Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST)

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This department was formerly known as Centre for Complex Systems in Transition

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Browsing Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) by Subject "Biotic communities -- Health aspects"

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    Tropical forest fragmentation : a global review and African insights
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12) Timms, Millie; Clements, Hayley; Biggs, Oonsie; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Centre for Sustainability Transition.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: As biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation continue to intensify, addressing the challenges created by humans' impact on nature is the zeitgeist, at the forefront of global political conferences and popular culture. One of the most concerning impacts is the fragmentation, and subsequent degradation and habitat loss, of tropical forests; the breaking up of large continuous forest into a mosaic of patches separated by human-modified land. This has been driven by activities including agriculture, logging, and urbanisation, and is having major impacts on biodiversity and people. Tropical forests host an extraordinary array of biodiversity and are vital to a safe, stable, and functioning planet. These forests are complex social-ecological systems with context-specific patterns of behaviour. This means that to explore sustainable and just ways of addressing tropical forest fragmentation, place-based understandings that incorporate local knowledge must be a priority in research. However, there is a lack of research on African tropical forests led or informed by African expertise. This thesis aims to explore tropical forest fragmentation through a qualitative research lens and ways to address the phenomenon from an African perspective. In doing so it aims to offer narrative insight and human experience to better understand the social-ecological interactions that occur to drive fragmentation in African tropical forests, the impacts, and what experts with local knowledge and experience believe are the most effective ways to address the phenomenon. This thesis is grounded in a literature review that aims to synthesise existing understandings of tropical forest fragmentation to provide an informed foundation from which to ask what possible, effective, inclusive and equitable solutions to this challenge might be. The literature review offers a largely ecological perspective and understanding of tropical forest fragmentation. Building from this, the empirical study was based on a set of semi-structured interviews that aimed to shed light on unique, individual stories and experiences of tropical forest fragmentation in Africa. Eight biodiversity experts from a range of African tropical countries were identified and interviewed online. The experts discussed drivers, impacts, and, most critically, solutions. The solutions discussed were coded into (1) protection, (2) mitigation, and (3) restoration. Protection, specifically of protected areas, was outlined as the most effective way to address fragmentation, the “last hope” in preserving intact tropical forests. However, the experts emphasised that often protected areas are harmful to local communities and to achieve long-term success, both in terms of reducing drivers of fragmentation and promoting human well-being, communities must be involved throughout the decision-making and implementation process. Importantly, the results offered an important perspective, that socio-political context, in this case dysfunctional political systems and population growth intertwined with poverty, is central to this conversation. That context both defines and underpins the dynamics of tropical forest fragmentation and thus the effective implementation of solutions. For these eight biodiversity experts, it seemed that although biodiversity by definition pertains to the variety of biological life, preventing fragmentation and protecting tropical forests is very much a social-ecological challenge that cannot be addressed without examining the current extractive and unequal status quo driving human societies.