Ecosystems provide a range of essential services which underpin human well-being (e.g. provision of basic needs, physical health, food and nutrition security, mental health, and peaceful social relations). However, human societies have substantially influenced the pace, scale and nature of global environmental change in ways which could compromise ecosystem health and the biosphere's future capacity to provide for human needs and security. Moreover as climate variability is becoming more severe, the livelihoods of the poor may increasingly become insecure and reliance on ecosystem services may in turn increase. The need to explore alternative strategies for adaptation and understanding constraints facing the poor that may hamper their ability to adapt is therefore imperative.
The implications for the rural poor are particularly serious, as they are most dependent on proximate ecosystem services and, therefore, most vulnerable to localized environmental degradation. This is critically important in rural South Africa, which is typified by the interlinked phenomena of high human densities due to the historic settlement patterns imposed by Apartheid, high levels of poverty, substantial food insecurity, high levels of dependence on natural resources for rural livelihoods, climatic variability and environmental degradation. These phenomena characterize much of the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Set against this backdrop, the study will explore the complex interactions between resource use/degradation, climate variability (and environmental change in general) and sustainable livelihoods of the rural poor in North Eastern South Africa. We will specifically investigate the constraints to adaptation (whether it be in the form of crop substitution, technology uptake) to climate variability and to what extent reliance on natural resources to sustain livelihoods are exacerbated by climate variability. The role of social capital within communities and access to credit and insurance facilities in facilitating adaptation will further be researched. The longitudinal nature of the data we have access to will enable us to study dynamic changes and the effects on communities.
