By MAEDER OSLER
Earlier this year, we published a preliminary review of a landmark study of the Karoo which traces vital developmental and other trends in the region, and also begins to identify options for securing its social and environmental sustainability.
Titled Contested Karoo: Interdisciplinary perspectives on change and continuity in South Africa’s drylands, the book draws together the results of a multi-year study by researchers from Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town.
It has been co-edited by Cherryl Walker, professor emeritus at the University of Stellenbosch and previous SARChI Research Chair in the Sociology of Land, Environment and Sustainable Development at Stellenbosch University; and M. Timm Hoffman, Emeritus Professor at UCT, and former director of the Plant Conservation Unit in its Department of Biological Sciences.
In this article, I want to start exploring this important work in greater depth.
Five-cross-cutting themes
In a concluding chapter, the co-editors identify five-cross-cutting themes that have emerged from the research, namely:
- The Karoo as a reconfigured resource frontier, evidenced by significant land use changes;
- Linked to this, the changing nature of farming in the Karoo;
- Small Karoo towns as significant but neglected sites of social reproduction;
- The need to conserve the region’s vulnerable natural resource base, including its unique biodiversity; and
- The need to examine the underlying power relations in the region that shape social relations as well as human relationships with other species and the environment.
According to the authors, the research confirms that the Karoo is making an important contribution to national and global commitments around mitigating climate change, protecting biodiversity and advancing scientific knowledge. However, it also shows that there are ‘major shortcomings with regard to social and environmental justice for Karoo communities’.
Although both state and corporate actors have undertaken to eradicate poverty and protect the environment, their activities in practice are falling far short of advancing these goals.
‘This calls for both an analysis of why this should be the case –what are the different interests and power relations involved? –reimagining what more diverse, inclusive and sustainable local economies might look like, and how a revitalised set of policies and practical interventions can be taken forward.’
Towards a programme of action
The editors note that the volume does not offer a blueprint for regional development, or a detailed set of policy recommendations. However, the research does point to what needs to be done to secure the social and environmental sustainability of the Karoo. This includes:
- The need for closer integration of farming and small-town economies;
- The need for greater investment in protecting the Karoo’s biodiversity and water resources against poorly regulated extractivism;
- The need to unlock the potential of renewable energy to revitalise small towns and address poverty; and
- The need for local people to play active roles in shaping local development through more effective local government, stronger civic institutions, and respect for local knowledge.
Finally, Walker and Hoffman express the hope that the volume will stimulate further research on this ‘compelling region called the Karoo’.
A frame of reference
As noted earlier, we at Toverview regard this as a hugely important study, which provides a frame of reference not only for researchers, policy-makers and planners, but for everyone involved in or concerned about the region and its development, including the mainstream media, community-based media initiatives such as ours, as well as ordinary citizens.
Among other things, in the days to come, we intend to write about and unpack each of the five themes mentioned above in greater detail, thereby creating a more comprehensive but also easily accessible account of the material in this volume.
Conference in Calvinia
To keep pace with rising interest, the co-editors are hoping to convene a panel discussion at this year’s Arid Zones Ecology Forum to be held in Calvinia in October.
In a message to Toverview, Cherryl Walker has written: ‘We hope to push ourselves and participants to reflect more fully on what the themes we identify mean for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners working in the Karoo going forward.’
We will follow this and other related developments with interest.
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FEATURED IMAGE: Loeriesfontein windpump museum, 2017. Picture: Renelle Terblanche. Drawn from Cosmopolitan Karoo: Views from the Field, a collection of photographs taken by researchers involved in this project, which is also featured elsewhere on this site.
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Contested Karoo: Interdisciplinary perspectives on change and continuity in South Africa’s drylands has been published by UCT Press. It can be downloaded free of charge from the UCT Press website.