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Kleinrivier Environmental and Employment Project
Department of Agriculture - Landcare
South Africa

The Problem

South Africa is a water scarce country. The rainfall is unevenly distributed with 43% falling on 13% of the land with high annual variability and unpredictability.

Since 1994, with support from various environmental Non-Governmental Organisations, the South African government has drawn up and gazetted various progressive laws that relate to how best to manage our water resources.

Embedded within these laws is the concept of Integrated Catchment Management (ICM). This concept recognises that naturally occurring water can be effectively and efficiently managed only within a catchment area. Often water management strategies fail because they neglect to incorporate the range of values and perspectives of water users dependent upon that catchment system. ICM stresses the relationship between land-use practices and water management and embraces the principle that water and land is intimately connected.

In the Kleinriver Catchment area of the Overberg in the Western Cape, an area consisting of six conservancies and 190 000 hectares of indigenous flora, alien vegetation has been encroaching and threatens the biodiversity of the area, as well as limiting the flow of the river. This has serious implications for the agricultural sector, where employment is seasonal and unemployment and poverty levels are high. The spread of the alien vegetation has also resulted in fires that has nearly destroyed the fynbos industry and threatened the industry that is the only major source of employment in the area.

The Kleinriver Environmental and Employment Project is an exemplary model of how stakeholders such as government, landowners, local communities and environmental organisations have been able to work together to clear alien vegetation and create jobs for the poor.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Since the programme’s implementation in October 2004, R 1 million has been spent to clear approximately 500 hectares of alien vegetation, while 80 permanent jobs were created. This is remarkable, as an assessment done by Cape Nature indicated that it would have cost twice as much if ‘Working for Water’, government’s alien clearing programme, had done the job. This saving was made possible by the landowners absorbing 50% of the total cost of alien clearing as they funded the transport and equipment costs.

Apart from creating employment, the project addresses the environmental problems of increased fire risk, soil erosion, loss of rare species, inception of catchment run-off and downstream impacts on biodiversity and the functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
In December 2003, the Department of Agriculture (Landcare) was approached by commercial farmers in the surrounding area to assist with the clearing of alien vegetation from their land.

To capitalise on the enthusiasm of the farmers, the first formal meeting was held in August 2004 with the six conservancies (Walker Bay, Akkedisberg, Blibkwater, Solitaire, de Diepegat and Kleinrieversberg), OCF, the Overstrand municipality, the Overberg District Municipality, Cape Nature, Department of Agriculture - Western Cape, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Kleinriever Catchment Forum and Stanford Farmers Association. Soon thereafter, the KEEP framework was drawn up with the support of all the participating institutions, which was the blue print on how the project was to be implemented.

In November 2004, OCF received their first sum of money (R16 000) from Landcare to pay for the training of the workers. Since then R1.35 million has been spent by the initiative and recently, the OCF received additional funding from the Lottery, which must be spent by September 2007.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Kleinriver Catchment area includes the highly profiled town of Hermanus to the east and the scenic landscapes of Hemel and Aarde Catchment area, between Hermanus and Caledon. The majority of the town’s inhabitants can be termed upper class, while on the outskirts of Hermanus there are several informal settlements and townships, where the poverty and unemployment levels are in the region of 60%. Low educational levels amongst this group make it unlikely that they will be employed in the formal sector. Agriculture is the main industry and because the water tables are low, there is a dependence on river water for irrigation. The rapid spread of alien vegetation has threatened this resource.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The project priority was to secure a continued supply of water from the natural systems for the farms in the area and to provide training and employment to previously unemployed people. So that they could be equipped to remove alien vegetation from the catchment area in the most cost-effective way possible.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Various laws make it compulsory to remove alien vegetation from public and privately owned land so as to protect the country’s scarce water resources. Specific government departments are mandated to provide the necessary human and financial resources to ensure that this mandate is implemented.

As one of the government institutions that have to perform this function, the Department of Agriculture (Landcare) does not have sufficient resources to ensure this. Due to this challenge, the department formed strategic partnerships with Cape Nature, the Overstrand Conservation Foundation (OCF), landowners, Working for Wetlands (WfW) a sub-programme of Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and the Overstrand Municipality.

Partners contributed their unique strength to the project. Landcare provided initial government funding, project management and skills development training; Cape Nature supplied the project with alien clearing plans based on conservation principles, alien mapping, and was responsible for quality control and quality control training; the OCF administered the project and was accountable for all the financial auditing and management practices; landowners sourced and appointed the labour, provided the daily transport to the clearing teams, provided the equipment and managed the workforce and paid the salaries of the workers; WfW provided the herbicides and the Overstrand municipality performed and oversight role, whereby they would take responsibility for similar projects in the future.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The success of the KEEP principles has resulted in the adoption of alien clearing by the recently announced Working for Fynbos initiative that has been launched as employment relief in the Protea farming areas affected by fires earlier in the year. This has only been possible because the rules relating to the use of poverty relief funds have been adapted to accommodate this working method when initially there was resistance at senior government levels.

These changes have come about due to the stakeholders conducting regular meetings to highlight the win–win situation of alien clearing, job creation and the protection of the existing Protea farming industry.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Over the past 15 months, R 1 million was secured from the Department of Agriculture and the Global Environment Fund, while the landowners have contributed an additional R1 million in transport and equipment costs. Since the OCF will take over the management of the project in the future, they have secured an additional R1.7 million from the National Lottery Board.

Important for sustainability purposes is that the landowners have signed an agreement with the Department of Agriculture that once all the alien vegetation has been cleared from their properties, they will take full responsibility for the ongoing management of alien vegetation on their properties. Besides creating ownership of future alien vegetation management, this creates future and ongoing employment opportunities for trained labour. Due to the extent of the alien infestation, there will be employment opportunities in the area for at least the next 20 years.

Due to the effectiveness of the model as currently implemented the Working For Water programme has expressed interest in revising their model of operation to reflect the changes made by KEEP.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The Keep Initiative has seen strong partnerships forming between the OCF and the landowners, Landcare and Cape Nature, while good working relationships have continued to develop between the OCF and other government departments. Landcare and Cape Nature have strong local representatives in the Overberg area and relationships with them have become close due to frequent interaction and there is a regular interchange of ideas, information and cross-organisational use of skills.

A major lesson learnt is that it is important to have all stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of the programme, as it is important for ownership of the initiative.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Department of Agriculture - Landcare
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Ferde Hugo
Title:   Project Manager  
Telephone/ Fax:   +27 28 212 1158
Institution's / Project's Website:   +27 28 212 1878
E-mail:   caledon1@xsinet.co.za  
Address:   PO Box 43, Caledon
Postal Code:   7230
City:   Caledon
State/Province:   Western Cape
Country:   South Africa

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