Living Landscapes: rethinking biodiversity in Southern Africa

Image © Natalie Gabriel

Dawn is breaking on the Den Staat Farm in Limpopo, South Africa, and research associate Maud Sebelebele rises early. She gets ready to help the local farm workers with their daily chores. This morning, her job is to assist with cattle herding.

Maud is a resident research associate with the Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. As part of her research, she lives alongside the farm workers on Den Staat Farm, taking part in their daily activities. Work like this helps her gain a deep understanding of what life is like for the inhabitants of the farm.

Den Staat Farm is home for many communities who depend solely on the natural resources of the landscape to survive. Community activities include subsistence fishing, commercial agriculture, hunting, and farming. The farm is situated on the border with Zimbabwe, right next to the Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa. The park has fenced off large areas of land in a bid to protect nature and preserve biodiversity. However, this has also meant sealing off the land from the local communities living there, as they can no longer access it easily.

The team at PLAAS thinks there’s another way to conserve nature and biodiversity, a way that includes the local people. To this end, PLAAS seeks to find and promote methods that do not displace local people from the lands they rely on for their livelihoods, wellbeing, and spiritual connection. “Conservation should recognise people as part of the natural world they inhabit, as stewards of that land,” says Moenieba Isaacs, a professor at the institute. “When communities are allowed to live with and in nature, we have their eyes to protect, watch, and care for it.”

The short course that Maud is taking is called Living Landscapes in Action. It seeks to help the conservation sector become inclusive, just, and sustainable, by teaching students how to transform conservation ideas, practices, and networks. Moenieba and a group of fellow academics developed the Living Landscapes project, which seeks to address the limitations of existing models to solve the biodiversity extinction crisis, and research the challenges created by traditional conservation approaches that attempt to promote biodiversity by separating people and wildlife.

PLAAS also uses data and narratives from its findings to educate and support the next generation of conservationists. Students explore themes such as rights, gender, livelihoods, violence, law, and biodiversity, all set within the context of Southern Africa. The course promotes the concept that communities and nature can flourish side-by-side.

One of the strengths of the course is that the students taking part already work in conservation areas where they can make a difference, such as biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, and governance (land, water, and the ocean).They come with a wide range of expertise – from government agencies, conservation organisations, climate justice, and not-for-profit organisations. This means they bring experience with them, which they can share with the group. They can also apply what they learn in their jobs and organisations.

The Living Landscapes project focuses on three diverse landscapes in Southern Africa, where students build relationships with community members and engage in methods to understand their connection with nature. The first is the Mapungubwe Living Landscape project, as mentioned above, where Maud is based and where she is building strong relationships with communities.

The second is in the townships of Mitchells Plain, Manenberg, and Khayelitsha, and the small town of Macassar, all in Cape Town. These areas are situated next to the wetlands, which are home to a rich biodiversity of plants that grow in abundance on the dunes and shelter many wildlife species, such as migratory birds. Students live and work directly with the local communities and find solutions that work for both people and nature. The third is iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a huge protected area along the coast of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province, where local communities rely heavily on fishing for food and livelihoods.

The PLAAS course syllabus and approach encourages dialogue with practitioners working directly within conservation. Students gather firsthand accounts of people living in conservation areas who rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. “There’s a genuine need for this kind of research and these short courses to challenge entrenched views about conservation,” says 2023 alumnus Antonio Stuurman, regional coordinator at the Namibia University of Science and Technology.

And it’s clear that this is just the beginning. PLAAS welcomed 39 conservation professionals in 2022 and 2023 from all over Southern Africa. This represents a growing movement that combines long-term care for biodiversity while considering the needs of local communities.

From the foundations of the first course, a network of young conservationists from across Southern Africa has grown. Known as Mazingira Yethu, the name combines two local languages – Kiswahili and isiZulu – to mean ‘our environment’. Since graduating, the group continues the conversations and debates started during the course via monthly virtual meetings. These provide the space for: reflecting; sharing opportunities; informing about publications and events; discussing challenges; exploring ways to influence policy; and collaborating across countries and provinces.

Looking to the future, that sense of community will be vital in supporting researchers and activists in their conservation work. “I really enjoyed how the course moved from looking at conservation and what it means for local communities, to a question of ‘what now?’,” says Wenzile Giyose, communal biodiversity stewardship facilitator at SANParks, South Africa. “I’m excited to try and implement those lessons and influence my programme of work.”

Oak supports PLAAS with the Living Landscapes course as part of our Wildlife, Conservation, and Trade Subprogramme. This sub-programme falls under our Environment Programme, which recognises that wild places are a natural system that protects the wildlife and supports the communities that call them home. Our grant-making supports the rich biodiversity of living landscapes in Southern Africa and Southeast Asia, where productive, resilient rural networks of people can help deter over-exploitation, and safeguard wildlife and wild places. We support local and regional projects that put people at the heart of conservation – especially women, youth, farmers, and herders, and other traditional leadership. Please read our strategy paper to find out more.