Context

In designing strategies to conserve the grasslands, it is essential to understand the socio-economic context; agricultural economy and drivers; extent of land uses across the biome; nature of their impact at site level; and location of biodiversity priority areas.

Socio-economic Context

The biome is situated in a socio-economically complex environment, characterised by great disparity in living conditions. Even the good economic growth of recent years has not contributed to creating jobs or reducing poverty, particularly in rural areas.

The government has therefore prioritised accelerating economic growth and providing employment, with the objective of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014 through the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA). The aim of this strategy is to increase economic growth to 5,4% of GDP between 2005-09 and 6% during 2010-14.

Click here to view the table which compares socio-economic indicators at a provincial level in the grasslands biome.

Land Uses

According to the 1996 National Land Cover data, 64,5% (which includes rangelands) of the grasslands biome is ‘natural’ and 22,4% cultivated. Click here to view a graph which illustrates the percentage of the biome under different land uses. Click here to view a graph which illustrates the percentage of the biome under different land uses.

Impact of Land Uses on Biodiversity

It is important to understand the impact of different land uses on grasslands biodiversity. In an assessment of the impact of different production activities on grasslands, land uses at site level were scored against a set of biodiversity indicators to provide a comparative analysis of their ecological impact. Click here to view a graph of the land uses assessed.

The 3 primary indicators of biodiversity applied in the assessment were landscape composition (habitat, species, alien plants); landscape structure (transformation, fragmentation); and ecosystem functioning (fire and grazing regimes, biogeochemical processes, hydrological functioning, soil erosion and biotic processes).