Using geographical information systems for mapping commercial farmers' perceptions on land reform in Mpumalanga, RSA

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Traditional top-down decision-making models have become unpopular since publicinstitutions have been demanding more democracy at local level. New approaches andtechniques have focused on how the majority of people can be involved in a bottom-upapproach to development and decision making. Techniques, such as Participatory RuralAppraisals (PRAs), have identified people's concerns regarding the use of naturalresources centred on land issues. Land is essentially a subject of public concern. Land asa spatial phenomenon controlled politically and used by all for survival and other purposesneeds to be assessed in an integrated and time-spatial way for better planning anddecision making.Geographical Information Systems (GISs) have often been used by statutory experts inevaluating, analysing and mapping of land and land-related features. GISs have a lot ofpotential in being applied as decision-making tools. If this is the case, how can publicperceptions and politics be presented and mapped in a GIS to improve and democratisedecision making even further? The study has investigated new methods of representingpeople's perspectives at grassroots level in a non-traditional way.A sub-region of the Lowveld, situated in the Mpumalanga province, has been selectedbecause of the various kinds of land owners in the region. The Kruger National Park lies tothe east of the study area, from where some black communities claim to have beenremoved. To the west of that is one of the districts of the former homeland KaNgwane,namely Nsikazi, and west of that two areas of intensive large-scale commercial fruit andvegetable production in the Nelspruit-White River and Kiepersol-Hazyview areas. Towardsthe escarpment north-west of these lie large commercial exotic forest plantations, ownedmainly by Safcol and MandL Given the high demand and need for land from the overpopulatedNsikazi district, the process of land reform is a matter of great concern.White male commercial farmers in both regions where commercial farming is active wereinterviewed about their knowledge and perceptions of land reform. Various themes werepresented to the farmers to comment on, namely the history of forced removals, land use,land potential, hydrology and where land reform should take place. Interviews were tapedin Afrikaans, transcribed and translated to English. Mental maps were drawn on tracing paper overlaid on topographical maps of the Land Surveyor General, Mowbray. Thesewere digitised and managed in Arclnfo, and displayed and analysed in ArcView, fromwhere output maps were produced.The results of this technique proved to be very useful and can certainly broaden the use ofGISs in decision making and public participation. However, GISs alone cannot be seen asthe solution to better development and better decision-making. Public participation is of theutmost value in facilitating and initiating these processes. Land use planning needs to bethe responsibility and concern of all land users and owners at a local level, where GISscan be applied as a tool to provide easier and more effective analysis and results for theimplementation of initiatives.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University