FOCUS
Natural resources andenergy
Special
Agriculture,miningand
wetlands interaction
W
orldwide, food andwater security has become a grow-
ing concern and population dynamics a reality. 2014 is
theUN International Year of Family Farming – therefore
the Ramsar Convention chose
Wetlands & Agriculture
as theWorldWetlands Day theme for 2014, focussing on the past,
present and future importance of wetlands as a critical agricultural
natural resource. The important role that wetlands play in food and
water security can thus not be ignored.
In South Africa, many communities rely on wetland environments
for their livelihood: Providing fibre, protein,water andanagricultural
resource (cultivation and grazing). This reliance on wetlands is ex-
pected to increase rather thandecrease inboth rural areasand those
adjacent to impoverishedurban communities.
It has been reported that the agricultural sector has been responsi-
ble for the destruction of wetland systems by draining, cultivation
andovergrazing, oftenwithout applying anywiseprinciples of use.
Another significant player within this scenario is the mining indus-
try with its increasing impact on both high potential agricultural
land and wetlands. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
(DWAF, 2005) reported that in some catchments over 50% of the
wetlands have been destroyed as the result of drainage of wetlands
for crops and pastures, poorly managed burning and grazing and
subsequent donga erosion, planting of alien trees inwetlands, min-
ing andurbandevelopment.
The
National BiodiversityAssessment 2011Report
(Driver
et al
., 2012)
stated that 65%ofwetlandecosystem types inSouthAfricaare threat-
ened, including 48% that are critically endangered, makingwetlands
themost threatenedof all of SouthAfrica’secosystems.
Agriculture and mining are regularly accused as culprits responsi-
ble forwetlanddegradation and loss. Against thebackgroundof the
above and other reports, it seems evident that South Africa needs
to not only determine and substantiate the nature and extent of ag-
ricultural impacts onwetlands and on howwetlands sustain related
agriculture, but also to quantify these effects from a geographical
and resourcepoint of view.
Such evidence-basedquantification andqualification should enable
the much needed determination of expected agriculture and wet-
lands interactions in futureand interventions toensurebalancedand
sustainablepractices.
Furthermore, the expected long-term impact of mining on agricul-
ture needs to be defined. Wetlands are often hailed as one of the
ALTHEAGRUNDLING,
ARC-Institute for Soil, Climate andWater, Pretoria, SouthAfrica,
PIET-LOUISGRUNDLING
, Centre for Environmental
Management, University of the Free State
Agricultural land adjacent to apan and amine in thebackground.
Photo: Anton Linström,Wet-EarthEco-Specs
November 2014
40
