1. INTRODUCTION

2. POLICY CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

3. OVERALL GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

4. OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES

5. THE GOVERNMENT'S LANDCARE PROGRAMME

For each province, the major concerns for sustainable resource use will be identified and specific projects will be developed to address these needs.

The National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture will coordinate the programme in collaboration with regional and local LandCare groups

• establishment and provision of conservation schemes as spelled out in Article 8 and 11 schemes under Act No. 43 of 1983
• Technology centres (Agricultural Research Council, universities, non-governmental organisations)

• Supporting the maintenance of conservation works
• Identifying badly eroded areas for rehabilitation
• Curtailing of bush encroachment
• Alien plant control
• Flood-plain management
• Unlocking the potential of indigenous plants
• Reclamation/rehabilitation
• Integrated land-use projects

Altogether 60 % of the overall budget for the programme on the assumption that additional funding is made available for LandCare.

The purpose of this programme element is to provide education and to support community participation in resource conservation and management of LandCare activities.

Education and assistance are crucial in achieving effective community structures and participation in the whole LandCare Programme.

The responsibility for undertaking community motivation and education, and achieving effective community participation is vested in extension workers, resource conservation officers/inspectors and NGOs in the field.

The field staff will become involved in major works for resource conservation and poverty-relief public works at the earliest stage of project development in collaboration with LandCare coordinators. The government officers will also work with NGOs to provide this component of their projects when necessary. Supportive education materials on Resource Conservation have to be designed and produced with the assistance of all stakeholders for use in communities.

The community-training programme will aim at implementing the following:

• Empower local people to make their own decisions.
• Ensure that the principles of conservation, sustainable resource use and maintenance of biodiversity are effectively incorporated into their farming systems.
• Promote through participation, sustainable natural-resource management by farmers.
• Strengthen and/or develop local institutions that foster effective, democratic, and sustainable control of resource users’ interactions between the environment and the adopted farming systems.
• Encourage natural-resource monitoring at grass roots.
• Empower LandCare coordinators and groups on proper procedure for equitable distribution of LandCare job-creation projects and their management.
• Develop entrepreneurial skills at grass roots.
• Monitoring and evaluation of their own success i.e. setting up LandCare initiatives for success.

In addition, this programme element seeks to consult with provincial Departments of Agriculture, the National Department of Agriculture to promote a comprehensive restructuring of extension services and extension training facilities in order to integrate primary-level conservation and production-advisory services.

The Directorate Agricultural Resource Conservation of the National Department of Agriculture will coordinate resource conservation education activities. The farmer support services will be responsible primarily for providing resource-conservation education and helping communities organise their participation. Where available and appropriate, NGOs and Community Based Organisations working with the province/local government will assist with community organisation and participation. Resource-conservation education materials will be produced by the Directorate Agricultural Resource Conservation in collaboration with other stakeholders.

• Soil-conservation committees
• Community-based organisation
• Land-tenure reform (Land Development Objectives)
• Water, forestry, range initiatives

• Extension training (training of trainers)
• Training of community leaders
• Researchers
• Forming LandCare and other natural-resources management groups
• Facilitate a locally led conservation approach, on a watershed basis, where people work together for effective land stewardship
• Provide training and support for Conservation District supervisor
• Facilitate interaction at the national, provincial and local level to clarify roles and responsibilities of partnership

Funding is required for the production of the education modules and the cost is expected to be 20 % of the budget allocation. Interdepartmental and provincial coordination is critical for optimum usage of resources.

The purpose of the awareness programme is to promote understanding of factors which can lead to unsustainable use of resources in agriculture and of policies and institutions which can address this.

The National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture. in collaboration with the Department of Education and Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), will coordinate this programme.

5.3.2 Current initiatives

• Awareness programme of the National Action Plan of the Convention to Combat Desertification
• National and Provincial initiatives, e.g. Xoshindlala, the sustainable use of natural resources program of Kwazulu-Natal
• DEAT initiative

• Development of voluntary/independent LandCare South Africa movement
• Raise public awareness of the status of resource-conservation management in South Africa
• Inform the public on current and planned programmes by Government with regard to agricultural resource management in South Africa
• Create awareness of LandCare
• Inform schools of LandCare
• Inform communities about LandCare
• Inform the public and decision makers of the impacts of long-term natural-resource use with and without protection from degradation
• Communicate the importance of pertinent resource issues to local and national customers
• Establish an effective communication network at all levels

10 % of overall budget for the programme on the assumption that additional funding is made available

5.4 Policy and legislation

This programme will be geared towards the formulation of policy and legislation dealing with incentives and disincentives on natural-resource management.

The National Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Department of Land Affairs will implement this component.

• New agricultural policy
• Environmental Bill
• Water Bill
• Land Tenure Draft Bill
• Development Facilitation Act

• Review of Act No. 43 of 1983 (Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act, Act No. 43 of 1983)
• Comparative review of international and national experience of incentives and disincentives of sustainable use of resources (fiscal and financial incentives)

5 % of overall budget for the programme on the assumption that additional funding is made available

The new research priority will be to develop and extend relatively simple, low-cost responses to natural-resource degradation and basic rural needs.

It is also the purpose of this programme element to establish and implement, on a continuing basis, a monitoring/evaluation system to monitor progress, assess emerging and changing needs, and to provide basis for planning and research. The programme will incorporate assessment of the economic costs and benefits of resource-conservation measures.

National and Provincial Departments of Agricultural, in partnership with research institutions (universities, NGOs)

• Inventory of innovative and effective soil and water conservation initiatives that are of significance today, by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
• Study by the National Botanical Institute for the National Action Program of Convention to Combat Desertification
• Directorate Agricultural Resource Conservation commissioned research

• Utilise the research institutes, centres, and consortium to develop and transmit the latest natural-resource technology through partnerships
• Develop new technologies and methods of delivering soil and other resource information to meet customer needs, e.g. Geographical Information System
• Conduct ongoing and regular programme assessment to evaluate programme participation and carry out needed actions
• Conduct Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) and resource assessment, and relate them to infrastructure needs and benefits
• Conduct conservation needs and resource assessments at local, provincial and regional levels
• Develop outcome measures, models, and data-collection procedures that emphasise the scenarios and benefits of natural resource infrastructure investment
• Develop procedures to calculate and display the offsite and onsite benefits of conservation to highlight public benefits from investments
• Develop priority areas at the local, provincial and regional level, for all conservation programmes

10 % of overall budget for the programme on the assumption that additional funding is made available

The organisational structure is designed to foster national and provincial ownership of the government LandCare Programme and to ensure integration of its activities into priority ongoing national agricultural development programmes. The structure inter-links national and provincial departments of agriculture, NGOs and civil society, as indicated in Figure 1.

* DEAT (Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism)
** DWAF (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry)
*** Represented at the statutory committee of all Director-Generals through the Committee for Environmental Coordination

DEAT is responsible for coordinating the implementation of international conventions, including the Convention to Combat Desertification. LandCare will have strong linkages with Integrated Catchment Management proposed in the new Water Bill.

The MINMEC is the forum for the National Minister for Agriculture together with the MECs for Agriculture and it is the political governing body for the LandCare Programme.

ITCA is the technical and administrative arm of the MINMEC, and the Director-General is the principal executing officer of the programme.

Composition
• Director-General
• Deputy Director-General
• Provincial Heads of Departments
• Chief Directors

• Review and approve work plans
• Assess overall progress of the programme
• Establish mechanism for interprovincial exchange of expertise
• Coordinate of budgetary allocation for the LandCare Programme
• Recommend and review national policy, priorities and strategies for LandCare
• Account for budgetary and other resources
• Establish and maintain linkages with other relevant projects and programmes
• Foster policy and institutional linkages and adjustments for the institutionalisation of the systems and participatory approach.

The PLAFs are the provincial governance bodies of the programme and are expected to provide a basis for LandCare South Africa in due course.

Composition
• Provincial LandCare coordinator
• Representative of NGOs
• Representative of Civil Society
• Representative of community-based organisation

Supports the Interprovincial LandCare Working Group in carrying out its responsibilities and functions.

The following sequence is proposed:

5.1.1 Creating understanding of the need for LandCare

Awareness, building vision, coordination and support for LandCare will bring coherence to planned actions and sustain the programme. Foster a sustainable programme for working arrangements between the communities and the implementing organisations (in this case they will initially be Provincial Departments of Agriculture). Liaison lines need to be secured.

5.1.2 Provincial and national institutional support

Provincial and national institutional capacity to manage the LandCare Programme needs to be developed. It is important that managerial capability within the Provincial Departments of Agriculture is enhanced.

5.1.3 Participatory planning and developing of LandCare groups

Participatory planning that includes formation/enhancement of LandCare groups to the common concern of the group and their opinion could be identified. This is necessary so that there is agreement on the vision of LandCare, the bounds of the catchment/LandCare group and also to gain local commitment for future land management.

5.1.4 Developing land use-plans

Within the groups of organisations the community can establish community-based land-use plans so that the extent of land degradation, land management and resource-use constraints and LandCare needs can be assessed.

5.1.5 On-ground physical works (also to include the jobs outlined above)

Constructed land rehabilitation on-ground physical works and established land-management entrepreneurial and supporting projects. Promotions of value-adding physical on-ground works that will further demonstrate the benefits of LandCare, land management and sustainable resource utilisation.

5.1.6 Neighbourhood watches

Establish community agricultural/natural resource neighbourhood watch with the aim to guard land from sliding back to an undesired state. An awareness programme that includes the compiling of "state of the area" reports that prompt intervention by modifying land- management practices, will form an integral part of the neighbourhood watch.

5.1.7 Information dissemination

Develop community-based LandCare information system. The system will be designed to support both existing and future activities of a specific community. The information system will also serve as a decision support system for the Provincial Department of Agriculture and agriculture extensionists.

The capacity building of local communities is an integral part of all LandCare projects and will take place for the full decade of LandCare and beyond. The aim is to develop an ethic of LandCare by means of the following plan:

• Developing supporting resource-conservation education materials and modules, which will be designed and produced in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. These modules and materials will also be enriched by the products from the "building from below" processes that will be developed by the Institute of Natural Resources. It is envisaged that training products will be fine-tuned by a review process with other departments and NGOs.
• Field staff will be oriented with the "building from below" processes of LandCare.
• The staff will use the procedures and principles of this process to support the major works for resource conservation, the poverty-relief public works in collaboration with other LandCare coordinators.
• Further motivation for community participation will be achieved through media support. The products of the education programme as well as the education material will be made available through the public media.

Activities in preparation for the capacity building of support staff will be initiated with the Directorates concerned. Preparation activities include consultation between directorates, funding institutional arrangement, preparation of training modules and identification of trainees. The Directorate Programme Planning in collaboration with the inspectors will act as a mechanism to deliver the message. Training will continue throughout the decade of LandCare and beyond, in the nine provinces. The aim is to orient field staff with the "building from below" processes of LandCare by means of the following plan:

• Building a collegial ethos of extension service in support of a sustainable agricultural production system. The extension services should form a programme, which has its focus on sustainable agriculture and rural development, necessitating structural transformation in order to enhance production, to improve food security and reduce poverty. This process should be conceived as a comprehensive development approach where the criteria of efficiency, equity and sustainability are carefully integrated within a coherent and operational framework.
• Promoting the extension and advisory functions of agricultural service, industries, NGOs, CBOs and—above all—of farmers in support of other farmers.
• Revising extension-training curricula to reflect current policy on support to sustainable resource use and gender sensitivity in extension service i.e. provision of refresher and training courses for extension workers who are already in service.

In addition, LandCare coordinators and implementing agents will need training in skills of financial management, business principles and project management. Sustainable land and management farming systems will require retraining of the agricultural support services. These could be skills such as grazing management, erosion control systems, forage management and other entrepreneurial skills. Specific technology required for effective resource management will be researched and assembled, as well as a procedure for transferring the technology to all the farmers and other land users involved.

The following procedures will be undertaken as simple and effective ways of monitoring area/catchment health.

Baseline studies will be carried out at the beginning of the programme for each of the aspects below. All surveys will incorporate community-defined indicators (indigenous-knowledge indicators) for catchment degradation and subsequently improvement.

It is proposed that the recently modified universal soil equation in which GIS-based digital terrain models are employed to estimate the mean annual sediment yields from each subcatchment, will be used. (This will give an estimation of these sediment yields before and after implementation of LandCare.) This will demonstrate very simply and convincingly the impact the LandCare initiative is having in reducing sediment yields as a result of improved land cover. Other methods that will be used in collaboration include approaches such as estimated phosphorus and E. coli-pollution levels.

The water quality in the catchment will also be monitored through direct water-quality measurements of water sources by schools and the community. Particularly high school pupils will be involved. They will collect water samples at strategic points within the catchment and the turbidity tests will be conducted to assess sediment loads.

The increase in land cover means that the soil surface will be protected from the erosive impact of raindrops. The erosive capacity of runoff is also reduced as most of the sediment will settle within the vegetation, thereby reducing the sediment yield from the catchment into the river system of the catchment. A significant reduction in sediment yields will translate into a longer life span of the wetland as the siltation rate will be reduced proportionately. The number of wetlands was reduced significantly as a result of silting up by sediments from the catchment. Wetlands are biodiversity hotspots (inhabited by a large number of species) and need to be conserved. The siltation rates of wetlands in the catchment will be monitored before and after plant cover of the catchment has been removed. Over time an increase in the number of wetland areas will be documented.

• Monitoring water quality

This will include a stream habitat survey and benthic macroinvertebrate surveys. Invertebrates are useful indicators of the ecological status of an area because of their ubiquity, abundance, rapid life cycles and importance in food chains. In rivers, their presence reflects conditions upstream. As water quality improves (reduction in sediment yields, phosphorus pollution, etc) with the implementation of LandCare in the catchment species composition and abundance of benthic invertebrates will change, reflecting the improvement in water quality. The study hence proposes to monitor these changes.

Monitoring of species diversity both on land and water. An initial assessment will be done to determine the indigenous species richness. Monitoring will be done on the presence and/or increase of indicator indigenous plant and animal species.

The quality of life of the people directly affected by the programme should be improved. It should also be possible to document the improvement of life of all communities in the vicinity of the programme, e.g. within a 20-km radius. Indicators for each of the aspects would have to be developed in conjunction with the communities concerned. Socio-economic monitoring will be carried out as follows:

Livelihoods
Baseline information will be established. An assessment of the current situation regarding dependency on the natural resource base for survival; the current employment and sources of income, the current patterns of land use that contribute directly to the people’s livelihoods.

Access to the project
Areas or communities where the poorest households are, should be included in the plan. The community should identify poor households by using their own identified indicators to indicate poverty.

Gender enhancement
Assess to what extent do the wider or immediate objectives meet women’s practical or strategic needs, e.g. improving their income through training or allowing them to take part in decision making about the projects, e.g. local committee membership; participation in elections for the project committee, setting payment of women at the same rate as that of men.

Improvement in incomes
Establish baseline information on the types of enterprises and incomes derived. Also baseline information on the purchases made in a specific period and compare them with a similar period in the course of the project.