Does the absence of community involvement underpin the demise of urban neighbourhood parks in the Eastern Cape, South Africa?:
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Njwaxu, Afrika
- Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/175791 , vital:42624 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.104006
- Description: Public urban green spaces are essential for urban sustainability and the physical and mental wellbeing of urban residents. Yet in some settings they may face a number of threats, ranging from land transformation and development, through to poor maintenance and vandalism. It has been posited that community engagement is a crucial strategy in addressing or minimising many of these threats. Here we report on the condition of 11 newly created or renovated parks in poorer neighbourhoods of six towns over a three year period, along with in-depth interviews regarding the sentiments of local residents and officials to the (re)creation of the parks and their subsequent deterioration.
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- Date Issued: 2021
The availability of non-timber forest products under forest succession on abandoned fields along the Wild Coast, South Africa
- Authors: Njwaxu, Afrika , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177565 , vital:42833 , https://doi.org/10.3390/f10121093
- Description: Large swathes of arable fields have been abandoned in many areas of the world over the last few decades driven by a multitude of local and broader-scale factors. Many former fields experience a change in vegetation composition and structure post-abandonment, typically through a process of plant succession. The changes in species and abundance mean that the nature and quantity of ecosystem services provided by the former fields also varies. We examined the types of provisioning services obtained from non-timber forest products (NTFPs) with increasing age since field abandonment. We sampled 43 former fields ranging in age since abandonment from approximately 7 to 55 years, and seven plots in intact forests. We held seven focus group discussions with local residents to determine uses of species found in the former fields.
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- Date Issued: 2019