The Tsitsa Project updates from a complex catchment Margaret Wolff - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Tsitsa Project – updates from a complex catchment

Margaret Wolff for The Tsitsa Project Team

Human & Planetary Well-being Social – Ecological Justice

We all live on this planet, in a catchment

The Tsitsa Project (formerly NLEIP)

Born in 2014 Two dams planned on the Tsitsa River (Mzimvubu Water Project) Started out as a restoration project to prevent predicted siltation of the dams (….and improve livelihoods)

The Tsitsa Project vision

To support sustainable livelihoods for local people through integrated landscape management that strives for resilient social-ecological systems which fosters equity in access to ecosystem services.

Image adapted from R. Biggs

complex social system complex ecological system (bio-physical) complex social-ecological system

circles:

elements Arrows: feedbacks

Complex social-ecological systems: A central, accepted concept

Research and praxis in the Tsitsa Project

• Interventions have a history of ambiguous outcomes and outright

failures.

• How can research-based interventions with stakeholders:

government, industry, agriculture, researchers, and residents result in sustainable outcomes that persist beyond the intervention, move towards behavior-change, and adaptive, integrated, sustainable resource management practice among stakeholders?

• Sustained, engaged, transdisciplinary action research

Catchments and interventions

• 1. To embed complex social-ecological system and resilience

thinking in praxis

• 2. To encourage polycentric and participatory governance

approaches

• 3. To generate transdisciplinary, action-oriented and engaged

research

• 4. To work in collaborative, reflexive, adaptive and learning-
• riented ways
• 5. To create enabling conditions for equitable participation and

community engagement

These are CHALLENGING!

Tsitsa Project – Five Principles

The Objectives Tree

Governance in the Tsitsa Project

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT COP SYSTEMS THINKING COP FIRE AND GRAZING COP

A team B team

Wisdom Trust

RU C team

• Deep reflexive thinking and

analysis

• Aligning diaries
• Institutionalising critical

meetings

• Co-opting the key role players

Botha et al. 2017

Institutionalising Strategic Adaptive Management

Output produced by Indicators workshop

Development theories are just theories

• DEA doesn’t have the capacity to fix everything
• Government doesn’t have the capacity to help people

manage their own risks

• Everyone needs community engagement to get people

actively involved in managing their own environmental risks

• It’s easier to measure
• It’s intuitively obvious
• Everyone wants to reduce their risk
• Everyone understands risk

DEA: NRM, the entire world, and risk mitigation

Bester, 2018

Inputs Activities Outputs

(nested: baseline, current value target, source: periodic)

Outcomes

(nested: baseline, current value, target, source: ST & LT)

Strategic

• bjectives

Meta-

• bjectives

Impact Social capital Human capital Environmental capital Manufactured capital Financial capital

Financial resources Management Technical kills Experience Financial resources Management Technical skills Experience Financial resources Management Technical skills Experience Financial resources Management Technical skills Experience Financial resources Management Technical skills Experience Community organisation Networking First meeting Training 1 – n MyFuture Pre-productive infrastruce implementation Productive infrastructive development Selling produce MyBusiness Number of participants ??? Number of participants Uptake ??? Number of participants Uptake ??? Number of participants Uptake ??? Number of participants Uptake ???

Nutrition; Hope; Resilience; Productivity; Capital Goal

Sustainable and radical LED

Attribution gap

(HBI & effective GGP) Referrals ; Testimonies ; Gender issues ; Bronze certificates (PindaPinda) Referrals; Testimonies; Climate change; Food; water; Bronze certificates Referrals; Testimonies/uptake; Bronze certificates; Productivity Referrals; Testimonies/uptake; Bronze certificates; Productivity

Efficiency

HBI/R; Effective GGP/Rand

Land & Water protection for using ecosystem services System adaptive capacity Resource + Services

Strategic Adaptive Management checklist: V-STEEP Values Social Technical Environmental Economic Political Activity / Outcomes enables Goals Relationships + activities

Sustainable Complex Social-Ecological Systems High level SDG outcomes

Palmer et al., 2018

Bounding

D A T A O V E R L O A D ! !

Tsitsa Project Learning Paper

• Full reference:

Cockburn, J., Palmer, C. G., Biggs, H., & Rosenberg, E. (2018). Navigating multiple tensions for engaged praxis in a complex social-ecological system. Land, 7:129.

• OPEN ACCESS – Freely available online:

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land7040129

And in 2019 we’ve just appointed a Capacity Development coordinator – more learning together And we acknowledge the need to include climate change and disaster risk reduction implications in our planning Integrating with Elundini LM - IDP

Systems Thinking and System Dynamics Modelling

Traditional council

Tsitsa River catchment, Eastern Cape

• Alien invasive trees that invade rangelands and riparian reaches
• Degraded springs and seeps
• Degraded rangelands and soil erosion

Community voice – priority NRM issues

Sigoga Hlankomo Emaxesibeni Qulungashe

Trying to map it all out

Working more closely together

• Six traditional councils
• Farmers associations
• Take Note
• COGTA

Telling everyone else

And always on the look out for additional partners and funding

Build on our strengths, acknowledge our weaknesses

Thank you