The impact of land use on woody plant cover and species composition on the Grahamstown municipal commonage: implications for South Africa's land reform programme

The 1970s–1980s droughts in the Sahel caused a significant degradation of land and plant cover. To cope with this situation, populations have developed several biophysical and social adaptation practices. Many of these are agroforestry practices and contribute to the maintenance of agrosystems. Unfortunately, they remain insufficiently documented and their contributions to the resilience of agrosystems insufficiently evaluated. Many authors widely link the regreening in the Sahel after droughts to the resumption of rainfall. This study examines the contribution of agroforestry practices to the improvement of woody plant cover in the North of Burkina Faso after the 1970s–1980s droughts. The examination of practices is carried out by integrating the rainfall, soil, and geomorphology variables. Landsat images are used to detect changes in woody plant cover: increasing, decreasing, and no-change in the Enhanced Vegetation Index. In addition, 230 field observations, coupled with interviews conducted on the different categories of change, have allowed to characterize the biophysical environment and identify land-use practices. The results show a variability of vegetation index explained to 9% (R2 = 0.09) by rainfall. However, Chi-Squared independence tests show a strong dependence between changes in woody plant cover and geomorphology (p = 0.0018 *), land use, land cover (p = 0.0001 *), and land-use practices (p = 0.0001 *). Our results show that rainfall alone is not enough to explain the dynamics of agrosystems’ woody plant cover. Agricultural and social practices related to the dynamics of farmer perceptions play a key role.

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Native forests but not agroforestry systems preserve arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species richness in southern Ethiopia

Mycorrhiza ◽

10.1007/s00572-020-00984-6 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (6) ◽

pp. 749-759

Author(s):

Zerihun Belay ◽

Mesele Negash ◽

Janne Kaseva ◽

Mauritz Vestberg ◽

Helena Kahiluoto

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Species Richness ◽

Species Composition ◽

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽

Soil Samples ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Native Forest ◽

Native Forests ◽

Land Use Types ◽

The Impact

Abstract The rapid conversion of native forests to farmland in Ethiopia, the cradle of biodiversity, threatens the diversity of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) pivotal to plant nutrition and carbon sequestration. This study aimed to investigate the impact of this land-use change on the AMF species composition and diversity in southern Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from nine plots in each of three land-use types: native forest, agroforestry, and khat monocropping. The plots of the three land-use types were located adjacent to each other for each of the nine replicates. Three 10 × 10m subplots per plot were sampled. AMF spores were extracted from the soil samples, spore densities were determined, and species composition and diversity were evaluated through morphological analysis. Both spore density and species richness were statistically significantly higher in the native forest than in the agroforestry plots with no clear difference to khat, whereas the true diversity (exponential of Shannon–Wiener diversity index) did not differ among the three land-use types due to high evenness among the species in agroforestry. In total, 37 AMF morphotypes belonging to 12 genera in Glomeromycota were found, dominated by members of the genera Acaulospora and Glomus. The highest isolation frequency index (78%) was recorded for Acaulospora koskei from native forest. Consequently, the agroforestry system did not appear to aid in preserving the AMF species richness of native forests relative to perennial monocropping, such as khat cultivation. In contrast, the native forest areas can serve as in situ genetic reserves of mycorrhizal symbionts adapted to the local vegetative, edaphic, and microbial conditions.

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THE IMPACT OF THE 2000 LAND REFORM PROGRAMME ON THE CAPITAL BLOCK, POPULARLY KNOWN AS THE â€˜NEW MALAWIâ€™

Oral History Journal of South Africa ◽

10.25159/2309-5792/1580 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 15-25

Author(s):

Calvin Phiri ◽

Njabulo Bruce Khumalo ◽

Mehluli Masuku

Keyword(s):

Land Reform ◽

Qualitative Methodology ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Mining Area ◽

Small Scale ◽

Mining Areas ◽

Reform Programme ◽

Foreign Origin ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact

The 2000 land reform programme implemented by the government of Zimbabwe came with an initiative of acquiring enormous hectares of white-owned farmland and distributing it on a massive scale to small-scale farmers. Indeed the greater part of the land was taken from the white commercial farmers and distributed to the majority black Zimbabweans, leaving only a small share of the farmland in the hands of the whites. The land reform programme, undoubtedly, benefited Zimbabweans. In Zimbabwe, especially in mining areas, there are classes of Zimbabweans, those who originate from Zimbabwe, as well as those who are of foreign origin, but are Zimbabweans by birth. Zimbabweans by birth who are of foreign origin occupied an allocated A2 farm, Capital Block, located near a cement mining area, Colleen Bawn. Most of them were of Malawian origin, and the area is now popularly known as â€˜New Malawiâ€™. This study sought to investigate how Zimbabweans of foreign origin benefited from the 2000 land reform programme. The article further sought to reveal the diverse farming systems as well as Indigenous Knowledge (IK), which were passed on from the forefathers who were born in Malawi, but migrated to Zimbabweâ€™s mining areas in search for employment in the then Rhodesia around 1960. A qualitative methodology was used in this research, in which oral history interviews were conducted with the people living in the area of the â€˜New Malawiâ€™. The study revealed that most of the land was being used for farming purposes. Beneficiaries of the programme had become self-dependent. The study further revealed that there was knowledge sharing among the beneficiaries of different foreign origins including Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana and those of Zimbabwean origin. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that the programme benefited a number of people of foreign origins who were now Zimbabweans by birth and Zimbabweans by both birth and origin were happy with these people benefiting, a situation which shows the extent to which Zimbabweans are tolerant of foreigners.

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Age and Land Use as Factors Differentiating Hydrochemistry and Plant Cover of Astatic Ponds in Post-Agricultural Landscape

Journal of Water and Land Development ◽

10.2478/jwld-2014-0011 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 29-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Monika Mętrak ◽

Paweł Pawlikowski ◽

Małgorzata Suska-Malawska

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Species Composition ◽

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Plant Cover ◽

Direct Influence ◽

Catchment Scale ◽

Influence Of Water ◽

Species Composition Of Vegetation ◽

Northeastern Poland ◽

Agricultural Areas

Abstract Small, astatic ponds are important features of post-glacial landscape, which support heterogeneity and biodiversity of agricultural areas. In the presented research we explored differences in hydrochemistry and plant cover of 20 small ponds located in Northeastern Poland, characterized by diverse age and developed in differently managed areas. According to our research, though changes in water level are under direct influence of water balance in the catchment, to which belonged the ponds, their hydrochemistry seemed to be shaped by processes at the level lower than the catchment scale. Age of the ponds appeared to be an important factor influencing density and species composition of vegetation developed on the studied ponds.

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Assessing the aftermath of the fast track land reform programme in Zimbabwe on land-use and land-cover changes

Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa ◽

10.1080/0035919x.2015.1017865 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 70 (2) ◽

pp. 181-186 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Melisa M. Matavire ◽

Mbulisi Sibanda ◽

Timothy Dube

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Reform ◽

Fast Track ◽

Land Cover Changes ◽

Reform Programme

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The impact of land reform on the status of large carnivores in Zimbabwe

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.1537 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. e1537 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Samual T. Williams ◽

Kathryn S. Williams ◽

Christoffel J. Joubert ◽

Russell A. Hill

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Reform ◽

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Private Land ◽

Large Carnivores ◽

Land Use Types ◽

The Status ◽

Substantial Decline ◽

The Impact

Large carnivores are decreasing in number due to growing pressure from an expanding human population. It is increasingly recognised that state-protected conservation areas are unlikely to be sufficient to protect viable populations of large carnivores, and that private land will be central to conservation efforts. In 2000, a fast-track land reform programme (FTLRP) was initiated in Zimbabwe, ostensibly to redress the racial imbalance in land ownership, but which also had the potential to break up large areas of carnivore habitat on private land. To date, research has focused on the impact of the FTLRP process on the different human communities, while impacts on wildlife have been overlooked. Here we provide the first systematic assessment of the impact of the FTLRP on the status of large carnivores. Spoor counts were conducted across private, resettled and communal land use types in order to estimate the abundance of large carnivores, and to determine how this had been affected by land reform. The density of carnivore spoor differed significantly between land use types, and was lower on resettlement land than on private land, suggesting that the resettlement process has resulted in a substantial decline in carnivore abundance. Habitat loss and high levels of poaching in and around resettlement areas are the most likely causes. The FTLRP resulted in the large-scale conversion of land that was used sustainably and productively for wildlife into unsustainable, unproductive agricultural land uses. We recommended that models of land reform should consider the type of land available, that existing expertise in land management should be retained where possible, and that resettlement programmes should be carefully planned in order to minimise the impacts on wildlife and on people.

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Woody Plant Encroachment Impacts on Groundwater Recharge: A Review

Water ◽

10.3390/w10101466 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 1466 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Bharat Acharya ◽

Gehendra Kharel ◽

Chris Zou ◽

Bradford Wilcox ◽

Todd Halihan

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

Groundwater Recharge ◽

Woody Plant ◽

Groundwater Resources ◽

Plant Cover ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Estimation Methods ◽

Woody Plant Encroachment ◽

Plant Removal ◽

The Impact

Woody plant encroachment has profound impacts on the sustainable management of water resources in water-limited ecosystems. However, our understanding of the effects of this global phenomenon on groundwater recharge at local and regional scales is limited. Here, we reviewed studies related to (i) recharge estimation methods; (ii) mechanisms by which woody plants impact groundwater recharge; (iii) impacts of woody plant on recharge across different soil and geology; (iv) hydrological repercussions of woody plant removal; and (v) research gaps and needs for groundwater studies. We identified six different methods: water balance, water table, isotopes, chloride mass balance, electrical geophysical imaging, and modeling were used to study the impact of woody encroachment on groundwater. Woody plant encroachment could alter soil infiltration rates, soil water storage, transpiration, interception, and subsurface pathways to affect groundwater recharge. The impact is highly variable, with the extent and the magnitude varying across the soil, substrate, plant cover, and topographic locations. Our review revealed mixed effects of woody plant removal on groundwater recharge. Studies of litter interception, root water uptake, soil moisture dynamics, and deep percolation along with the progression of woody plant encroachment are still limited, warranting further experimental studies focusing on groundwater recharge. Overall, information about woody plant encroachment impacts on groundwater resources across a range of scales is essential for long-range planning of water resources.

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