efficiency was only affected by good production knowledge, farm size, arable land owned and area under cultivation. Factors which affected economic efficiency of the resettled farmers are secondary education, household size, farm size, cultivated area and arable land owned. None of the included socio-economic variables has significant effects on the allocative and economic efficiency of the resettled farmers. Thus, the allocative and economic inefficiencies of the farmers might be accounted for by other natural and environmental factors which were not captured in the model.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has had massive detrimental impacts on rural communities across Africa including in Zimbabwe. In response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic, the government of Zimbabwe has developed and adopted comprehensive programmes to address HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support. One of the critical components of these programmes relates specifically to treatment of the HIV infected given that HIV and AIDS is increasingly seen as a manageable threatening disease. However the success and effectiveness of the treatment regimen (involving antiretroviral drugs or ARVs) is dependent heavily on complete adherence to the rigid and complex regimens. It is against this background that this thesis studies a particular rural community in Zimbabwe called Chivanhu (in Masvingo Province) in terms of the relationship between rural livelihoods and HIV and AIDS (particularly HIV treatment and treatment adherence). Unlike other rural communities (notably in communal areas), Chivanhu is an informal and unstable community with a turbulent history. Most rural studies of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the region have focused on well-established and stable communities in which agricultural production is still of some significance. In such communities, the impact of HIV and AIDS on livelihoods is severe but, in more informal settlements, the vulnerability of households to the epidemic (and challenges pertaining to treatment adherence) is even more pronounced. Using a rural livelihoods framework, this thesis seeks to identify, understand and analyse the conditions which shape levels of adherence to HIV and AIDS in the informalsettlement of Chivanhu in Zimbabwe.

The media, which help define what we think and our roles in the society, have a crucial role to project both men and women’s issues so as to change people’s perceptions and stereotypes about the role men and women play in the society. There is need, therefore, to ensure gender equality in the operations of the media so that issues to do with both men and women get adequate and equal coverage. This study on the reportage of the land redistribution exercise in Zimbabwe has, however, exposed the gendered nature of the operations of the media, particularly in the news production process. It provides that, overally, the news discourse is a masculine narrative whose androcentric form is a result of, and is protected by, claims to ‘objectivity,’ ‘professionalism’, ‘impartiality’ and the pursuit of a journalistic routine system that hegemonically prioritises men’s issues over those of women. The situation, as the research shows, has not been helped by journalists’ incapacity to do thematic appreciation of issues and their over-inclination towards a simplistic event-based journalism that fails to question policies as they are enacted and implemented in gender-skewed processes. The lack of gender policies, the operations of patriarchy and the pursuit of a journalistic routine system that sees nothing wrong with the ostracisation of women issues are very fundamental findings that the research uses in its attempts to explain why the gender equality discourse was left out of the news reports about the land reform exercise in Zimbabwe.

Anthropological research conducted in the Indira Gandhi Nahar Project area of the western Indian state of Rajasthan during 1984-1985 assessed the impact of agricultural land settlement planning on village community formation. The large-scale project, begun in 1957, has brought irrigation water to the extremely arid Thar desert and has brought irrigation water to the extremely arid Thar desert and has dramatically altered the social and physical landscape. Significant efforts have been made by the Government of Rajasthan to select settlers from the poor and landless population, as part of a social welfare policy, allocate agricultural land to them and create new settler communities. A single village, one of the earliest established by the project, was selected for the study of community formation. Historical and contemporary data were collected on five themes: (1) the settler household, (2) kinship, (3) patronage, (4) institution building, and (5) socieconomic stratification. For each theme area, a series of questions were asked regarding the impact of settlement planning. Although settlement planning has been a major influence on the study village, research revealed that settlers arrived under highly diverse circumstances and played diverse roles in the process of community growth. Research also revealed that the village community has maintained some traditional features of Indian social organization in the face of great upheaval associated with settlement. Both the indigenous families and some of the earliest unplanned settlers have developed large local kinship networks, assumed positions of wealth in a hierarchical caste system, and have been involved in building political institutions based on a stratified system. They have also been responsible for attracting later settlers, including both landless agriculturalists and, to a limited extent, service workers. The settlers selected according to settlement policies have not developed extensive kin networks and have been less active in institution building and developing patronage relationships.

This thesis examines the responses of non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australian rangelands to two social movements that profoundly challenge their occupancy, use and management of land. Contemporary environmentalism and Aboriginal land rights have both challenged the status of pastoralists as valued primary producers and bearers of a worthy pioneer heritage. Instead, pastoralists have become associated with land degradation, biodiversity loss, and Aboriginal dispossession. Such pressure has intensified in the 1990s in the wake of the native Title debate, and various conservation campaigns in the arid and semi-arid rangelands. The pressure on pastoralists occur in the context of wider reassessment of the social and economic values or rangelands in which pastoralism is seen as having declined in value compared to ???post-production??? land uses. Reassessments of rangelands in turn are part of the global changes in the status of rural areas, and of the growing flexibility in the very meaning of ???rural???. Through ethnographic fieldwork among largely non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australia, this thesis investigates the nature and foundations of pastoralists??? responses to these changes and critiques. Through memory, history, labour and experience of land, non-indigenous pastoralists construct a narrative of land, themselves and others in which the presence of pastoralism in Central Australia is naturalised, and Central Australia is narrated as an inherently pastoral landscape. Particular types of environmental knowledge and experience, based in actual environmental events and processes form the foundation for a discourse of pastoral property rights. Pastoralists accommodate environmental concerns, through advocating environmental stewardship. They do this in such a way that Central Australia is maintained as a singularly pastoral landscape, and one in which a European, or ???white???, frame of reference continues to dominate. In this way the domesticated pastoral landscapes of colonialism and nationalism are reproduced. The thesis also examines Aboriginal pastoralism as a distinctive form of pastoralism, which fulfils distinctly Aboriginal land use and cultural aspirations, and undermines the conventional meaning of ???pastoralism??? itself. The thesis ends by suggesting that improved dialogue over rangelands futures depends on greater understanding of the details and complexities of local relationships between groups of people, and between people and land.

The thesis focuses on the social policy dimension of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). Interrogating land reform in the context of Transformative Social Policy (TSP) is a critical lacuna in Zimbabwe’s land reform and dominant social policy literature, implying the absence of a wider vision of social policy. This vision emphasises the consideration of the five tasks of social policy (production, redistribution, reproduction, protection and social cohesion); and acknowledges the symbiotic link between social policy and development. The thesis asks, how did the FTLRP and land occupations unfold; what is the new agrarian structure and, forms of social organisation in the aftermath of the fast track land reform; and how has the programme played out in relation to redistribution, production, social protection, reproduction and social cohesion? The thesis is based on a qualitative-dominant mixed methods research approach, and is complemented by predominantly quantitative data gathered by the African Institute for Agrarian Studies (AIAS), now Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (SMAIAS); and a sample of 150 A1 land beneficiaries drawn from Dalkeith, Whynhill and St Lucia Farms. Using grounded empirical data gathered in an eight (8) months-long ethnography in Zvimba district, Mashonaland West Province; and transcending ideological and epistemological debates, the thesis argues that, despite shortcomings, the fast track land reform is a crucial social policy ‘instrument’ with immense potential to transform lives. Across the district, land is a core economic, social and political resource that is central in enhancing wellbeing. The centrality of land reform in transforming lives is hampered mainly by land use and production constraints, and as the study results show, this dimension has the least positive outcomes. Diverse targeted support services that are mainly crystallised around land use and production, value chains and markets, are essential. If the farmers are appropriately supported, the benefits of land reform are potentially immense. Overall, land reform must be understood as a transformative social policy initiative and fast track is the case study for demonstrating this. The thesis contributes primarily to approaches and literature on land reform and social policy.
Sociology
D. Lit. et Phil. (Sociology)

This thesis explores questions of gender equality in social welfare theory; methodologies; approaches and policymaking in the Global South in the context of land reforms. This stems from the realisation that gender equality issues in social welfare are increasingly receiving greater attention in the context of the Global North and less in the South. By adopting a Transformative Social Policy framework, the research departs from hegemonic livelihoods, poverty reduction and the ‘classical models’ of land reforms often designed from the mould of the neoliberal discourse of individual tenure to focus on land reform as a relational question. Empirical data was gathered using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach involving survey questionnaires; in-depths interviews; focus group discussions; key informant interviews and field observations. A total of 105 randomly selected households, comprising 56 male-headed households (MHHs) and 49 female-headed households (FHHs) participated in the quantitative component of the study, comprising a control group of nonland reform beneficiaries. Additionally, 30 purposively selected in-depths interviews comprising 20 FHHs and 10 MHHs were conducted in resettlement study sites. Findings from this this study indicates that despite the country’s depressed economic environment and the effects of climate change, transfer of land enhanced the productive capacities of individuals and rural households, including those headed by females. At micro-level, in-kind transfer of land to rural households proved to be a more superior social protection measure compared to either food or cash transfer. However, social relations and institutions proved resistant to change, posing a greater obstacle to social transformation. And more importantly, from a social reproductive perspective, the same land reform that enhanced the productive capacities of women, inadvertently, increased their social reproductive work with implications on the welfare of women relative to men. The thesis makes a contribution to social policy debates in Africa, which hitherto have been dominated by the introduction of cash transfers as witnessed in many countries across the continent. The transformative social policy approach brings novelty to the study of land reforms. By Conceptualising gender as a relational and social construct, the study adds knowledge on the nexus between gender, land reform and welfare using the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) as reference. With the FTLRP––as a leftist policy in a liberalised economy––there is a need for the government to re-align its social and economic policies to avoid inconsistencies in the country’s development path. On the gender front there is need to legislate resettlement areas as outside the jurisdiction of traditional structures; promulgate statutory instruments dealing with land and setting up designated land claims courts linked right up to the Constitutional Court. Specifically, for Chiredzi, there is a need to establish a corporate body to administer the affairs of Mkwasine following the pulling out of the Estate. Keywords: gender, land reforms, water reforms, transformative
Sociology
Ph. D. (Sociology)

Black fanners' contribution and percentage share of the marketed agricultural produce (especially maize and cotton) increased dramatically following Zimbabwe's independence, especially between 1982 and 1987. Almost unanimously, observers in government and diplomatic circles spoke of this increase as 'phenomenal', attributing it to being a direct result of the government's efforts to increase agricultural production, and calling it a 'success story' and 'agrarian miracle'. This 'miracle' description was adopted by the state controlled and independent media, international donor and 'development' agencies, alike. By 1992, the levels of production achieved in the mid-1980s would not be repeated and this was blamed primarily on drought and the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) adopted by government in 1990. The direct impact of ESAP was the further reduction of government capacity and resources available to support the resettlement sector. By 2000, Zimbabwe was embroiled in a rural upheaval that threatened, reversed and undennined all the gains of the 1980s. The miracle discourse disappeared and in its place agro-pessimism took centre space. The land question rose to the fore amid a heightened outcry of landlessness, Communal Area congestion, poor access to institutional support and declining livelihoods and food security, among other things. This renewed rural crisis raised questions about what had happened to the miracle, exposed the run-down economy, and deepened undemocratic tendencies and a polarised political, economic and social space. The thesis proposed here is that the Zimbabwean government failed to take advantage and expand on the potential for an increased role of the rural sector in the cash economy. What emerged from closer scrutiny of the so-called agrarian transfonnation package for African agriculture was a poorly designed, uncoordinated and under funded quick fix to rural development that hardly moved beyond the mere transfer of land. Notwithstanding the participation of rural communities in the war of national liberation and the high profile nature of the land question during the Second Chimurenga, the post-colonial state apparatus - dominated by an urban nationalist petit bourgeoisie on the one hand, and the weak lobby of the beneficiaries of land refonn on the other - placed African agriculture into the back-seat of policy and political economic priorities. Evidence from Mayo Resettlement Scheme, the primary case study in this thesis, suggests that the argued institutional support and structural changes (basis of the miracle) were at best minimal, under-funded, crisis-averse, ad hoc and poorly coordinated, lacking the support of a concrete policy base, making the miracle at most fragile and in the final analysis unsustainable.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This thesis explores social policy outcomes of the FTLRP. The thesis comes from an appreciation that there has been a lot of attention that has been given to the process and outcomes of the FTLRP. Various and sometimes antagonistic analytical frameworks have been employed by different scholars who come from different epistemological standings resulting in academic polarity on the subject of the FTLRP in Zimbabwe. This thesis transcends all the analytical frameworks to provide a unique perspective of the extent to which the FTLRP achieved social policy outcomes. Some of the scholars who have written on this subject have grappled with some of the social policy outcomes without however a deliberate focus on social policy outcomes. The main contribution of this thesis to the body of knowledge is its exploration of the extent to which the FTLRP has been a social policy tool that has achieved social policy outcomes. This is important because for a long time land reform has not been generally considered as a social policy tool in the main stream social policy literature. The reason for this is that social policy literature has been dominated by OECD scholars who naturally focused more on social policy tools that are more relevant to their contexts. In the process they have sought to transpose the tools that are more prevalent in their contexts to Africa. Consequently, social policy tools from the global south, such as land reform, have not featured in any significant way in mainstream social policy literature. The thesis used the transformative social policy framework in both the research and analysis of the data. The conceptual framework identifies five functions of social policy namely redistribution, production, protection, reproduction and social cohesion. Using a mixed methods approach, the thesis interrogated the extent to which the five functions of social policy were realised by the FTLRP. Research findings have shown that the major outcome that was unequivocally realised was redistribution. This is so because the country’s agrarian structure dramatically changed from a bi-modal set up where 6000 white farmers owned more than 35 percent of the arable land to a new structure where about 180 000 households of diverse backgrounds, inter alia former farm workers, people from communal areas, civil servants, war veterans, pensioners, government senior civil servants and the unemployed, now work and live on the same land. The other four social policy functions were achieved to varying degrees. Lastly, the research looked at the human development outcomes of the FTLRP by focusing on the state of education in the resettled areas. The research observed that the FTLRP increased both primary (13%) and secondary (31%) education accessibility for the children of land beneficiaries. Due to the abrupt nature with which education services were on demand, the quality was compromised.
Development Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

Wetlands are fragile ecosystems that deliver a wide range of environmental and ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being. This fragility has seen a number of wetlands succumb to degradations and loss arising from different causes. The positive contribution of wetlands to various ecosystems and the increasing rate of their degradation and loss has been a cause for concern to different stakeholders for a long time. One of the landmark indications of this concern is the constitution of the Ramsar Convention that was held in Iran in 1971 with the objective of addressing concerns regarding to wetland degradation and loss. Among the competing land uses resulting in wetlands loss and degradation could be listed urban agriculture, industrial development and housing. The research sought to assess the extent of wetland degradation with respect to housing developments in Harare, Zimbabwe. The dilemma as to why and how wetlands were being degraded was an issue of concern. The research sought to determine whether abatement or mitigation measures were in place to address the challenges Associated with wetlands loss and degradation. The subsequent growth of developments, their associated activities and possible intervention measures had to be thoroughly assessed. The administration of questionnaires and conducting of interviews was done to solicit data from the respondents. Collected data was analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Scientists. Further to this, Google satellite imagery was used in the mapping of the Belvedere North and Epworth suburbs. Disturbed and undisturbed portions of the wetlands were analyzed by Geographical Information System software. Direct observation of the wetland area was used to examine existing natural features. To determine extent of pollution, water samples were collected in the wetlands and submitted to the laboratory for analysis. Analysis of selected chemical and physical parameters was carried out in the laboratory using selected methods. The research made two important and broad findings. First, both the Belvedere North and Epworth wetlands have been severely degraded by anthropogenic activities with housing developments and urban agriculture as the major contributors of this degradation. The development of residential properties in the wetlands is a result of a high demand for residential space in Harare. Whereas housing developments in Belvedere are formal and planned, developments in Epworth were informal and haphazard. With no formal planning, the Epworth wetlands have been severely impacted by water and sand extraction as well as contamination of underground water by pit-latrines that are common in these informal settlements. Second, the research also found that wetland degradation was closely associated with the lack of clear wetland policies both at national and local levels. The laboratory results showed that the water in Epworth was more polluted than the water in Belvedere. The measure of pollutants in Epworth was higher due to the activities being carried out as compared to Belvedere. Measures of Dissolved Oxygen, Total Dissolved Substances and conductivity increased from October to March in Epworth. Of note is the measure of Dissolved Oxygen that increased between October and March with a mean of 7.9 and 2.5 respectively. Total nitrogen and total phosphate also increased significantly in midstream and downstream sections. In essence, averages of 0.01 in October and 0.04 in March were recorded respectively for total nitrogen. The study concludes that an integrated land use approach has the potential of minimizing wetland loss and degradation. This is possible through the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive policy involving all relevant stakeholders. This will ensure a coherent decision making process. In as much as integrated land use planning and policy formulation are potential approaches to wetland sustainability, the drive to implement policy by policy makers concerning wetlands has to be explored. As ignorance concerning the ecological importance of wetlands exists in some cases, it is critical to consider wetland benefits above other competing developments such as housing and urban agriculture. This can be achieved through merging interrelated disciplines with the idea of integrating wetland information. For instance, deriving engineering solutions could promote development yet preserving wetlands. It is also suggested that environmental impact assessments, as planning tools should be carried out simultaneously with the town planning aspect. If given to proper planning, wetlands have a huge chance of survival.
Environmental Sciences
M.Sc. (Environmental Management)

The restoration of livelihoods in the event of involuntary resettlement is commonly based on providing compensation to those who are displaced. The outcomes of these resettlements have been well documented around the world and provide a serial of recurring horror stories. For this reason, it is proposed that a new foundation for conducting involuntary resettlement is needed. Academics profess that by conducting resettlement as a development project in its own right, the performance of resettlements can be improved and the benefits will accrue to the local population. This concept is called Resettlement with Development (RwD). To this end, China was the first country to include RwD in its National policies on involuntary resettlement. However, it was not until the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River that the policy was translated into practice.
This research is an attempt to determine whether RwD is a suitable model for livelihood restoration and improvement. In exploring the primary research aim, a year was spent in the resettlement region of the Three Gorges Dam, visiting resettlers and undertaking questionnaires, interviews and policy analysis. Two counties in Hubei province were chosen for comparison - Badong county and Zigui county. The application of RwD in these two locales was variable, with an uneven level of development intervention. The investment environment and county policy of Zigui attracted a greater degree of investment and related development than that of Badong. The capacity of these development initiatives to generate sustainable livelihood outcomes for the resettlers was central to this research.
Through questionnaires, interviews and policy analysis, this research finds that although the RwD methods are applied more intensely in Zigui they do not necessarily translate into better outcomes for the resettlers at this locale. The data suggests that: (i) there is no difference in the degree of relative poverty in Zigui and Badong; (ii) Zigui is experiencing more relative poverty than Badong; (iii) there is no difference in vulnerability and resilience; (iv) the natural resource base is comparable in both counties; and (v) Badong and Zigui are both at risk of food insecurity. However, whilst the majority of households in all sites at Badong are experiencing declining incomes, there is no significant decline in incomes at Zigui. Although employment levels have declined at both Badong and Zigui, the decline is not so severe at Zigui. Finally, infrastructure in Zigui has improved in comparison to Badong after resettlement. Hence, although the RwD initiatives have not dramatically improved the situation for resettlers in Zigui, they have lessened the impoverishment effects that are synonymous with involuntary resettlement. Moreover, further analysis suggests that the outcomes seen in the TGP resettlement are not a consequence of the inadequacy of the RwD model. Instead, the RwD model is found to be only partially applied in the TGRA. Future attempts at RwD must endeavour to apply the RwD model more completely.

Freshwater in adequate supply and quality is vital to life on Earth; however, land-based activities such as development, agriculture, mining and industry, and their associated contaminants, pose a major threat to the quality of freshwater water resources and health of aquatic ecosystems. The upper uMngeni catchment draining into Midmar Dam is a strategically significant water resource, supplying clean drinking water to the eThekwini, uMgungundlovu and Msunduzi municipalities. The quality of this resource is under threat from current land-based activities such as Mpophomeni settlement and agriculture and emerging threats in the form of the Khayalisha social housing project. Monitoring sites were established in varying land use types in three sub-catchments of the upper uMngeni, to assess water quality and ecosystem health impacts of current land uses on Midmar Dam. A suite of physical, chemical and biological water parameters were sampled in conjunction with SASS5 bio-monitoring to assess the associated impacts. Water quality and ecological condition were highest in forested land use and upstream of Mpophomeni where natural land cover and sparse settlement occurred. Marked declines in water quality and ecological condition were observed at areas under commercial agriculture, indicated predominantly by rises in nutrient concentrations and declines in the SASS5 indices. The most notable declines in water quality and ecological condition were observed at sites downstream of Mpophomeni settlement as a result of severe sewage contamination, indicated by high E. coli counts. Nutrient concentrations downstream of Mpophomeni settlement ranged from mesotrophic to hypertrophic, with nitrogen to phosphorus ratios indicative of nitrogen limitation. Ecological condition remained in the ‘seriously/critically modified’ category over the study period. Nutrient loads produced by Mpophomeni are the highest of all the land uses, followed by that of commercial agriculture; both should be viewed as a concern, more so when viewed in terms of their compound effect on Midmar Dam water quality. Current water quality draining the commissioned Khayalisha social housing development area is good and although not natural, is of no contamination concern to Midmar Dam. Results indicate that with current land use activities, urban development and agriculture pose a potential threat to the quality of Midmar Dam resource and that further development in the form of the Khayalisha social housing project may replicate impacts already prevailing in Mpophomeni, whereby a principle water resource may be threatened by eutrophication.
Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This ethnographic research examines socioeconomic vulnerabilities to resettlement from a large hydropower dam and agricultural commodification in a Tibetan village in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. After providing an initial background on the dynamics of the research region and hydrodevelopment on its rivers, the research framework of examining vulnerability through a lens of political ecology and local knowledge is outlined. Utilizing this framework, the socioeconomic strategies surrounding agriculture and commodified forest products within the study village are initially outlined through the use of oral histories, previous literature, and quantitative household survey data. After providing a detailed background on these income strategies, vulnerabilities to resettlement are examined through qualitative analysis of individual household interviews. This analysis shows that village households are highly reliant on the village's specific location in order to collect the resources and pursue the agriculture that they do; making them vulnerable to future resettlement. The analysis also shows that in the opinions of villagers, a good standard of living is significantly defined by their ability to pursue specific economic strategies. Next, interview results are analyzed to show how agricultural commodification and a very high reliance on one government sponsored company to purchase crops has also made the village highly vulnerable economically. The thesis concludes with reflections on future hydrodevelopment and resettlement scenarios within the village, and provides recommendations to improve local level resilience and promote better capacity to adapt to change.
Graduation date: 2013