Decision-making processes in agrarian landscapes of Limpopo province, South Africa: implications for landscape multi-functionality

摘要

Agrarian landscapes in Makhado Local Municipality in the Limpopo Province of South Africa provide for the livelihood needs of diverse groups of people. Therefore, the demands that are made on these landscapes as well as the increasing environmental and socio-economic problems, require multi-functional landscape management. Decisionmaking is crucial to management, and understanding decision-making processes in these landscapes is pivotal to an integrated and coordinated management. This article seeks to understand the decision-making processes and their implications for the multi-functionality of agrarian landscapes in Makhado Local Municipality under two land tenure regimes, namely communal and restitution land. In order to make sense of the complex set of actors and institutions, their demands and needs as well as how decisions are being made in the end within the context of common property and common-pool resources, the article makes use of the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework (IAD). Results show that often decisions are made on an ad hoc basis with no consultation and coordination among the actors, and there appears to be no agreed criteria to guide decision-making.