Land reform and its impact on the arid South African environment: Riemvasmaak as a case study

Abstract

The 75 000 ha, hyper-arid area of Riemvasmaak represents one of the first land restitution cases in post-apartheid South Africa. People who were forcibly removed in 1974 were resettled in 1995. We describe the impact that people and domestic livestock have had on the vegetation of Riemvasmaak since resettlement. Matched photographs and botanical surveys undertaken at 10-year intervals (1995, 2005 and 2015) were used to estimate the percentage cover of herbaceous (primarily grasses) and woody vegetation of the major land forms (slopes, plains, ephemeral streams). The results of a linear mixed-effects model suggest that herbaceous vegetation decreased significantly from 1995 to 2005 (p < 0.001) and increased significantly from 2005 to 2015 (p < 0.001), whereas woody cover did not change significantly over the study period. Linear regressions of size class and density of individuals for Vachellia erioloba indicate little recruitment over the period 1995–2015, compared with the period before the initial survey in 1995. Precipitation, as well as the density of grazers and browsers, driven by the socioeconomic and cultural changes occurring in Riemvasmaak since 1995, has influenced the change in vegetation cover and the recruitment of V. erioloba.

Keywords: complex adaptive systems, disequilibrium, rangeland condition, Northern Cape