List of Titles

Inkcubeko Nendalo: a bio-cultural diversity schools education project in South Africa and its implications for inclusive Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Sustainability.

- Cocks, Michelle L, Alexander, Jamie K, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Alexander, Jamie K , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2013
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141187 , vital:37951 , DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475232
Description: South Africa is currently the world’s third most biodiverse country, with one of the highest concentrations of threatened biodiversity in the world. Emerging research reveals the increasing pressure on this biodiversity with many wild resources continuing to be utilised for livelihood purposes even within urban environments. The Rio conventions, particularly the CBD, call for an integrated approach to conservation that incorporates local environmental knowledge and practices. In a bid to market itself as globally competitive, South Africa’s Curriculum 2005 (C 2005) is primarily focused on Western-based scientific knowledge, which sidelines the contribution of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and ignores the holistic nature of indigenous worldviews. The Inkcubeko Nendalo programme is designed to revitalise cultural identity, showing children the value of local indigenous knowledge and cultural environmental values.
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Date Issued: 2013

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'God is my forest': Xhosa cultural values provide untapped opportunities for conservation

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P, Vetter, Susan M

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P , Vetter, Susan M
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141198 , vital:37952 , DOI: 10.4102/sajs.v108i5/6.880
Description: In South Africa conservation is still largely framed in terms of Western scientific values, with a focus on material benefits to local communities, whilst little is known about the intangible values local people attach to nature and biodiversity. We explored the cultural, spiritual and emotional relationships with nature expressed by Xhosa people, within the MaputalandPondoland-Albany Hotspot, as well as the activities that mediate this relationship. A descriptive research approach was applied to document the emotions, meanings and values associated with landscape elements. This approach included group and individual interviews and ‘walk-in-the-woods’ interviews and participatory mapping exercises. Respondents portrayed a strong, although not always easily articulated, appreciation for nature, especially ihlathi lesiXhosa (‘Xhosa forest’, vegetation types within the Thicket Biome).
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Date Issued: 2012

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A new broom sweeps clean: the economic and cultural value of grass brooms in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141382 , vital:37967 , DOI: 10.1080/14728028.2004.9752477
Description: In southern Africa over the last twenty years, much attention has been given to the importance of NTFPs for rural livelihoods through their household consumption and sale. They have been classified as having either subsistence consumption or commercial values. These values are mostly related to their utilitarian functions, but recent studies show that NTFPs also hold strong cultural functions. Such cultural functions can play a role in both rural and urban livelihoods; consequently the values of NTFPs may be related to both utilitarian and cultural functions. This paper demonstrates the cultural functions of grass brooms in urban areas in South Africa and the impact of their trade on income generation in rural areas, and discusses the concept of culture as a significant factor in the understanding of the role of NTFPs in livelihoods, and their values.
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Date Issued: 2012

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Perceptions and values of local landscapes: implications for the conservation of biocultural diversity and intangible heritage

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141442 , vital:37972 , ISBN 9789086867493 , DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-749-3_10
Description: South Africa is widely recognised as a highly diverse country with regard to its people, culture, landscapes, biological resources and ecology. The importance of policies on protecting cultural diversity and how they relate to the environment is only just emerging at an international level, but in South African we find there is a complete lack of institutional support for rural communities’ attachment to local landscapes. The main objective of this case study is to improve our understanding of the meanings and values that Xhosa people (amaXhosa) of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa attach to their natural landscapes. It is clear that the amaXhosa are still intrinsically connected to their natural environment, in particular the thicket biome that is called ihlathi yesiXhosa (Xhosa forest). Access to places and spaces within the natural environment provides a sense of wellbeing, a link to ancestral spirits, a location for religious rituals, plus a wealth of culturallyinspired uses of specific species and sacred places in the landscape. We suggest that local cultural values could be incorporated into the formal conservation process.
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Date Issued: 2012

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Voices from the forest: celebrating nature and culture in Xhosaland

- Dold, Anthony P, Cocks, Michelle L

Authors: Dold, Anthony P , Cocks, Michelle L
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141427 , vital:37971 , ISBN 9781431402991 , https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Forest-Celebrating-Culture-Xhosaland/dp/1431402990
Description: The link between people and nature is explored in this fascinating book, revealing how plants, animals, and landscapes are profoundly reflected in South Africa’s Xhosa language, stories, poetry, religious rituals, healing practices, and everyday customs. While the South African landscape has for centuries been molded and manipulated by humans, the country and its plants and animals have in turn influenced South Africans’ cultural and spiritual development. Based on 10 years of research, it consists of unique photographs that portray how both contemporary rural and urban South Africans still find great value in nature. A fresh, positive approach to biodiversity conservation, this volume serves as a guide to sustainable practices in the future.
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Date Issued: 2012

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Cultural importance of non-timber forest products: opportunities they pose for bio-cultural diversity in dynamic societies

- Cocks, Michelle L, López, Citlalli, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , López, Citlalli , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2011
Language: English
Type: text , book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141453 , vital:37973 , ISBN 9783642179822 , DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-17983-9_5
Description: There is an increasing awareness that monetary value does not fully represent the complete value and significance of NTFPs. Consequently, there is growing interest in the cultural dimensions of biodiversity and the role that it plays in human well-being. This chapter presents two case studies, one on traditional brooms in South Africa, and the other on amate paper in Mexico, to demonstrate the importance of cultural values on driving demand for NTFPs. Because cultural values are so deeply embedded, the demand for culturally valued NTFPs continue across the rural-urban divide, and are maintained even by modernising urban communities. This poses particular challenges, not only for conservation of the NTFPs, but also to sustain cultural diversity in a rapidly changing world.
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Date Issued: 2011

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Cultivation of medicinal plants as a tool for biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation in the Amatola region, South Africa:

- Wiersum, K Freerk, Dold, Anthony P, Husselman, Madeleen, Cocks, Michelle L

Authors: Wiersum, K Freerk , Dold, Anthony P , Husselman, Madeleen , Cocks, Michelle L
Date: 2010
Language: English
Type: text , book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141489 , vital:37979 , ISBN 9781402054488 , https://library.wur.nl/ojs/index.php/frontis/issue/view/232
Description: This paper describes the assumptions and results of a study to assess whether cultivation of medicinal plants can serve as a tool for combined biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. The study was carried out in the Amatola region of Eastern Cape, South Africa, where sustained beliefs in medicinal plant use, also under non-traditional conditions, has resulted in an increase in commercial demands. It was based on the assumption of poverty alleviation not only referring to an increase in income and labour, but also an increase in social capital and human dignity. The study assessed the local perceptions of the use and cultivation of medicinal plants and the need for conservation of these plants, as well as the features of already ongoing cultivation practices and options for increased cultivation. It consisted of participatory assessments in three villages involving around 250 persons and participatory trials with 14 rural women selling medicinal plants on urban markets. The study indicated that the growing demand for medicinal plants is related to the great cultural significance attached to medicinal plants.
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Date Issued: 2010

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Plants for health, life and spirit in Africa : implications for biodiversity and cultural diversity conservation

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2009
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6617 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016225
Description: [From Introduction] Natural resources are often only perceived as contributing to rural livelihoods through food production and household welfare. There is a growing wealth of information capturing the direct-use values of the environment and consequent recognition of natural resources as being “the poor man's overcoat”. These approaches, however, have failed to fully account for the various ways in which different groups of people make use of, and find value in biodiversity. New developments within the field of anthropology have begun to explore the relationship between biodiversity and human diversity. This view has largely come about because many of the areas of highest biological diversity are inhabited by indigenous and traditional people, providing what the Declaration of Belem (1988) calls an 'inextricable link' between biological and cultural diversity (Posey 1999). The term bio-cultural diversity was introduced by Posey in 1999 to describe the concept denoting this link. , Funding was received from the South Africa-Netherlands Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) and the International Foundation of Science (IFS)
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Date Issued: 2009

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The Cultural Use of the Wild Olive Tree by the amaXhosa People in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa:

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2008
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141314 , vital:37961 , DOI: 10.1558/jsrnc.v2i3.292
Description: The cultural meanings of harvested plants have for the most part been ignored in academic research on non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in southern Africa. Historically scientists have tended to ignore the complex relationships between nature and culture. Given the country's unique political and economic past and the current search for sustainable use of natural resources, a focus on the convergence of natural science and cultural diversity is important at this time. Empirical data on cultural practices is being collected in order to develop fresh and relevant insights into the complex relationships between culture and bítKÜversity. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the concept of culture needs to be brought into our understanding of the role of NTFPs. We dtxrument the use and value of a specific tree, Olea europaea L. subsp. africana (Mill.) P,S. Green, called Umiicjuma in the Xhosa language, for cultural purposes, by both rural and urban households.
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Date Issued: 2008

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Cultural significance of biodiversity: the role of medicinal plants in urban African cultural practices in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2006
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141338 , vital:37963 , DOI: 10.2993/0278-0771(2006)26[60:CSOBTR]2.0.CO;2
Description: Since the International Convention on Biodiversity in 1992 conservation biologists, ecologists and conservationists have devoted considerable attention to the conservation of biodiversity. With this has come the realization that solutions to biological problems often lie in the mechanisms of social, cultural, and economic systems. This shift has emphasized the relationship between biodiversity and human diversity, or what the Declaration of Belem (1988) calls an “inextricable link” between biological and cultural diversity. The term biocultural diversity was introduced by Posey to describe the concept denoting this link. To date this concept has been used only in reference to “indigenous people” who, as part of their traditional lifestyles, use biodiversity to sustain their cultural identity. Our research, however, demonstrates that Xhosa people (amaXhosa) living in an urban context in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa continue to use wild plants for cultural purposes and often access these through commercial trade. We suggest that recognition of the cultural and spiritual values associated with wild plants would greatly enhance biodiversity conservation efforts. Recognition of the significant role that wild plants play in fulfilling cultural needs for urban Xhosa people would go a long way towards achieving this.
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Date Issued: 2006

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Mlanjeni's war charms: Ikhubalo likaMlanjeni

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2006
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141349 , vital:37964 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC112911
Description: Most South Africans are familiar with lucky charms such as the four leaved clover of European origin, the Hamsa Hand (Arabic) or Hamesh Hand (Hebrew), the Hindu lucky elephant representing Ganesha, son of Siva, or the African ikhubalo. Amakhubalo refer to charms, often of plant origin, that have magical powers to ward off danger or to bring good luck. Charm plants are used almost everywhere in the Eastern Cape to ensure health, luck and success in sporting events, business, courtship, legal proceedings, safety against accidents and crime and protection against jealousy and sorcery.
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Date Issued: 2006

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Seeing the wood for the trees: the role of woody resources for the construction of gender specific household cultural artefacts in non-traditional communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

- Cocks, Michelle L, Bangay, Lindsey, Wiersum, K Freerk, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Bangay, Lindsey , Wiersum, K Freerk , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2006
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6823 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003830
Description: There is a growing wealth of data capturing the direct-use values of the environment and recognition of forests and wild resources as representing ‘‘the poor man’s overcoat’’. This focus has however resulted in an emphasis on the utilitarian values of wild resources for rural livelihoods and has for the most part overlooked their cultural values. In tangent to these developments within the field of anthropology there has been increased attention directed towards the relationship between biodiversity and human diversity over the past decade. This has resulted in the recognition of what the Declaration of Belem calls an ‘inextricable link’ between biological and cultural diversity. The term bio-cultural diversity has been introduced as a concept denoting this link. Consequently there is a need for more elaborate assessments of the various ways in which different groups of people find value in biodiversity. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the cultural significance of wild harvested plant resources for the maintenance of two gender specific cultural artefacts for amaXhosa people in South Africa, to assess the persistence of these practices in rapidly modernizing communities. We demonstrate the endurance of these ancient cultural artefacts in present-day peri-urban communities and suggest that they point to the need for improved understanding of the significance of bio-cultural diversity. The findings of the study should not be interpreted as illustrating stagnation in the traditional past, but rather as pointing at the need for improved understanding of the significance of bio-cultural diversity in a dynamic sense.
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Date Issued: 2006

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Seeing the wood for the trees: the role of woody resources for the construction of gender specific household cultural artefacts in non-traditional communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

- Cocks, Michelle L, Bangay, Lindsey, Wiersum, K Freerk, Dold, Anthony P

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Bangay, Lindsey , Wiersum, K Freerk , Dold, Anthony P
Date: 2006
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453337 , vital:75246 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9053-4
Description: There is a growing wealth of data capturing the direct-use values of the environment and recognition of forests and wild resources as representing “the poor manȁ9s overcoat”. This focus has however resulted in an emphasis on the utilitarian values of wild resources for rural livelihoods and has for the most part overlooked their cultural values. In tangent to these developments within the field of anthropology there has been increased attention directed towards the relationship between biodiversity and human diversity over the past decade. This has resulted in the recognition of what the Declaration of Belem calls an ȁ8inextricable linkȁ9 between biological and cultural diversity. The term bio-cultural diversity has been introduced as a concept denoting this link. Consequently there is a need for more elaborate assessments of the various ways in which different groups of people find value in biodiversity. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the cultural significance of wild harvested plant resources for the maintenance of two gender specific cultural artefacts for amaXhosa people in South Africa, to assess the persistence of these practices in rapidly modernizing communities. We demonstrate the endurance of these ancient cultural artefacts in present-day peri-urban communities and suggest that they point to the need for improved understanding of the significance of bio-cultural diversity. The findings of the study should not be interpreted as illustrating stagnation in the traditional past, but rather as pointing at the need for improved understanding of the significance of bio-cultural diversity in a dynamic sense.
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Date Issued: 2006

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The trade in medicinal plants in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

- Dold, Anthony P, Cocks, Michelle L

Authors: Dold, Anthony P , Cocks, Michelle L
Date: 2002
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6512 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005940
Description: A study of the trade in medicinal plants in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa undertook to document the species traded, to determine the quantities harvested annually, and to assess the economic value of the trade. All the participants involved at the different levels of the trade were included in the survey, that is, informal street hawkers, owners of amayeza esiXhosa stores, traditional healers, and consumers of traditional medicines. In total, 282 questionnaires were administered in six urban centres. It was found that poorly educated black middle-aged women of low economic standing dominate the trade. A minimum of 166 medicinal plant species were traded at the study sites alone, providing 525 tonnes of plant material valued at approximately R27 million annually. Plants were harvested from a diverse range of vegetation types including Valley Thicket, Afromontane Forest, Coastal Forest and Moist Upland Grassland, the most frequently sold species differing significantly from those documented in similar studies in other regions. The Forest Biome was the vegetation type found to be most threatened by over-harvesting. Of the species documented, 93% were being harvested unsustainably and 34 species have been prioritised for conservation management.
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Date Issued: 2002

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Challenges facing a community structure to implement CBNRM in the Eastern Cape, South Africa:

- Cocks, Michelle L, Dold, Anthony P, Grundy, Isla

Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P , Grundy, Isla
Date: 2001
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141416 , vital:37970 , http://asq.africa.ufl.edu/files/Cocks-Dold-Grundy-Vol-5-Issue-3.pdf
Description: In most developing countries, community based natural resource management (CBNRM) initiatives have been adopted in an attempt to address the issue of environmental sustainability. This has largely come about due to an increasing recognition of the ineffectiveness of the state to achieve such sustainability. Within the South African context, recent policies have been drafted that aim to achieve these outcomes, which strongly articulate the need for the participation of local people in the management of natural resources both within communal areas and on state-owned land. The objectives of new policies, however, are not being met in the Eastern Cape of South Africa for the following key reasons: the insufficient recognition of the impact of past historical and political upheavals experienced within the former homelands’ situation; the government’s inability to process land applications; the government’s lack of ability and capacity to implement these policies; and frustratingly high levels of hierarchy at both the local and national level. The Masakane community, a group of former farm workers from the former Ciskei homeland in South Africa, are attempting to implement CBNRM initiatives. The Masakane case study reveals the urgent need to develop, implement and enforce new institutional and managerial arrangements, because without such arrangements state policies are unlikely to be implemented at the grassroots level.
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Date Issued: 2001

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Traditional veterinary medicine in the Alice district of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

- Dold, Anthony P, Cocks, Michelle L

Authors: Dold, Anthony P , Cocks, Michelle L
Date: 2001
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6513 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005941
Description: Resource-poor farmers in rural and peri-urban areas have limited access to veterinary care in terms of support services (from state and private veterinarian and animal health technicians), information about the prevention and treatment of livestock diseases, and preventative and therapeutic veterinary medicines. This results in reduced productivity and in livestock disease and deaths, which is a great burden on these farmers, who can least afford the loss of their animals. There is a need to encourage disadvantaged farmers to use available resources and methods, at minimal cost, and to improve their productivity. One of these resources is ethnoveterinary medicine. A list of 53 plants used as veterinary medicines by stock farmers in the Alice district in the Eastern Cape is presented together with their preparation and methods of administration.
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Date Issued: 2001

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The medicinal use of some weeds, problem and alien plants in the Grahamstown and Peddie districts of the Eastern Cape, South Africa

- Dold, Anthony P, Cocks, Michelle L

Authors: Dold, Anthony P , Cocks, Michelle L
Date: 2000
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6514 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005942
Description: A List of 33 medicinal plants of exotic or indigenous origin, listed as problem plants or declared weeds, is presented. The cultural uses of these plants should be taken into account when weed legislation in South Africa is considered. Of these species, six have no previous medicinal uses recorded in the literature surveyed and 21 species have additional, previously unrecorded uses. Nine previously unrecorded Xhosa names for plants are documented. Plant use categories and indigenous knowledge is discussed regarding the recorded species. The use of alien plants shows that African traditional healing is not static, but dynamic and adaptive.
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Date Issued: 2000

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