Guidelines for negotiating social research in communities living adjacent to transboundary protected areas: Kruger National Park

The objective with these Guidelines is to assist local people and social researchers to negotiate equitable research agreements. This document lays out the purpose of the guidelines, provides some background information about the process that led to this document, and provides some general principles and practical guidelines for social research in local communities. The Guidelines have their origins in a long process of consultation, discussion and exchange between social researchers and local people, which took place in South Africa over a period of three years (2005-2008). It draws on the substantial experience of people living adjacent to the Kruger National Park with research and researchers; also on the collective experience of the informal network of researchers that participated in the development of the guidelines. Local people have experienced research in positive and negative ways. Some communities in the area adjacent to the Kruger National Park can justifiably feel over-exposed to researchers, while others feel that opportunities and insights potentially generated by research passes them by. Yet even these often feel that some guidelines are required to avoid duplication and negative engagement. Important is to mention that the engagement between social researchers and communities is not a matter of these two groups alone. Many facilitating, structurating stakeholders such as NGOs, parastatals conservation organisations and government organisations, are important influencing players in this engagement. Therefore, while the guidelines focus specifically on researcher-community interactions, these other players should not be forgotten and should themselves be aware of their effects in these interactions. The guidelines outline opportunities and constraints that arise when local people and social researchers engage one another. The guidelines are not prescriptive, but raise issues and suggest ways in which these can be dealt with

Unsustainable fuelwood extraction from South African savannas

Wood and charcoal supply the majority of sub-Saharan Africa’s rural energy needs. The long-term supply of fuelwood is in jeopardy given high consumption rates. Using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR), we mapped and investigated savanna aboveground biomass across contrasting land uses, ranging from densely populated communal areas to highly protected areas in the Lowveld savannas of South Africa. We combined the LiDAR observations with socio-economic data, biomass production rates and fuelwood consumption rates in a supply–demand model to predict future fuelwood availability. LiDAR-based biomass maps revealed disturbance gradients around settlements up to 1.5 km, corresponding to the maximum distance walked to collect fuelwood. At current levels of fuelwood consumption (67% of households use fuelwood exclusively, with a 2% annual reduction), we calculate that biomass in the study area will be exhausted within thirteen years. We also show that it will require a 15% annual reduction in consumption for eight years to a level of 20% of households using fuelwood before the reduction in biomass appears to stabilize to sustainable levels. The severity of dwindling fuelwood reserves in African savannas underscores the importance of providing affordable energy for rural economic development.The CSIR researchers were funded by the CSIR Strategic Research Panel and the Department of Science and Technology’s Earth Observation Unit. SUCSES study (Sustainability in Communal Socio-Ecological Systems) which provided data on fuelwood use in Justicia was funded by the South African National Research Foundation. The airborne campaign and analysis was funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation.http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326am201