Community visioning in a transfrontier conservation area in Southern Africa paves the way towards landscapes combining agricultural production and biodiversity conservation

This study employed participatory approaches to establish ways of engaging local communities within a transfrontier conservation area, towards achieving the goals of integrated agricultural production and biodiversity conservation at a landscape level, known as ecoagriculture. We facilitated farmers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental planning and management 2012-11, Vol.55 (9), p.1228-1247
Main Authors: Chitakira, Munyaradzi, Torquebiau, Emmanuel, Ferguson, Willem
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural production
Biodiversity
biodiversity conservation
Community
Community development
community visioning
Conservation
Conservation areas
Conservation of resources
Development programmes
ecoagriculture
Environment
Environmental policy
Farmers
Income
Infrastructure
Landscape
Local communities
Planning
Production
South Africa
Southern Africa
Studies
Sustainable agriculture
Unemployment
Water
Water scarcity
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Summary:This study employed participatory approaches to establish ways of engaging local communities within a transfrontier conservation area, towards achieving the goals of integrated agricultural production and biodiversity conservation at a landscape level, known as ecoagriculture. We facilitated farmers' meetings to create charts of local environmental and livelihood concerns and of their vision of the future. Water scarcity, bad road conditions, unemployment and low harvests emerged among the most prevalent concerns. Through a visioning process, participants arrived at a desired future that was largely inclined towards improved livelihoods, with comparatively little attention on biodiversity enhancement. We conclude that stakeholder-driven ecoagriculture could be a sustainable strategy to simultaneously achieve the community's vision and the goals of transfrontier conservation areas, provided biodiversity management strategies are linked to infrastructure improvement and income generating activities. We recommend a community visioning process as an effective approach to encourage collective action and to support local ownership of development programmes.
ISSN:0964-0568
1360-0559
DOI:10.1080/09640568.2011.640149