HOW DO FARMERS SHAPE THEIR LANDSCAPE: A CASE-STUDY IN KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA

The study area is a former homeland, where land had been historically set aside for african communities and which happens to be today a well balanced ecoagriculture landscape combining farmed and wildlife areas, both protected and unprotected. This informal ecoagriculture landscape, developed under poverty conditions now represents a huge potential because it can support many ecosystem services and lead to the improvement of people's livelihoods. The analysis of past and present farming practices shows that agriculture alone has never been the unique source of income. It thus appears of interest for the further development of the inhabitants to rely on these landscape mosaics for their livelihoods rather than transforming their land into large scale monocultures. This can be achieved provided collective decisions are taken that lead to a formal ecoagriculture landscape.

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