Bibliography: Land Degradation in South Africa project

area of conserved STT was considered to be less than 2% from calculations based

on the Valley Bushveld as mapped by Acocks in 1950. We re-mapped the STT using

1981 Lansat MSS imagery. Recent data on conservation areas within the STT were

used to re-calculate the area conserved. The four suborders of STT were

considered separately. We mapped two-thirds as much STT as Acocks. Xeric

Succulent Thicket comprises half of the STT. Ten per cent of STT mapped in this

exercise is conserved, and 6% of that mapped by Acocks is conserved. The

Kaffrarian Thicket is poorly conserved (3%). Nine per cent of the natural

vegetation of the eastern Cape is permanently transformed and of no conservation

value.

Ref ID : 1417

1251. Lack, C.E. Forestry development in Natal. Journal of the South African

Forestry Association :19-29, 1942.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : FORESTRY; KWAZULU NATAL; ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Notes : The author states that for 11 years following the last war, but

especially during the last 5 years, there has been a phenomenal development in

forestry in Natal, both by private enterprise and by the State. This

development has not been confined to any one sphere, but important developments

have occurred in all the various branches of forestry. On the research side

there has been the establishment of the Wattle Research Institute and the

Cathedral Peak hydrological research station. There has also been a strong

public demand for increased forestry education in Natal, which has resulted in

the extension of the courses for Agricultural students at the Natal University

and the Cedara College of Agriculture. But of the many recent developments the

most important have been the great increases in local demand for timber created

by the establishment of a number of large new wood-using industries; and the

recent boom in private afforestation created by these new demands; and the

development of large-scale State Afforestation on the Zululand Coast. This

speech is to be confined to these three important developments. First, a brief

explanation will be given concerning the increase in local demands for timber

and the great increase in private afforestation and then a discussion will be

led regarding recent developments State Afforestation in Zululand.

Ref ID : 857

1252. Laker, M.C. The conservation status of agricultural resources in the

developing areas of southern Africa. Proceedings of the Veld Trust 'Save Our

Soil' Conference, Pretoria.Anonymous Anonymous , 1990.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : CONSERVATION; COMMUNAL AREA; LAND DEGRADATION; SOIL EROSION; VELD

CONDITION

Ref ID : 1891

1253. Laker, M.C. The conservation status of agricultural resources in the

developing areas of southern Africa. Veld Trust Conference on the conservation

status of agricultural resources in the RSA. Du Preez, J.F.Anonymous

Pretoria:Unisa. , 1990.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : CONSERVATION; SOUTHERN AFRICA; AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION; SOIL EROSION;

EROSION

Notes : The author concludes that, in general, it can be said that the veld and

soil resources of large parts of the developing areas of Southern Africa are in

a shocking state of degradation. There are also some well-preserved areas with

high agricultural potential that are still undeveloped and could make very

important contributions to agricultural production in the region in future.

Ironically, veld and soil degradation in many of the developing areas resulted

from, or was greatly aggravated by, inappropriate agricultural practices

introduced during the last three to four decades on the basis of "scientific"

planning. A lack of insight into the very complex and sensitive ecologies of

these regions, especially in regard to the highly variable and difficult soils

which dominate large areas, played a large role in making these errors. A lack

of appreciation for the intricate socio-economic and cultural systems operating

in these areas and the effects of the relatively poor infra-structure also

contributed to this situation. The author wishes to make it clear that he is

not pointing fingers at specific groups of people that have been involved in

development planning. Various errors were made by a wide variety of

institutions involved. One of the main problems in Southern Africa is a

critical shortage of well-trained soil scientists and a singular lack of

appreciation in high circles for the devastating damage that this is costing

South Africa, and not only the developing areas. The consequence is that people

with little or no training in soil science often have to do the soils work.

Because their basic knowledge of soil physics and soil chemistry is inadequate

they go for simple instant solutions which miss the point. Top overseas soil

scientists are amazed at the difficulty and complexity of our soil problems. If

nothing is done to alleviate our shortage of soil scientists, Southern Africa is

heading for disaster, especially in regard to soil erosion.

Ref ID : 645

1254. Laker, M.C. Grond - Ons kwesbare lewensbron/Soil - Our vulnerable source

of life. Conserva 6(3):4-7, 1991.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : SOIL EROSION

Notes : This article focuses on human induced soil degradation, which is,

ironically, often ignored by people. In addition, soil is seen to be one of the

most neglected aspects of nature to be studied and conserved, despite its value

to the continued existence of all forms of life.

Ref ID : 858

1255. Laker, M.C. Human-induced soil degradation in Africa. Proceedings of the

Veld Trust Jubilee Conference, Pretoria, November 2-4.Anonymous Anonymous

Johannesburg:Development Bank of Southern Africa. :76-86, 1993. 11-02-1993.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : SOIL EROSION; STATISTICS

Ref ID : 1461

1256. Laker, M.C. Soil erosion - why should be be concerned about it? Enviro

Tech 2(2):3-6, 1993.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : SOIL EROSION; EROSION

Ref ID : 2483

1257. Land and Agriculture Policy Centre (LAPC) Overview of Transkei sub-region

of the Eastern Cape Province.Anonymous Umtata:RRDI-UNITRA. , 1995.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : TRANSKEI; EASTERN CAPE; CULTIVATION; AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION;

POVERTY; POPULATION; SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE; LAND USE; BETTERMENT PLANNING;

STOCKING RATE; ECONOMIC ASPECTS

Notes : The purpose of this study was to investigate the land-related issues in

the former Transkei sub-region of the Eastern Cape. Sample surveys, through the

use of questionnaires, were conducted. The use of group interviews and

secondary data through desktop studies were also applied in the study. The

inhabitants of Transkei are presumed to engage largely in "subsistence

agriculture". Subsistence agriculture in this context is used to mean small-

scale farming with the intention of producing enough to feed the household for

the current season. A surplus may be produced to either sell for cash or store

for future household needs. Rural households are not able to farm successfully

in many parts of the region. One reason given for failure to farm seems to be

the ever-diminishing availability of land for cultivation. "Betterment"

planning has been widely blamed for the land shortage. Some of those who do not

have access to land do not have cattle to plough with and cannot afford to hire

tractors to plough for them, they also lack other inputs. In all the districts

of Transkei there is a great shortage of productive land to undertake meaningful

farming activity and pressure on existing land is great. Transkei is reported

to have been 28% overstocked in 1980. However, the fact that Transkei was

overstocked need not mean that individual households have large stock holdings.

Rather, it is a stark indicator of land shortage in rural Transkei. Individual

ownership of livestock types is small. It has been reported in other studies

that it does not sustain the household because of low productivity. As a result

the households are dependent on the market to obtain their staple food. Rural

production is not confined to agricultural activities. There is growing evidence

of participation in business enterprises. The business sector is, however,

characterised by low turnover. Many of these enterprises are set up with funds

obtained from wage employment or retirement benefits. The sub-region's low-

level incomes in wage employment, agricultural production and the informal

sector have implications for productivity of the land. Virtually all districts

in Transkei had a high incidence of both male and female migration. Poverty is

widespread in the rural areas. There are indications that poverty is increasing

in the region. In 1990, 64% of the population was reported to have no income

while the majority with incomes were in the low income categories. This report

is available at the RRDI-UNITRA, Umtata. See also ID ref. no. 2339.

Ref ID : 2482

1258. Land and Agricultur Policy Centre (LAPC) Land Reform Research Phase One.

Provincial synthesis report on land reform in the Eastern Cape.Anonymous

Umtata:RRDI-UNITRA. , 1995.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : LAND REFORM; EASTERN CAPE; TRANSKEI; ECONOMIC ASPECTS; SETTLEMENT

IMPACTS; COMMUNAL AREA; BETTERMENT PLANNING; LAND USE

Notes : The main purpose of the study was to address the land-related issues in

the Eastern Cape and other concerns pertaining to finance, forced removal and

resettlement. The method used was mainly group and individual interviews. The

report identified categories of people residing on land that is held communally

and which, in most cases was modified by betterment, township residents of rural

towns, farm workers and ex-farm workers, people residing on released farms,

black and white farmers on private land, landless people and others. Many of

these categories of people are diffuse and individuals or households may belong

to more than one of these groupings. The study did show a trend for each

grouping to have its own particular needs and priorities with regard to land.

This report is obtainable from the RRDI-UNITRA, Umtata. See also ID ref. no.

2339.

Ref ID : 461

1259. Lang, P.M. The effect of different systems of maize residue management on

water infiltration and soil loss.University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. , 1984.

This research was conducted firstly, to assess the value of some commercially

available tillage implements in terms of their ability to effectively work

through and maintain a proportion of the previous season's maize residue on the

surface, and hence establish their contribution to soil and water conservation,

and secondly, to determine if the common practice of livestock utiliztion of

post-harvest crop residues can be accommodated in conservation tillage, with its

requirement for protective amounts of surface residue. The research consisted of

three distinct studies. In the inital phase of Study 1, it was established that

a silage harvester with its blower attachment removed (flail) and a rotary

slasher were more effective in cutting up and maintaining maize stover on the

surface than off-set disc harrows which had been set to perform their function

differently. When set for normal discing operations and equiped with scalloped

discs, the harrow buried most stover but cut the stalks into manageable lengths.

The proportion of residue retained on the surface was significantly increased

when the angle of off-set was reduced from 20o to 10o, but this was achieved at

the expense of the cutting function, despite replacement of the normal scalloped

discs with ripple discs which are specially designed to enhance the cutting

action. The flail and rotary slasher left similar amounts of residue on the

surface, but that retained by the former was left in a fine, more manageable

condition. The results of the second phase of this study indicated that tined

implements such as the chisel plough were more effective in working through and

maintaining maize residues on the surface after it had been flailed, than were

the mouldboard plough, off-set disc and rotary tiller. While the tined

implements left about 50% of the residue on the surface, the latter three

implements maintained only 16%, 33% and 33% respectively. The final phase of

Study 1 examined how the perforamance of a chisel plough was affected by the

shape of the chisel shank and the speed of operation. At an operating speed of 6

km h-1, straight shanks buried less stover than twisted shanks, but at 12 km h-1

the reverse was true. In the second study, six levels of maize stover, selected

as being fairly typical of the amounts left by implements such as those tested

in the first study, and expressed as percentage ground cover (0 to 75%) were

compared under a rainfall simulator to assess the effect of surface residues on

infiltration and soil loss. Increasing the percentage ground cover generally

resulted in improved infiltration and reduced soil loss though the effect was

more pronounced in the case of the latter parameter. It was concluded that to

maintain runoff and soil loss at values of less than 60% and 2 t ha-1,

respectively, at a rainfall intensity of 63,5 mm h-1, a minimum residue ground

cover of 30% was required. In the third study, it was established that it was

possible to graze cattle at stocking rattes of 13,8 AU ha-1 and 27,6 AU ha-1 for

11 d and 8 d, respectively without reducing ground cover below the critical

minimum level of 30%. This is equivalent to carrying capacities of 151,8 and

220,8 animal grazing days per hectare at the low and high stocking rates

respectively. The difference in carrying capacity between the two stocking rates

was attributed to reduced daily intake by individual animals at the higher

stocking rate.Master of Science.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : CULTIVATION; HYDROLOGY; NO-TILLAGE CULTIVATION; RUNOFF; SOIL EROSION;

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE; WATER CONSERVATION; CONSERVATION; RAINFALL; CARRYING

CAPACITY; STOCKING RATE

Ref ID : 2158

1260. Langbein, W.B. and Schumm, S.A. Yield of sediment in relation to mean

annual precipitation. Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 30:1076-

1084, 1958.

Reprint : Not in File,

Ref ID : 1366

1261. Lange, G.M. Designing a sustainable future with natural resource accounts:

the Experience in Namibia and implications for Southern Africa.Anonymous New

York.Institute for Economic Analysis. :1-14, 1997.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : NAMIBIA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; POLICY; MODELS; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT;

ENERGY; LAND REFORM; BOTSWANA

Notes : The author concludes and provides directions for future work as follows.

The government of Namibia has made tremendous progress in meeting the challenges

of economic development and sustainable resource management in the short time

since Independence. In the long term, sustainable resource management requires

co-ordination of the many sectoral and national policies designed to achieve

different objectives, sometimes set by different ministries. For example, the

future of commercial irrigated crop farming will be affected by at least three

policy decisions taken by three different government bodies: water pricing

policy, international trade liberalization policy, and food self-sufficiency

policy, which are determined by Directorate of Water Affairs, the Ministry of

Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Agriculture, respectively. Realistic

national development alternatives need to be identified and evaluated in a

multi-sectoral framework that takes into account the full range of development

objectives and the sectoral strategies for achieving them. This multi-sectoral

analysis will be undertaken in the next stage of the NRA work by integrating NRA

with a simple economic model. The analysis will help co-ordinate sectoral

policies, reveal the opportunity cost of resource use, and provide the basis for

evaluating sustainable development strategies. In particular, it is essential

to co-ordinate water policy with strategic planning for energy, agriculture,

mining, and trade policy. Some of the components of scenario analysis about

alternative development strategies for the future include alternative energy

strategies (hydroelectric power and the development of natural gas fields), the

development of new diamond and copper mines, alternative water supply strategies

(long distance carriers, desalination, demand management), expansion of fish

processing and of tourism, and several factors directly affecting agriculture: a

national policy of food security vs. food self-sufficiency, trade liberalization

and its impact on the livestock market, water pricing reform, land reform and

alternative rural development strategies. This approach to resource management

also needs to be extended to other countries in Southern Africa, especially for

water since all countries in the region rely on international sources of water.

Namibia is taking steps to co-ordinate its work on NRA with similar work in

neighbouring countries, notably Botswana and South Africa, in order to develop a

common analytical framework and database capable of assessing alternatives for

management of cross-border resources. The construction of similar water

accounts for Namibia's neigbours will make it possible for each country to

explore alternative domestic water strategies, taking the regional consequences

more fully into account.

Ref ID : 1365

1262. Lange, G.M., Barnes, J.I., and Motinga, D.J. Cattle

numbers,Biomass,Productivity,and Land Degradation in the Commercial Farming

Sector of Namibia, 1915 to 1995.Anonymous Namibia:Ministry of Enviroment and

Tourism. 17:1-29, 1995. A Natural Resource Accounting project is currently

underway to document the status of the nation's resources and their current

economic use. Accounts for livestock and land feature prominently in this

project; they are being used to address issues related to livestock and land use

by analysing the relationship between numbers of livestock, rainfall, land

degradation, and economic and policy variables over the past 25 years. This

paper reports the preliminary results of a part of this work, an investigation

into trends in cattle numbers, changes in cattle biomass, annual beef

production, and the productivity of livestock in commercial areas over the past

30 years. Livestock numbers increased till 1960, and have steadily declined

since then. In the case of cattle, this decline has been accompanied by

deliberate de-stocking by farmers while herd productivity has increased. The

evidence suggests that beef production per unit of land has not declined but

that productivity is significantly lower than potential industry standards.

Range degradation (bush encroachment) and changes in rainfall may have

contributed to this. More research is needed to quantify the effects of these

factors. This investigation has implications for our understanding of long-term

carrying capacity, land degradation, and rangeland management, and for

agricultural development policies.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : LAND DEGRADATION; NAMIBIA; LAND USE; RAINFALL; POLICY; BUSH

ENCROACHMENT; CARRYING CAPACITY; AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Ref ID : 568

1263. LAPC Debt relief and the South African drought relief programme: an

overview. Policy Paper No.1.Anonymous Anonymous Johannesburg:Land and

Agricultural Policy Centre. (1), 1993.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : POLICY; DROUGHT; SOCIOECONOMIC ASPECTS; GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES;

SUBSIDIES

Ref ID : 407

1264. Largier, J.L. Paradigms for environmental research in southern Africa.

South African Journal of Science 89:523-525, 1993.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY; POLICY

Notes : The author argues, in summary, that a management policy other than those

used for basic or applied research is required if society is to have the benefit

of proactive, non-partisan research on socio-economically important

environmental issues. The amount of funding for this work should be set by the

elected government but the priorities should be set by the research community.

Funds would be distributed through a peer review system based on criteria of

potential social benefit and the scientific merit. It is suggested that this

programme be university-based, that it have a regional allegiance and that it

actively seeks international recognition. The products of this initiative

should contribute substantially to ensuring a sustainable interaction of society

and its natural environment. The value of this contribution, judged

retrospectively, should convince society of the need to continue investing in

this kind of environmental research.

Ref ID : 2159

1265. Le Maitre, D., Bosch, J., and Lesch, W. Management of riparian zones for

water yield and quality. Managing fynbos catchments for water. Boucher, C. and

Marais, C. Stellenbosch:Foundation for Development Programme Report Series.

24:88-98, 1993.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : FYNBOS

Notes : Proceedings of a workshop held on 30 November 1993 at Stellenbosch, SA.

Ref ID : 2039

1266. Le Maitre, D.C. Review of the statutes relating to weed control in South

Africa. 1996.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : FORESTRY

Notes : Unpublished report, Working for Water Programme, Department of Water

Affairs and Forestry.

Ref ID : 2040

1267. Le Maitre, D.C., Van Wilgen, B.W., Chapman, R.A., and Kelley, D.H.

Invasive plants in the Western Cape, South Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology

33:161-172, 1996.

Reprint : Not in File,

Keywords : WESTERN CAPE

Ref ID : 1124

1268. Le Roux, I.G. Patterns and rate of woody vegetation cluster development in

a semi-arid savanna, Natal, South Africa.University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

, 1996.

Reprint : In File,

Keywords : BUSH ENCROACHMENT; KWAZULU NATAL; SAVANNA; VEGETATION CHANGE;

VEGETATION DYNAMICS; LAND USE; DROUGHT; GRASSLAND; SOUTHERN AFRICA; MODELS