1. Natural Resource Restoration and
Pro-poor Rural Development.
Christo Marais, Dudu Soginga, Michael Kawa & Thabisa Motolwana
Department of Water Affairs: Natural Resource Management Programmes

2. Presentation Structure
1. Some History & Social Context
2. Natural Resource Management (NRM) Objectives
3. Basic Outputs.
4. Extent of Ecosystem Services
5. High level Natural Resource Restoration &
Management Needs.
6. Some Measurement of Ecosystem Services
7. Challenges & Opportunities
8. Recommendations on a Way Forward

3. Libertas Centre - November 1993
The question on everybody’s lips was - How was conservation
of natural resources going to compete against the social
demands in post apartheid South Africa?

4. In 1993 - Two Resolutions were Adopted by
a Group of Scientists to be Presented to
Decision Makers
• to present to local decision makers the
threat that invasive alien plants pose to the
country’s scarce water resources and
• to approach “the rich north” for support in
the battle against invasive alien plants and
its impacts on biodiversity

5. Who was the target audience? - Reconstruction &
Development Programme of President Mandela.

6. A New Beginning – April 1994
In September 1995 the then Minister of Water
Affairs and Forestry, Prof. Kader Asmal took the
visionary step to include invasive alien plant
management as a programme in the department’s
contribution to the Reconstruction and
Development Programme of the new government.

7. Government Decided to
Invest R25million in the
Clearing of Invasive
Alien Plants through the
Reconstruction and
Development Programme
The Face of
Poverty still
haunts South
Africa (1997)

8. Prof. Asmal
Launching
Working for
Water?
And today?

9. The Target Audience Today:
Government Priorities
• Crime
• Education
• Health
• Job Creation
• Rural
Development

10. “Over simplified” Spectrum of
Degradation
Bush Encroachments & InvasivesDesertification

11. Photograph: Courtesy Prof. Rudi van Aarde
From this!!

12. To This!!

13. And From this!!

14. To This!!

15. And From this!!

16. To This!!

17. Natural Resource Business Stream
Improved
management of
natural resources
• Improved water
security
• Improved
biodiversity and
ecosystem
function/natural
processes
• Improved productive
potential of land

18. Socio-Economic Business Stream
Improved livelihoods
of programme
beneficiaries
• Employment
opportunities in
rural areas
• Employment
opportunities in the
natural resource
market created
• Human and social
capital developed

19. How the NRM Programmes contribute to
addressing the objectives?
Land Management Impacts

20. In total more 1.9 million hectares of invasive
alien plants treated and followed up since
1995

21. Nearly 700, 000ha followed up during 2009/10

22. Land Restoration
1, 387 Hectares
Heavily Degraded
Albany Sub
Tropical Thicket
Restored

23. Working on Fire
• 2008/09 WoFire Attended to
891 fires over an estimated
567, 000 ha.
• 2009/10 WoFire Attended to
747 fires over an estimated
336, 000 ha.
• During 2009 around 29, 800
fires burnt covering 2.4
million ha.
• WoFire therefore attended to
only 2.5% of the number of
fires but 16% of the area
burnt.

24. How do the NRM Programmes contribute to
addressing the objectives?
Socio Economic development & employment
Impacts

25. 1. 2.32 million Person Days created during 2009/10
(WfW,WFL,WoF & WfWet) and
2. Around 18 million since 1995 (WfW,WFL,WoF & WfWet).

26. 1. More than 26, 000 beneficiaries in Working for Water and
Working for Land.
2. 1,850 in Working on Fire and
3. 1, 500 in Working for Wetlands

27. The Cost to Deliver Services at these
Levels
Working for Water grew from a programme of R25
million a year to –
• Working for Water = ±R695 million
• Working for Land = ±R32 million
• Working on Fire = ±R223 million
• Working for Wetlands = ±R75 million
• More than R1 billion per year! (and it is still not
enough)

28. Current Marketable Ecosystem Services
Watershed Services
• Flows
– Flood/high flows
– Low Flows
– Yield from water
infrastructure
– Ecological Reserve
• Sediments
– Siltation of dams
• Water quality
– Purification costs
– Waterweed management costs
Climate Change
– Carbon Sequestration

29. Geographical extent of ecosystem benefits

30. High Yield Catchments

31. Carbon sequestration

32. Soil retention

33. Water flow regulation

35. Natural Resource Management Needs

36. Hectares Invaded = 20 million
Condensed Hectares = 3.7 million

40. What’s the Socio-Economic Landscape?

41. Can we measure the marketable services?

42. Impacts of Vegetation Structure – Invasive Alien Plants
(Prinsloo & Scott 1999)

43. Vegetation Densification and the Impacts on Soil after
Fire

44. Maloti-Drakensberg
Upper Thukela
• Good land management
practices can increase low
flows by 12.8 mil. m3/yr
and
• Reduce sediments by 1.2mil.
m3/yr.
Umzimvudu
• Lows flows will increase by
3.8 mil. m3/yr and
• Sediments will reduce by
4.9 mil. m3/yr

45. Opportunities in the Carbon Market:
Working for Land in the Eastern Cape
Thicket Restoration Programme

46. Above
ground
40 ± 3
7 ± 1
Litter
11 ± 1
1 ± 0.4
Roots
25 ± 1.3
11 ± 0.7
Soil
133 ± 27
95 ± 15
and falling?
Total
209 ± 28
114 ± 14
t C ha-1
Mills et. al. (2005)
Austral Ecology

47. Challenges & Opportunities
• Government simply does not
have enough money to do it
on it’s own.
• Dire poverty in rural areas, if
the livelihood profile is not
better after the intervention
than before it simply won’t
work.
• Legislation on its own is
simply not enough.
• Restoration is expensive.
• South Africa is not very
competitive on the carbon
market, the climate simply
does not allow it to be.
• There are opportunities to get
local and international resource
users involved in restoring
ecosystem benefits.
• The people are out there where
the services are required.
• Job creation and rural
development are government
priorities.

48. Challenges & Opportunities cont.
• Institutional arrangements
is still difficult for rural
communities to work
with government.
• We need more primary
science when it comes to
quantifying ecosystem
services.
• There are extensive
opportunities for the
sciences to be developed.
• The programme could
effectively become an
outdoor class room for
students working in the
field.

49. Recommendations on the way forward
• If governments can give incentives to the commercial sector
why not for the restoration of ecosystem services.
• NGO’s, CBO’s and private land users should be incentivised to
promote and change land management practices.
• The focus of government NRM investment needs to be revised
in order to unlock private and international investment.
• Appropriate institutional arrangements need to be established.
(CBNRM models?)
• Uncertainty with regards to the quantification of ecosystem
services must be reduced (We must get the science right, models
need to be informed by sound natural/ecological science).
• If you can’t beat the socio-economic lobby, join them.

50. Thank You!

51. Acknowledgements
• Dr. Terry Everson – Okhombe PES Projects
• Mike Powell – Thicket Pictures
• Ecosystem Services - James Blignaut, Guy Preston, Kate
Philip, Mathieu Rouget, Myles Mander, Jane Turpie,
Lozelle du Plessis, Thami Klassen, and Norma Tregurtha
• Andrew Wannenburgh
• Prof. Rudi van Aarde – Sekhukhune Pictures