Developing community based governance of wetlands in Craigieburn Village.
SUMMARY
LEAP and the Association for Water and Rural Development (AWARD) worked in partnership on this project from June 2006 to March 2010. The key focus for the project was to explore the realities, needs, constraints and opportunities with regard to strengthening governance for sustainable wetland use, through exploring and testing with one community, Craigieburn. The outcomes would feed into a larger learning endeavour about developing appropriate land management and tenure arrangements to improve and secure poor peoples livelihoods.
Research and action took place at multiple levels, from the village to national level. The picture that emerged is of a land management system that is fundamentally shaped by plural systems of land and resource tenure. Rights and authorities derive from custom and also from the statutory laws. Customary rights are well understood by people, but their statutory rights are not. Both of these systems have real weaknesses in relation to authority regarding natural resources.
There are different, but linked tenure arrangements for different land uses in Craigieburn, affecting the governance of natural resources on each of them. Residential plots have much stronger and more supported systems - across the plural institutions - than fields or commonage. Some problems arise from local users, however an increasing number came from a recent commercial clay mine and brick factory, which highlighted major governance weaknesses. Laws and regulatory systems for environmental and social protection to are not being carried out as they should, resulting in severe abuses.
There has been significant progress in strengthening local level governance. Farmers are now taking leadership in articulating their problems and lobbying for support, and in taking up problem solving collectively. The local traditional leader is now taking an active interest farmers problems. Provincial government officials are asking for capacity development in relation to natural resource monitoring and enforcement of policy, having recognised their shortcomings. National wetlands programs for rehabilitation and management are drawing on the lessons from Craigieburn as we develop a joint Wise Use of Wetlands initiative for the national public works program for wetlands rehabilitation. The brick factory that operates on the commonage has generated considerable community opposition and led to a challenge of local abuses. This is a case study of poor and exploitative practice, and efforts to change the balance of costs and benefits locally need to continue.
Learning has been captured in papers and learning support materials. A useful visual heuristic on governance has been developed is valuable to AWARD and has generated considerable interest in the wider circle of wetlands and CBNRM practitioners, as what can be complex and abstract concepts and issues are expressed with profound (rather than naive) simplicity.
Project Details
NGO Partner:
Association for Water and Rural Development (AWARD)
Location:
Mpumalanga Province (bordering Limpopo Province). The area is situated within the Sand River Catchment which straddles both provinces. The area also popularly known as Bushbuckridge.
Funder:
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Duration of project:
2006 - 2010