measures to rectifypoorwater qualitydischarge frommines. Herein
might ariseanopportunity to further bothagricultural resourcesand
wetland conservation.
Much needed interaction and awareness
on key issues
Wetlands and the functions of wetlands go beyond agriculture and
mining to include a range of other ecological functions and socio-
economic benefits. A balance is therefore needed between the sup-
porting, regulatingandcultural servicesofwetlandson theonehand
and its provisional serviceswhich include the provision of food, wa-
ter, fibre,medicineand fuel on theotherhand. Establishingandmain-
taining this balance was the driving force behind the Agriculture,
Mining andWetlands InteractionWorkshop thatwas recentlyheld.
The Water Research Commission in partnership with the ARC-
Institute for Soil, Climate andWater and the South AfricanWetland
Society hosted the Agriculture, Mining and Wetlands Interaction
Workshopduring theNationalWetlands Indaba, 2014. Themain aim
of theworkshopwas to recommend short-, medium- and long-term
researchneeds (Grundling, 2014).
Guest speakers introduced the discussion topics to address the
workshopobjectives:
Wetlandmanagement legislation successes and challenges.
To define the nature and quantify the current and likely future
impacts of agricultureonwetland services.
To define the nature and quantify the current and likely future
impact ofminingon agriculture andwetlands.
To assess the development potential of wetland products
through innovative applications, e.g. fibre products, medicinal
applications and filtration/purification.
Discussion points
Dr Wietsche Roets, from the Department of Water and Sanitation,
addressed the participants on wetland policy, legislation and man-
agement and said that the Department of Water and Sanitation’s
primary mandate is to manage, use, develop, protect, control and
conserve South Africa’s water resources. Any activity that can po-
tentially impact on these valuable and sensitive water resources
must be properly regulated through the specified processes in the
NationalWater Act.
Mr John Dini (South African National Biodiversity Institute, Eco-
logical Infrastructure) highlighted the fact that wetland destruction
is inevitable, as trade-offs continue to be made for the sake of de-
velopment. Offsets provide a mechanism for compensating for the
unavoidable residual lossofwetlands and the services theyprovide,
once all options for avoiding and minimising impacts have been
exhausted. TheDepartment ofWater andSanitation is in theprocess
of compiling a position paper onwetlands, a guideline on activities
affecting wetlands, amending the wetland delineation guidelines
and adopting thewetlandbuffer andwetlandoffset guidelines.
The latter provides methods andmetrics for designing offsets that
compensate adequately for impacts onwetlands as ecological infra-
structure, biodiversity assets and providers of ecosystem services.
Dini said that the intention is to adopt the offset guidelinewithin the
Department of Water and Sanitation to ensure that wetland offsets
are applied in a consistent, predictable and acceptablemanner.
Mr Francis Steyn (Western Cape Department of Agriculture Sus-
tainable Resource Management: LandCare) reiterated the value of
a healthy ecosystem using the Berg River Project case study. The
project’s aim was to restore the important Berg River system and
reduce flood risks.
This river supplies a major portion of the water for domestic pur-
poses in theCapeMetro, 22 500 ha of irrigation for high value crops
on 600 farm units along the Berg River system and a gross farm
gate value of R911 million of which R642 million was from exports
(2005 figures).
The agricultural activities provided 14 100 permanent and 16 500
temporary jobs during 2005. Presently this natural resource is in a
degraded stateandposes amajor threat tohumanhealth (water and
flooding) and a decline in the economy (loss of jobs and land be-
causeof flooding).
Dr Johan vanderWaals (TerraSoil Science) took a closer look at the
impact of mining on agriculture andwetlands. There are two differ-
ent forms of mining, namely opencast coal mining and sand min-
ing. Bothhave significant impacts onboth agriculture andwetlands.
Van der Waals’ presentation gave a good perspective on the above
conflictsbyclarifyinghydropedologyprocessesdominant inplinthic
catena found inmining environments.
The plinthic horizon is often an indication of a fluctuating water ta-
ble, critical toboth agriculture andwetlands. For example, a plinthic
horizon can act as a “reservoir” of water for crops during short and
intense dry spells during the growing season. However, during high
rainfall years the cropsmay drown. If thewater table is close to the
surface, it complies with the definition of a wetland according to
SouthAfrica’sNationalWater Act (Act 36of 1998).
Dr Jan Sliva (Technische Universität München) gave a talk on “wet-
land agriculture”, the production of organic construction and insu-
lationmaterial from
Typha
(bullrush, cattail) biomass on communal
rehabilitated and re-wettedwetlands.
Interactionbetween agriculture,mining andwetlands inMpumalanga and the ripple effect of destructive land-use.
Photo: JohanEksteen,Mpumalanga
Tourism andParksAgency
41
November 2014
