Transcript Amanda Bourne_VA Overview Part 3

Socio-Economic Profile
• Poverty is a key indicator – poverty leaves people more
vulnerable to change and less able to recover from its impacts
- Low levels of education
- very high and growing unemployment
- high levels of income inequality
- declining productivity in mining
- declining productivity in agriculture as a result of land
degradation and over-grazing; and climate and cost related
competitiveness
- pervasive rural poverty and isolation
- lack of access to reliable services and infrastructure in some
areas
- high dependence on government grants for income
- very water scarce and affected by droughts and floods
• Town infrastructure and main road networks are generally good
• Vulnerable population overall
• An increase in aridity due to climate change could exacerbate
unemployment, water scarcity, and productivity problems
NAMAKWA DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY: HAZARD IDENTIFICATION USING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
Local Municipality
Hazard
Drought
Flood
Wind Storm
Cyclone
Veld Fire
Snow
Storm Water
Soil Erosion
Rising sea level
Rising ocean temperature
Telecommunication
Road Infrastructure
Water Availability
Sanitation
Health Services
Poverty
Mine activities
Karoo
Hoogland
Hantam
Kamiesberg
Nama Khoi
Richtersveld
KhaiMa
Environmental Profile
• The Succulent Karoo is a biodiversity hotspot (high endemism,
high transformation)
Environmental Profile continued…
• Pressures on land include
- Mining
- Agricultural expansion e.g. cropping in wetlands
- over-abstraction of limited water resources
- natural aridity and water scarcity
- invasion of alien plant species
• Land-use is defined by extensive grazing of small stock (95%) –
this is a practice theoretically compatible with biodiversity
conservation, EbA, and the maintenance of ecosystem services
• New mining developments and mine closure/transfer
arrangements without careful restoration present a serious threat
to the natural environment
• Succulent Karoo veld grows slowly and so takes a long time to
recover from disturbance
Near
Kamieskroon;
1967
Hoffman and
Rohde 2007
2003
Conclusion
• Climate change is a risk multiplier; impact on institutions,
populations, and the environment
• Vulnerability is linked with social and economic development
• Many people in the NDM are dependent on farm income for
their livelihoods – these are directly dependent on natural
resources
• Tourism is a growth sector and also depends on a healthy
environment
• The natural environment is already challenging – hot, arid,
water scarce, subject to extreme weather events – and
challenged – highly transformed and slow to recover
• Adaptation cannot be practiced in silos – healthy and resilient
institutions, people, and ecosystems are equally needed for
effective climate change response
• Resilient communities depend on diverse livelihoods options,
grounded in healthy, bio-diverse ecosystems
Thank you.
Questions?