Connecting the dots….

By Marie-Tinka Uys

Sound management of South Africa’s natural resources is central to achieving our national development goals and is vital to meeting international obligations. Effective extension services hold the promise of enabling land users to thrive in times of climatic and economic uncertainty whilst conserving the natural resource based for the benefit of future generations. Extension is a relevant and vital tool for advancing sustainability in agriculture (both intensive and extensive), natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, wildlife economy, land reform and rural development, forestry, fisheries and water sectors, under communal, public and private land ownership contexts. 

The need for enhancing extension capacity to support resource management in the country was identified by a multi-sectoral group at a national Natural Resource Management Knowledge Symposium held in September 2019. The K2C has been invited to help take this process forward by contributing our insights during an innovative workshop that was held in Kirstenbosh on 2 & 3 March 2020.

This knowledge sharing event, attended by 107 participants from different sectors, was sponsored by the SA-EU Dialogue Facility, as part of a project to develop national and international policy dialogue platforms on natural resource management focal areas. 

Key Take-aways for the K2C include:

1.     The environment sector requires dedicated outreach to pursue multiple objectives. These include promoting improved protection and management of priority ecosystems and ecological infrastructure; growing and auditing new livelihoods from the biodiversity economy1; and extending the reach and effectiveness of ecological rehabilitation. Sometimes the required support is technical (such as how to access benefits from programmes or fiscal incentives for doing the right thing), but often it is more motivational and regulatory (such as audit performance of required undertakings or rehabilitation outcomes). There is an interesting dynamic between extension focussed mainly on protection, with that on rehabilitation, and that on resource management and livelihood maintenance. The emphasis on each of these three outreach facets depends on the socio-ecological system and the broader public good being promoted (e.g. the protection of strategic water resource areas).

2.     Achieving high-level integration is difficult, but imperative. It is sometimes glibly conceptualised as if the lower levels of organisation will automatically make this happen. This frequently fails at mid- or lower management levels due to the deeply embedded historic culture of mandate protection. This is further exacerbated by state and non-state performance management systems that frequently do not recognise and reward collaboration or excellence. When individuals are assessed, and their career pathways are determined by how effectively they fulfil narrowly defined key performance indicators, this can create active disincentives for collaborative work, with the result that silos are reinforced. Systemic change can be significantly advanced through reorientation of human resource management systems to actively value and recognise new collaborative work skills.