Jump to information about: Wakkerstroom's       Location The Grassland Unique Plant Life Forests Animals The Impact of Human Activity Threats to the Grassland Water Timber Plantations A Victory What is the Grassland       Biosphere Reserve? Participatory Process Research Spread of the Idea Hear Elna Kotze talk about the "last ditch fight for the survival of the grassland" [Transcript] Source: John McAllister contributed much of the information about the value of, and threats to, grasslands in these background pages

Location
Wakkerstroom, a small town of 6,500, nestles in a high valley at an altitude of 1,760 meters (5,775 feet). Viewed from the surrounding hills, which rise to more than 2,000 meters (6,500 feet), the Wakkerstroom valley looks like a small prairie with a bright green wetland that is populated by many birds.

Wakkerstroom can be reached by driving three hours southeast from Johannesburg on the old Durban road, a distance of 285 kilometers or 177 miles. It is located in southern Mpumalanga province (formerly the southeastern Transvaal province), near the border with northeastern Free State and northern Kwazulu-Natal provinces.

The Grassland
Wakkerstroom lies at the heart of the last great expanse of grassland in South Africa – and in all of Africa for that matter. The grassland is largely a product of the climate in the rolling hills, escarpments, and valleys of the high plateau of southeast South Africa, where the climate is generally cool – the summer growing season is short and winters are dry, with heavy frosts. Rainfall occurs only in the summer, and snow and dry electrical storms in late winter/early spring produce many lightening-induced fires that prevent the spread of shrubs and trees. If the winters were warmer, woody plants would invade and savanna would replace the grassland. If there was more rain, forests would overrun the grassland; with less rain, the grassland would turn to shrub.

The result is an upland (moist montane) grassland that is ancient, and is thought to date back well before the break-up of earth's original land mass (Gondwanaland) into continents and oceans. Until about 3 million years ago, grassland covered about 60 percent of the African continent. At that time, a general warming trend allowed woody plants and trees to invade much of the grassland, converting it to savanna. Today, the grassland biome survives only in South Africa, and accounts for about 16.5 percent of the nation's land area.

Unique Plant Life
Grassland is a very old, complex and slowly-evolved system of diverse plant communities – much older and more complex, in fact, than South Africa's indigenous evergreen forests. Most plant reproduction takes place vegetatively rather than through seed production, particularly among the bulbous plants and climax grasses. An implication is that many grass clumps are genetically identical to grass clumps present in the area as much as 2,000 years ago, making them essentially the same individuals.

Because the grassland biome occurs only in South Africa, there are many unique plants and animals in the Grassland Biosphere Reserve. For example, there are more than 100 unique species in the Mpumalanga grassland, and many are highly threatened. Moist areas of the grassland biome are home to more than 50 percent of plants that are listed as threatened in the former Transvaal province, and 43 percent of such plants in KwaZulu-Natal.

Many Africans use indigenous plants and animals as traditional medicine, and many of these plants and animals are unique to South Africa's grassland. Thus, the surviving regions of upland grassland form an irreplaceable gene pool that could supply a sustainably-based industry producing traditional healing and new pharmaceutical products.

Actually the term grassland is a bit of a misnomer, because only one in six plant species in a grassland community is in fact a grass. The remainder are bulbous plants that include spectacularly beautiful flowers such as arum lilies, orchids, red hot pokers, aloes, watsonias, gladioluses and 54 species of ground orchids. the grassland is home to some 800 species of flowers. In spring and summer, you can see masses of deep blue indigenous agapanthus, plus fields of mauve, yellow and white with patches of delicate blues and pinks.

Forests
Some small pockets of forest developed in the grassland when the climate warmed 3 million years ago. The upper reaches of the Pongolo River valley is home to the largest indigenous evergreen forest in the Grassland Biosphere Reserve because it receives more than 1,200 mm (47 inches) of rain annually, providing more moisture and reducing the incidence of lightening-induced fires. The 600 hectare (2.4 square mile) forest in the Pongolo Bush Nature Reserve contains about 80 tree species.

Altogether, the forests in the Grassland Biosphere Reserve are home to 130 tree species – compared to 29 species for the British Isles and 70-odd for the whole of Europe. These include South Africa's tallest trees (usually yellowwood) and a diversity of other plants, including 21 species of orchid.

Animals
Animals in the forest include vervet and samango monkeys, and bushbuck (a type of antelope). Vast herds of antelope species, such as black wildebeest and blesbok, once roamed the grassland, but they vanished a century ago. Although not extinct, they are represented today by small, spiritless herds that live semi-domesticated in enclosures.

Smaller wild animals now cling to the last remaining remnants of grassland, and their survival depends on the grassland's health. These include smaller antelope, such as grey rhebok (unique to South Africa) and oribi (considered to be threatened in South Africa), the yellow and sticktail mongoose, and the rock hyrax (an animal that looks like a guinea pig, but is said to be a distant relative of the elephant). More rare are predators such as the caracal (also known as desert lynx), blackbacked jackal, cape fox and African wildcat. Wetland creatures include the water mongoose and Cape clawless otter.

Nearly half (15) of the 34 mammals species that are unique to South Africa are found in the grasslands biome. One-third (31) of the 107 South African butterfly species that are threatened with extinction occur in the grassland biome, and half of these species (8) are unique to the grassland biome.

The Impact of Human Activity
Once a grassland is destroyed, be it for timber plantations, strip mining or large-scale crop production, it can never be recreated. Within South Africa, 60 to 80 percent of grassland has been irreversibly transformed – converted to non-native timber plantations, coal and gold mines, urban sprawl, or cropland. All of South Africa's maize crop and much of its wheat is produced in former grassland. Forty-nine percent of the grassland in the former Transvaal province (56,782 square kilometers or 22,713 square miles) was under cultivation in 1987 – and is not capable of being restored. Guateng province, South Africa's economic heartland, lies completely within grassland. It is a heavily urbanized area that includes the city of Johannesburg.

While large portions of grassland in the Wakkerstroom region remain in near-pristine condition because this region has not been considered well-suited for the cultivation of timber or crops, grazing animals have long been a part of the natural ecosystem. For thousands of years, the grassland supported huge herds of game, such as springbuck, blue and black wildebeest, zebra, eland, and buffalo.

For centuries, nomadic herders roamed the grassland, practicing only minor amounts of cultivated agriculture. When white settlers arrived 150 years ago, they began using the grassland to raise livestock. Thus, stock farming is a traditional land use. It is a labor intense industry that has long been the backbone of the South African economy, helping to feed and clothe a hungry and cold nation.

Today, virtually the entire grassland area is used as ranchland – either for sheep or for cattle. This is high-quality stock farming land in a nation where more than half the agricultural land is classified as "marginal." Some 150,000 head of cattle, and 1.5 million sheep graze the grassland. The sheep produce more than 8 million kilograms (8,200 tons) of wool, and South Africa gains substantial foreign exchange from wool exports.

"There is a compatibility of grazing with bio-diversity – providing it is not overgrazing," Kotze said. "It is because this land-use had not changed to tree farming or extensive tillage (maize, wheat) – as in the North American prairies or large areas of this biome to the west – that we have the biodiversity that has been destroyed elsewhere by non-compatible land uses."

Because large tracts of grassland are needed to support livestock, the density of the human population in the grassland has remained low. The typical farmer owns 1,000 - 2,000 hectares (8-12 square miles) of land. This has contributed to the "forgotten" quality of the grassland, which has been a decidedly mixed blessing: on one hand, land-use patterns in much of the grassland have remained unchanged for centuries, allowing ecosystems to survive.

But until recently, the economic life of communities like Wakkerstroom languished, and the inhabitants' hopes for a brighter future faded. A failure to understand and appreciate the immense value of the grassland as a natural resource has opened the door to commercial exploitation that is either threatening, or destroying, the last remaining tracts of grassland.

Threats to the Grassland
Primary threats to the grassland and its inhabitants are replacement of grassland by commercial plantations of non-native tree species, which disrupts the flow of water through the land; destruction of grassland for agricultural or urban land uses; the impact of mining and other toxic industries; and land resettlement schemes that overtax the land's ability to support humans and livestock.

Nearly all of South Africa's power is generated by burning high-sulphur coal. The power stations in the grassland of Mpumalanga (including the southern hemisphere's largest coal-fired power station, the 4000MW Majuba Power Station) collectively release about 1 million tons of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere each year – one of the highest emission rates in the world. They have no controls imposed on the gaseous emissions.

Thus, the grassland absorbs the pollution from the toxic effluent of coal burning power stations, two petrol-from-coal plants, six pulp and paper mills (another eight have been proposed for the grassland area), and a concentration of dirty industries with a high potential for causing major pollution disasters (e.g., steel, gold, chrome, and other metallurgical processing).

Most of South Africa's mineral wealth lies under the surface of the grassland biome. South Africa's major gold and coal deposits are found under 2,000 square kilometers (800 square miles) of the Mpumalanga Highveld, much of which is mined in opencast pits. Lobbying has forced coal mining companies and other industries to adopt policies that help protect nearby pristine grassland.

Water
The upland grassland is a great collector of rain water for South Africa, which is a critical resource for this arid country. Rain comes to the grassland mostly in spectacular summer thunderstorms. The grassland holds the rainwater as ground water, or in marshes (vleis) and seasonal ponds (pans). Water is released slowly throughout the year, including the dry season, through seepage zones. This reduces immediate run-off, and thus erosion.

In this manner, the grassland serves as the headwaters for three of South Africa's major river systems:  the Vaal, the Thukela, and the Usutu-Pongola. Water levels in these rivers affect the entire country, as well as the neighboring states of Swaziland and Mozambique, through which the Usutu flows. Power plants that supply 70 percent of South Africa's power depend on a constant supply of water from reservoirs that are fed by these rivers, and were built for this purpose. Water released from the reservoirs also contributes to the water supply of Gauteng Province, South Africa's economic hub.

Timber Plantations
The largest proportion of South Africa's commercial timber is grown and processed within the grassland biome. These plantations have already consumed vast areas of upland grassland, most in critical mountain watersheds areas, with a resulting loss in species of plants and animals (reduced bio-diversity), reduced land for agriculture, and reduced stream flow of important rivers.

Commercial tree plantations replace the grassland with a monoculture of fast-growing, non-native trees (pine, Australian eucalyptus, bluegum and wattle) that absorb much more water than the native grassland, a process known as afforestation. The tree plantations dry up the priceless natural water reservoirs of the grassland and cause rapid, potentially irreversible soil depletion.

It has been estimated that afforestation of the high altitude grassland would reduce water runoff by 40 percent, purely through rainfall interception. Because trees use groundwater throughout the dry season, runoff would be further reduced by the reduction of dry season flow of rivers by at least 50 percent.

The Vaal, Ngwempisi, Mpama, Usutu, Assegaai, Slang, and Wakkerstroom rivers all have their origins within 100 kilometers of each other in the same region of high ground stretching between Wakkerstroom and Ermelo to the north. Nearly half of the grassland (140,000 hectares or 560 square miles) in the Usutu watershed (which totals 300,000 hectares or 1,200 square miles) was planted with timber by 1989, and a further 102,500 hectares (410 square miles) are scheduled to be planted by 2010. In the former Transvaal province, more than 7,000 square kilometers (2,800 square miles) of grassland were converted to tree plantations in the early 1990s and another 5,000 square kilometers (2,000 square miles) are scheduled for tree planting by 2020.

When commercial tree planations spread in the watersheds of the Usutu, Mpama, and Ngwempisi rivers during a severe drought in the early 1980s, the rivers' dry season flows halted altogether, and they have only flowed seasonally ever since. This has often been attributed directly to the commercial forestry in the affected watersheds.

The unplanted watersheds of the Vaal, Assegaai, Slang, and Wakkerstroom rivers have sustained year-round flows in these rivers, even through the times of drought. They are now the only rivers in the massive government water schemes that can guarantee the year-round water supply that is essential for the generation of 70 percent of South Africa's power requirements, including virtually all of the power requirements of South Africa's economic hub, Guateng province.

Loss of water would mean loss of power generating capacity, which would undercut plans to generate earnings from the export of power to other African countries, and it could lead to lowered domestic industrial production. This in turn could trigger a downward spiral of greater unemployment and social unrest. Finding ways to import water could be very expensive.

Tree plantations also eliminate the possibility of livestock production on grassland. Yet, it has been predicted that "under a favorable scenario," livestock production will have to be increased by 60 percent by the turn of the century.

Kotze sees an irony in the fact that these tree plantations are being created to export pulp wood to Japan and northern European countries, which are taking steps to conserve some of their last remaining forests. "We export more than 60 percent of our wood chippings for pulp – which means that, in fact, we are exporting water, and that does not really make sense," she said.

A Victory
When a commercial pine plantation was proposed for a critical, untouched area of the grassland in Natal, Kotze organized a lobbying effort against approval of the plan. This included exposing the "hidden costs" of commercial forestry. The result was that the permit review panel rejected the application.

This was a great victory that has led to an effort to impose a moratorium on any expansion of commercial forestry plantations that would preempt more ecologically appropriate and democratically legitimate land use alternatives – which might emerge from the land use forums that Kotze is organizing. It also has led to an effort to establish an area, within the boundaries of the Biosphere Reserve, that the timber companies will agree to leave undeveloped.

What is the Grassland Biosphere Reserve?
Because less than two percent of South Africa's precious grasslands are formally conserved, Kotze hopes to save 1,000,050 hectares (4,000 square miles) of the last, and best, remaining grassland as a Grassland Biosphere Reserve.  Biosphere Reserves were established by UNESCO to conserve the diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms that make up our living "biosphere," and to maintain healthy natural systems. At the same time, biosphere reserves must meet the material needs and aspirations of an increasing number of people. So far, 90 countries have established more than 356 biosphere reserves, including one (Kogelberg) in South Africa.

A biosphere reserve integrates human use of natural resources with a core area of more formally protected areas. In the Grassland Biosphere Reserve, protected areas include the Pongola Bush Reserve, Ncandu Forest Reserve, and Zeekoeivlei Nature Reserve. Surrounding the core areas are a buffer zone of privately-owned farm land in which 20,000 hectares (80 square miles) of Natural Heritage Sites have been registered in and around Wakkerstroom; reclamation zones where degraded landscapes or farmland have been restored; and villages that serve as "stable cultural zones."

Participatory Process
Kotze envisions the Grassland Biosphere Reserve as the first biosphere reserve to be created through a bottom-up participatory process. It will serve as a model of proactive rural land use planning and integrated land use management that can be applied anywhere. Critical to the success of a biosphere reserve, in Kotze's view, is a democratic consultation process that ensures that all of the inhabitants and affected players (including government agencies) are committed to the safeguarding and wise use of the biosphere's resources.

The Grassland Biosphere Reserve is managed by creating smaller areas that are defined by watershed boundaries. Watersheds (or "catchment" areas) provide the only logical, consistent and scientific way to organize a biosphere into geographical units for sustainable land-use planning. They are are organized around ecological systems, rather than existing human systems, and can cut across the existing administrative boundaries, such as province boundaries, providing an original basis from which to democratize local and regional government.

The land use forums (see next briefing section) are the key mechanism for local participation in the land use planning and management process. Each area has its own land forum to allow for local participation and consultation.

Kotze has formed an umbrella organization called the Grasslands Require Active Support to Survive (GRASS) to involve key players from various government agencies and departments, as well as non-profit organizations such as conservation, youth and land service groups. Meetings of GRASS have culminated in the formation of the Ekangala Grassland Trust, which is committed to an even more intense campaign and program for the formalization of the Grassland Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO.

GRASS is a model of government coalition building. "The fact that the 1-million hectare Biosphere Initiative has been so thoroughly accepted by all departments, agencies and provinces – and that the Ekangala Grassland Trust is in process of being launched directly as a result of decisions made at the plenary meetings of GRASS – says it all," Kotze said.

Research
GRASS will also engage in research needed to pursue wide land management, and provide the results to land-users. "Now, the challenge is to find the answers for all the 'how to's' that the farmers and the land-users asks us," Kotze said. "For example, 'How should I manage this field where we found the yellow breasted pipits in order that they will be safe?' Answer: we do not know!"

To help solve this problem, Kotze is working to establish a "research ranch" where "we must endeavor to lead by example in appropriate land-use, but also find the answers for the now-enthused land-users." Kotze hopes to acquire a large ranch to serve as the Research Reserve – along the lines of The Nature Conservancy's Research Ranch in New Mexico.

Spread of the Idea
The spread of the biosphere concept is the ultimate proof of its success. "The town of Memel, which is in the northeastern Free State province, and is part of the Grassland Biosphere Reserve, has emulated Wakkerstroom to the point of being a clone – as has the town of Chrissiesmeer, to the northeast of us and just outside our target area," Kotze said. "They have now insisted on inclusion – which is great! The biosphere borders were always meant to indicate focus and not to be cast in concrete – 'soft' is how we refer to it. Both of these towns are also situated alongside magnificent wetlands and are surrounded by grasslands.

"To the south of us, Utrecht town has also applied our model, although they are situated in middleveldt savanna-type landscape. Finally, I was asked to speak at a summit meeting in Secunda a few weeks ago, and they see the model working for them, even though they are an extremely industrial town – the seat of the SASOL petrol-from-coal plant!"

National Water and Forestry Affairs Minister, Kader Asmal, has showed considerable interest in Elna's work, and has watched it closely for possible replication throughout rural South Africa. "Integrated catchment management and civil society-government partnerships are both very popular politically," Kotze said. "But when one begins to look for actual experiences, let alone useful demonstrations, there are none to be seen. If we can demonstrate success here in this region, there will be no shortage of national government and even international support to extend the model."