Chiefs in a Democracy: A Case Study of the 'New' Systems of Regulating Firewood Harvesting in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Simple item page
dc.citation.doi10.3390/land7010035en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorFindlay, S.J.
dc.contributor.authorTwine, W.C.
dc.date.accessioned2020-01-15T13:00:16Z
dc.date.available2020-01-15T13:00:16Z
dc.date.issued2018-03
dc.description.abstractMuch of the international commons literature reveals a decreased functioning of local traditional institutions that regulate natural resource harvesting. In South Africa, it is believed that the creation of new democratic structures at the end of Apartheid has contributed significantly to the deterioration in traditional resource regulation and this in turn has led to the extensive resource degradation seen in parts of the country. Many of these assertions, though, remain anecdotal in nature. Given the high reliance by rural households on natural resources, and the serious negative implications that over-use has on livelihood security, understanding how well or poorly such commons are regulated is key to ensuring the sustainability of such resource-dependent populations. The aim of this study was therefore to examine systems of resource governance, focusing specifically on firewood, and to determine the roles of traditional and democratically elected community leaders in six rural villages spanning two chieftaincies in Bushbuckridge, South Africa. In each study village, five local leaders were interviewed and five community focus groups were conducted. Results indicate that most parties still regard the Chief as the ultimate authority for regulating firewood harvesting. However, overall firewood management appears weak, at best, across the region. Although some authors attribute this to community confusion over the roles of local leaders in a new democracy, we provide evidence that other socio-political factors, including political expediency, may be driving the increasingly relaxed implementation of these firewood management systems. With resource dependence remaining a vital contributor to livelihood security across the developing world and with many rural communities facing increasing strain under local resource depletion, these findings shed new light on the complex social dynamics underlying the widely reported weakening of traditional institutions in South Africa. In so doing, it offers insights into local firewood governance that can be used to combat these challenges and thereby reduce regional social and ecological vulnerability being experienced in communal landscapes across the region.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianNLB2020en_ZA
dc.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.funderUniversity of the Witwatersranden_ZA
dc.identifier.citationFindlay, S.J. and Twine, W.C. 2018. Chiefs in a Democracy: A Case Study of the 'New' Systems of Regulating Firewood Harvesting in Post-Apartheid South Africa. LAND 7(1), Article number 35.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2073-445X(electronic)
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/28745
dc.journal.issue1en_ZA
dc.journal.titleLANDen_ZA
dc.journal.volume7en_ZA
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherMDPIen_ZA
dc.rights© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).en_ZA
dc.subjectinstitutionen_ZA
dc.subjectfirewooden_ZA
dc.subjectnatural resourcesen_ZA
dc.subjectSouth Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectTraditional Authoritiesen_ZA
dc.subjectgovernance systemsen_ZA
dc.titleChiefs in a Democracy: A Case Study of the 'New' Systems of Regulating Firewood Harvesting in Post-Apartheid South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Chiefs in a Democracy-A Case Study of the New Systems of Regulating Firewood Harvesting in Post-Apartheid South Africa.pdf
Size:
725.75 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Research Outputs (Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences)
Academic Wits Research Outputs (All submissions)