Acknowledgement to reviewers

No abstract available.

Erratum: COVID-19 home remedies and myths becoming a hazardous health infodemic?

No abstract available.

The impact of climate change on visitor destination selection: A case study of the Central Drakensberg Region in KwaZulu-Natal

Many variables influence visitors’ destination choices, for example, affordability, attractions, health and safety, and expectancies. Amongst the indirect influences in destination choice by tourists, climate change is perhaps the greatest factor because of its negative impact on the ecological landscape of tourist destinations. Using the Central Drakensberg Region (CDR) as a case study, this article seeks to investigate the influence of climate change on visitors’ destination choices. A quantitative descriptive survey was conducted on a sample of n347 participants who were selected using purposive and convenience sampling procedures under the auspices of non-probability. The statistical analyses were performed using the latest edition of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Version 25.0). Based on the study’s results, climate change was found to be a key influence on tourists’ decision-making, behaviour and spending habits at tourist destination like the Central Drakensberg Area. The most significant climatic parameter for tourists was determined to be pleasant and warm temperatures, as well as the summer season. Furthermore, owing to the current climate change circumstances, visitors were found to be less likely to return or recommend future visits to the region. To that end, tourism officials in the CDR should swiftly implement adaptation measures to counter the effects, and explore alternatives such as soft tourism and non-climate-dependent activities to accommodate visitors year-around. Further research is recommended to establish the extent to which socio-demographic characteristics influence destination choice in the area, as well as to ascertain the current state of climate change impacts.

Quantifying the nutritional and income loss due to crop raiding in rural African subsistence farming community in South Africa

Globally, crop damage by wildlife contributes to food insecurity through direct loss of food and income. We investigated the calories lost and potential economic impact of crop raiding to subsistence homesteads abutting the Hluhluwe Game Reserve and assessed their mitigation measures to combat crop raiding. We quantified the seasonal loss of calories (KJ/g) of four common crops: beetroot (Beta vulgaris), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), maize (Zea mays) and spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and determined seasonal potential income loss based on local market cost of crops. Experimental data used for this study were collected from April 2016-March 2017 and questionnaire data were collected in March 2016, using a stratified sampling approach to sample the homesteads. We selected every second homestead for the interview and restricted the survey to one respondent per homestead to avoid pseudo-replication of results. In the one year of sampling, we did not record any large mammals crop raiding, both from direct observations and camera trap footage, we also did not find a statistically significant relationship between the level of damage and distance of farms from the reserve boundary. Throughout the study, we captured a total of 96 individual rodents comprising of two species: red bush rat (Aethomys spp.; 67.7%; 51 males and 28 females) and pouched mouse (Saccostomus campestris; 32.3% (14 females and three males ) and we used the damage caused by these animals and other small animals to quantify the level of damage. We found that season, crop type, farm slope and the interaction between season and crop type were significant predictors of relative calorie loss. Again, season, crop type and the interaction between season and crop type were significant predictors of the potential income loss, with the highest income loss recorded for spinach in the dry season. In addition, significant differences were found for potential income loss for all crop types in the wet season, and for the interaction between crop types maize, spinach and the wet season, but no significant difference was found for crop type common bean and the wet season. A multinomial regression analysis revealed that crop raiding animal type, crop types raided and distance of farms from the reserve all had a significant effect on the choice of mitigation measures farmers used. Most importantly we found the highest relative calorie loss for maize during the dry season, which could impact on subsistence farmers by reducing their daily calorie intake and impact on their food security especially during the season where subsistence farming is slow. Moreover, as the most preferred mitigation measure by farmers can have opportunity costs to this community, such as the loss of school time for children. These results have important implications for food security policies and socially related policies and practices.

Role of frequency modulation radio in disaster communication: A case study of Pakistan earthquake

Pakistan suffered from a massive earthquake in October 2005 that caused the deaths of more than 87 000 people. As a result of this calamity, around 3.5 million affected people had no access to information. In these scenarios, community media became an important catalyst. In developing countries, radio had proved far more accessible and useful than any other medium. But because of this natural hazard, local media also suffered heavily as dozens of journalists died and media houses and press clubs were destroyed. The current study attempted to explore the role of frequency modulation (FM) radio stations working in the earthquake hit areas in Pakistan. These stations were temporarily setup to inform the victims about the rehabilitation and reconstruction plans of the agencies involved. The data has been collected qualitatively through five focus group discussions which were conducted in the earthquake affected areas. Twelve in-depth interviews were also conducted for this purpose with FM stations personnel. The results revealed that the FM radio stations played a very important role in the rehabilitation phase by providing vital information to the victims, relief agencies and government. Lifesaving information like weather updates, precautionary measures in the tents, public service announcements and encouraging messages provided some hope to the victims to restart a normal life, and also motivated the students to restart their studies in makeshift schools.These FM networks became the voice of the affected people and helped a lot in bridging the communication gaps between the affected, relief agencies and government, and also ensured citizens’ participation in decision-making processes.

From the Cyclone Idai disaster to the COVID-19 pandemic: An account of inadvertent social capital enhancement in Eastern Chimanimani, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe suffered a devastating meteorological disaster when Cyclone Idai affected the southeast part of the country in March 2019. Barely a year after the cyclonic event, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic emerged, leading to the declaration of a nationwide lockdown that paralysed socio-economic systems. This article examines how social capital was autonomously cultivated and eventually utilised by the Cyclone Idai disaster survivors in Eastern Chimanimani to face the fresh socio-economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, a qualitative method embedded in a case study design was used. Data was collected using 30 purposively selected key respondents who interacted with victim communities from March to July 2020. A thematic content analysis approach was applied to obtain opinion patterns and subsequent inferences. The study results revealed a lack of immediate external disaster intervention during the Cyclone Idai disaster in Chimanimani. Accordingly, a strong sense of collective action developed between victim communities, thus enabling them to perform hasty operations meant to salvage lives and property. The enhanced social capital helped the Cyclone Idai victims to face the new COVID-19 lockdown challenges. This article recommends pro-active and well-coordinated government and private sector disaster response strategies supporting local area initiatives to minimise loss of lives and property during disaster situations.

Climate change adaptation strategies and production efficiency: The case of citrus farmers in the Limpopo province, South Africa

Climate change adaptation policies and strategies have inevitably become an integral component of agricultural production on a global scale. The evaluative extent to which these adaptation techniques have influenced agricultural productivity is inherently exiguous. Citrus production in tropical regions such as South Africa, is more vulnerable to climate change as the region already experience hot and dry climate, hence the need to implement different strategies for climate change adaption in these regions. This study was designed to assess the effect of adopting the following climate change adaptation measures: planting drought resistant varieties, rainwater harvesting, planting early maturing varieties, integrated pest management (IPM) , changing fertiliser type, and applying drip irrigation to manage climate challenges on the production efficiency of citrus farmers in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The stochastic frontier production function with Cobb Douglas production functional form was used to analyse the productivity of farmers’ vis-à-vis adopted climate change strategies. A survey was conducted and data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire administered to respondents from 235 production units in the five district municipalities of Limpopo. The likelihood ratio tests for profit models showed that farmers were profit efficient considering the identified adaptation strategies. The variables that influenced profit efficiency was price of fertiliser (p 0.010) and water cost (p 0.010). The inefficiency model showed that besides changing fertiliser as an adaptation measure, the other adaptation strategies including IPM, water harvesting and planting drought resistant varieties did not change the profit efficiency of farmers. Therefore, the results indicate that citrus farmers can still adapt to climate change and remain profit efficient.

Comic worksheets for integrated disaster risk reduction learning in the subject of Geography

Indonesian students have limited visual learning capacity. Low literacy of such students has gained the researcher’s attention in developing their literacy through comic worksheets. The researcher created comic worksheets with blank speech bubbles to help high school students build their conceptual framework about disaster risk mitigation. This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of comic worksheets in helping high school students learn disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the subject of Geography. This study followed the research and development (RD) approach to develop comic worksheets with blank speech bubbles. A paired sample t-test was used to analyse the mean difference between the pre-and post-test scores of 103 students. The results show a significant difference between both means. It indicates that using comic worksheets could improve student learning outcomes. It could also effectively be used as an assessment instrument for the students’ affective aspects. Dialogues among comic characters compiled by students record their attitudes and behaviour in their everyday life. Collaboration between teachers, learning media developers, and artists is needed to create comic packages for learning Geography.

Private companies and community collaboration: Towards building disaster resilience in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, South Africa

The responsibility for building community resilience cannot and should not rest with the public sector alone. It requires all sectors to collaborate for the benefit of the entire community. Specifically, it is important for private sector organisations to participate in building community resilience because they have vested interest in the area because of their physical assets, suppliers, customers and corporate value of social responsibility. This article explores collaboration between private companies and community of Diepsloot, Johannesburg, South Africa, to build disaster resilience in the community. The study applied qualitative research methods. Data were collected through focus group interviews with the community of Diepsloot and semi-structured individual interviews with representatives of private companies operating in the vicinity of Diepsloot. A total of 55 respondents participated in the study. Respondents included five corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers from private companies and 50 community members. The findings of the study showed that private companies are involved in addressing socio-economic challenges in Diepsloot. Addressing such challenges contributes a great deal to reducing exposure to hazards and the vulnerability factors to disasters, thereby contributing to building resilience. Whereas some respondents preferred the private companies to work with the communities directly, the study recommends the use of community structures such as Community Based Organisations (CBOs) when private companies engage in community initiatives. The article contributes to better understanding of the private sector’s contribution to build community resilience.

How is COVID-19 perceived by medical students? A survey in Aceh province, Indonesia

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has burdened the health system and medical education programmes both locally and globally, requiring medical students to continue their education whilst engaging in prevention programmes to support primary health services. This study aims to describe medical students’ knowledge, attitudes in the prevention of COVID-19, and to determine the relationship between the knowledge of COVID-19 preventive behaviour and attitudes towards it. This study used an analytical cross-sectional observational design with a sample of 290 students. Data were collected through a self-assessment method using a validated questionnaire. Analysis of the frequency distribution test for knowledge found that 54.1% of the respondents and 99.0% of the students had a good understanding of the mode of transmission of COVID-19. The majority of medical students (73.1%) also had a good attitude towards COVID-19 and around 84.3% of the students considered that good ethics is needed when coughing or sneezing during this pandemic. As many as 46.6% of the respondents had good preventive behaviour against COVID-19 and always imposed restrictions on using public transportation during a pandemic. The Spearman’s correlation test shows a weak but meaningful relationship between knowledge (r = 0.214, p = 0.000) and COVID-19 preventive behaviour, and a significant relationship between attitudes (r = 0.477, p = 0.000) towards COVID-19 preventive behaviour. This study concludes that medical students have good knowledge, preventive behaviour and an understanding of infection risk. An enhanced knowledge and awareness will increase preventive behaviours that will provide support in controlling the disease.