Towards formalized adaptive management in succulent valley bushveld.
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Date
1993
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Abstract
This study was designed to provide the means for implementing formal scientific vegetation management 1n the succulent valley
bushveld of the eastern Cape, South Africa.
Nowhere in the world has a detailed, effective and practical veld
management system being developed entirely from research, and
even the most successful management systems rely heavily on the
intuition of people. A process, formally called 'adaptive
management', combines this intuition with scientific testing and
the overall objective of this study was to provide a framework
for formalized adaptive management in succulent valley bushveld.
On analyzing the process of adaptive management, the following
knowledge 'tools' were identified: (i) a management system for
immediate implementation; (ii) a technique for vegetation
assessment; (iii) a technique for monitoring vegetation change;
(iv) a technique for monitoring forage use and recovery; (v) a
list of key forage species; (vi) a model to set initial stocking
rates; (vii) a method of recording essential information; and
(viii) a database of ecological principles.
Providing these 'tools' became the goals of this study. These
topics covered almost all facets of rangeland science, and the
approach was to address these in a 'top down' manner, rather than
sub-optimize by specializing on anyone component.
Most of the 'tools' were achieved to a greater or lesser extent
and are presented as a series of publications. However, a
central tool, that for monitoring vegetation change, remains
outstanding despite comprehensive testing of a range of
traditional botanical methods. Indeed, critical review revealed
that this 'missing tool' is a problem which is common in all
vegetation communities in South Africa - despite the impression
created by vegetation researchers that adequate techniques are
indeed available. This is serious because land managers are not
able to evaluate the impact of their efforts and the government
is unable to monitor the effectiveness of their research and
extension services, costing millions of public monies annually.
The implication also, is that vegetation cannot be managed
scientifically (management implies monitoring).
Either formal adaptive management is not practicable, or
researchers are operating from an inappropriate paradigm;
specifically that of providing techniques for their research
projects and claiming that these (or derivatives of these) are
adequate for farm or regional scale monitoring.
More generally, research has often become an end in it's self,
with research quality being judged by criteria which are of
little significance to the real world and which damage
efficiency. Perhaps, the real value of vegetation research lies
in the experiential learning which the researcher gains not the
inevitably parochial results.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1993.
Keywords
Grasses--South Africa--Management., Range management--South Africa., Theses--Grassland science.