Reviving South Africa's grasslands

Eastern Cape villagers explain the challenges they face when it comes to rangeland degradation to Mhlangabezi Slayi, a research fellow for the Centre for Global Change at the University of Fort Hare.

- Mhlangabezi Slayi

South Africa's Eastern Cape province has several million hectares of open land in rural areas, not privately owned but held in trust by the state on behalf of communities. The people who live there use it mainly for grazing livestock, subsistence farming and sometimes hunting.

A common misperception is that the grassy, rolling hills will take care of themselves. But these rangelands degrade for many reasons, making them unusable for the small-scale and landless farmers who need communal land for their animals.

Agricultural scholar Mhlangabezi Slayi researches practical ways of preserving rangeland ecosystems so that farmers can continue to graze livestock there. In his latest study, he worked with 150 people from rural Eastern Cape villages to find out how they planned to restore the rangelands closest to them.

WHAT ARE THE EASTERN CAPE RANGELANDS?

The Eastern Cape has extensive communal rangelands made up of grasslands, shrubs and scattered trees. These areas form the backbone of rural life. They provide grazing for cattle, sheep and goats, which some families rely on for milk, meat and income. People also gather fuelwood, medicinal plants and building materials from these rangelands.

Altogether, communal rangelands in the Eastern Cape cover more than seven million hectares, an area roughly the size of Ireland or Sierra Leone. In many rural villages, over 80% of households depend directly on these lands for their daily survival. They serve not only as grazing fields but also as social and cultural spaces integral to people's identities and traditions.

WHAT'S GONE WRONG?

The rangelands in the Eastern Cape are not as self-sustaining as many assume. They suffer from degradation caused by a combination of natural and human pressures.