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Understanding communities’ perceptions, demographics and uses of wetlands in Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, South Africa

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Abstract

Wetlands are amongst the world’s most important ecosystems, providing direct and indirect benefits to local communities. However, wetlands worldwide continue to be degraded due to unsustainable use and improper resource management. In this paper, we assess the perceptions, importance, management and utilisation of wetlands among local community members using a household questionnaire and field observations within the seven Thulamela municipality wetlands, Vhembe Biosphere Reserve in South Africa. Seven wetlands were chosen for the study, with 140 household respondents randomly selected for a questionnaire survey. The study indicated that wetlands were beneficial in supporting local communities through resource provisioning. The unemployment rate and household respondents’ income were the main contributors to increased wetland dependency and utilisation. We found that urban and rural developments, unregulated use and extensive agricultural practices (i.e., cultivation, livestock grazing) have resulted in wetland degradation. We observed that the local communities around the wetlands were interested in the benefits they receive from wetlands when compared to their conservation. Furthermore, the study observed poor wetland co-management or collaboration among the local stakeholders. This has resulted in a lack of openly known, active platforms to discuss wetlands management issues. These results highlight that centralized, top–down approaches to wetland use are insufficient for maintaining and managing wetland ecosystems, posing a challenge to sustainable wetland management. Therefore, there is a need to develop a shared understanding through bottom-up approaches to wetland management nested within national regulatory frameworks, ideally combined with awareness building and knowledge sharing on ecological benefits and management of wetlands.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available as they are part of larger study that is currently on-going but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

TD and RC greatly acknowledge the fellowship support received from the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Institute for Advanced Study / Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, respectively.

Funding

We greatly acknowledge the financial support of the University of Venda Research Grant (SES/19/ERM/01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Mpumalanga, Nelspruit, 1200, South Africa

    Mwazvita T. B. Dalu & Tatenda Dalu

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, 0950, South Africa

    Onica Mukhuwana & Florence M. Murungweni

  3. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, 24105, Kiel, Germany

    Ross N. Cuthbert

  4. South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Makhanda, 6140, South Africa

    Ross N. Cuthbert & Tatenda Dalu

  5. Department of Geography, Environmental Sustainability and Resilience Building, Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe

    Thomas Marambanyika

  6. Department of Geography, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    Ashley W. Gunter

  7. Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin—Institute for Advanced Study, 14193, Berlin, Germany

    Tatenda Dalu

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  1. Mwazvita T. B. Dalu
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Contributions

MTBD: Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, supervision, writing—original draft, review and editing; TD: Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, supervision, funding acquisition, writing—original draft, review and editing; OM: Investigation, formal analysis, data curation, methodology, funding acquisition, writing—original draft, review and editing; RNC: Visualisation, methodology, writing—original draft, review & editing; TM: Visualisation, methodology, writing—review and editing; AWG: Visualisation, methodology, writing—review and editing; FMM: Visualisation, methodology, supervision, writing – review and editing.

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Correspondence to Tatenda Dalu.

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The University of Venda Research Ethics Committee provided clearance for the research under ethics number SES/18/ERM/20/0312.

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Dalu, M.T.B., Mukhuwana, O., Cuthbert, R.N. et al. Understanding communities’ perceptions, demographics and uses of wetlands in Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, South Africa. Wetlands Ecol Manage 30, 1231–1244 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-022-09892-2

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