The Rangeland Toolkit is aimed at supporting communal land users, and the conservation agents and roleplayers working with them, to put the Meat Naturally and Rangeland Restoration concepts into practice. The toolkit outlines a framework for rangeland stewardship based on the collective experience of best practice by partners in the Matatiele area. It is founded on rebuilding traditional knowledge and communal rangeland governance systems.
If stewardship in the Oxford dictionary is defined as ‘taking care of something valuable’ then this approach qualifies: its dual objectives are to restore ecological function and contribute to social well being, through good governance and sustainable land management in communal landscapes. It is not formal provincially-endorsed stewardship under NEMPAA, but is founded on good resource management where livelihoods and landscapes both benefit. It has a strong grass-fed red-meat marketing angle, as a sustainable income source for product off well-managed functional grasslands under just governance systems.
The approach is based on reviving traditional methods. The toolkit document provides a conceptual framework: annex 1 details the relevant social and technical components, and annex 2 unpacks these components with an electronic compendium of references, tools, methodologies and further reading.
ANNEX 1 MATRIX OF TOOLKIT COMPONENTS
ANNEX 2 COMPENDIUM OF TOOLS AND REFERENCES
Feedback and inputs are greatly appreciated
Umzimvubu 