Vegitation and Soil Status, and Human Perceptions on the Condition of Communal Rangelands of the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Communal areas in South Africa consist of the former self-governing territories that are predominantly inhabited by black South Africans. In the Eastern Cape, out of the 2.6 million ha that is degraded the larger portion is found in communal rangelands. The main ecological factor limiting livestock production in the communal areas is rangeland degradation. The general hypothesis of this study was that the identical grazing strategies between Magwiji, Upper Mnxe and Mnyameni would lead to variation on vegetation and soil properties due to different rainfall and landforms and identical rangeland ownership in the communal areas leads to common human opinion on rangeland resource condition and management due to different in vegetation types. This study evaluated the vegetation condition and soil variation; and human perceptions on communal rangeland resource condition and management.