report - Arid Areas Programme

Doreen Atkinson: A Review of International Arid Areas Research Agencies
March 2008
Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council (ECSECC)
(telescope) tourism, tourism trails, ostrich products, leather products, indigenous plants,
desert crops (such as olives), and carbon sequestration. All these sectors require a great
deal of capital investment and technical skill, including an understanding of international
markets, environmental conditions, and access to finance. Furthermore, these sectors
offer valuable opportunities for employment, employee training, and possibly outsourcing
schemes to smaller entrepreneurs. The task is to build on the existing economic
base of the arid areas, and bring it into contact with cutting-edge technologies and
practices in the rest of the world, so that our arid areas can become economically
competitive.
The underlying logic of development in the arid areas will be “think global, act local”.
Thus far, government development efforts in the arid areas have lacked a coherent “think
global” orientation. Specific entrepreneurs have had to venture into expensive new
investments on their own. This report aims at introducing government agencies to the
dynamic thinking about arid areas in other countries. This should create awareness of the
vast economic potential of the arid areas, and should lead to enterprise support
programmes, high-technology production systems, and export promotion efforts, that are
uniquely tailored to the assets and resources of the Karoo, Kalahari and Namaqualand.
The following institutions have been included, and in each case, the main themes of their
research activity are provided:
1. Australia: Desert Knowledge CRC
Desert Knowledge CRC focuses on two kinds of products:
• High value per unit cost of transport
• Place-based products, e.g. tourism, and local processing of bush foods.
Programme: “Livelihoods in Land”:
1. Community involvement in land conservation (e.g. rangers) in arid areas
2. Indigenous land management in desert areas
3. Promoting sustainable environmental outcomes
4. Promoting ecological education and indigenous ecological knowledge
5. Promoting biodiversity and removing invader species.
Programme: Bush Products:
1. Indigenous food production (“bush food”) in the Outback
2. Reconciling pastoralism and biodiversity
3. Tourism: 4x4 drives in the Outback.
Programme: Thriving desert economies and business: DesBiz
1. Business-readiness of desert SMMEs
2. Study of multiplier effects
3. Study of aboriginal businesses
4. Indigenous tourism
5. Indigenous plant products
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