Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

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Grasslands of the world
INTRODUCTION
The Republic of South Africa is situated at the southern tip of Africa. It is
bordered to the north by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique;
in the west by the Atlantic Ocean; and in the south and east by the Indian
Ocean (Figure 3.1). The total land area is 1 223 201 km 2 (excluding Lesotho
and Swaziland). The enclaves of Lesotho and Swaziland are sovereign states.
South Africa’s population is estimated at 40.6 million (Stats SA, 1996), of which
approximately 46 percent is rural and 54 percent is urban. Agriculture accounts
for 3.2 percent of GDP and 7 percent (R 14.57 billion in 2000 1 ) of exports
and supports, directly or indirectly, 15 percent of the population (National
Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs, 2001).
In its position at the southern end of the African continent, South Africa is
the gateway to the subcontinent, providing and maintaining ports and road, rail
and telecommunication links between southern Africa and the rest of the world.
With a long history of trade and scientific exchange with Europe and North
America, South Africa has developed opportunities for marketing its agricultural
products within these economies. Many of these products (beef, mutton, fleece
and hides) have been derived directly from grasslands. The national science programmes
and those associated with resource management and agriculture have
been linked through government and tertiary education initiatives to explore
trends in resource condition and production. These initiatives have focused on
three primary research areas: (1) describing the biodiversity of rangelands and
their associated resources ; (2) developing an understanding of the impact of
herbivory on the resource; and (3) developing methods for improving production.
In addition, research programmes have endeavoured to understand the
relationships between herbivory by domestic livestock and the sustained use of
the resource for agricultural production.
South Africa has a unique combination of natural resources , climatic environments
and ethnic groups, making it an interesting and challenging country.
Grasslands are a major component of the natural vegetation , with the biome
comprising some 295 233 km 2 of the central regions of the country, and adjoining
and extending into most of the major biomes (forest , savannah, thicket,
Nama-karoo ) in the region. This interface between grasslands and other
biomes contributes substantially to their floristic and faunal diversity and to
the important role they play in the agricultural economy. The grasslands of
South Africa are also the home to most of the human population, with the mining
and other industrial complexes of Gauteng (formerly the Witwatersrand)
being located on the high-veldt grasslands. This proximity to large human
populations and their associated markets, as well the climatic environment,
which favours commercial, rainfed agriculture, has had a large impact on the
native grasslands. Millions of hectares have been ploughed and converted into
1 ZA Rand 6.4475 = US$ 1 (mid-October 2004).