Integrating Catchment Management through landcare in the Kat Valley, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

摘要

Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) has been the rallying call for water resource managers since the publication of Agenda 21 following the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1993. The reality is that the potential for ICM lies not in legislation, but through grassroots movements that promote public stewardship of land and water. The Australian landcare movement has been seen as one such route to ICM. The Australian experience has been transposed to South Africa through a program led by the National Department of Agriculture. This paper assesses the potential for LandCare South Africa to be an effective catalyst for ICM through an analysis of the Sisonke LandCare project run by the Kat River Catchment Forum. In this paper, I present an analysis of the LandCare project in terms of, first, the effectiveness of the land care activities in addressing land degradation problems and, second, the role of the land care project in reinforcing a catchment ethic that can be applied within an integrated catchment management framework. The paper reflects on the role that the Land Care project has played in developing the effectiveness of the Catchment Forum as a body through which broader integrated catchment management can become a reality.