Understanding rural peoples’ sense of place and their environment: Implications for bio-cultural diversity conservation

This study aims to obtain a better understanding of the values attached by modernized rural communities to their surrounding landscapes in respect of cultural significance and use of biodiversity and to assess the relevance of these values for developing effective biodiversity conservation policies and practices. The three year project was initiated in 2008. The research will be carried out by an interdisciplinary team with representatives of both social sciences and ecological sciences. Team members include: Dr Michelle Cocks (ISER-Rhodes University); Dr Freerk Wiersum (Forest and Nature Conservation Policy group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands); Tony Dold (Curator of the Selmar Schonland Herbarium Rhodes University Botany Department); Dr Susi Vetter (Botany Department – Rhodes University) and Philip Tshidzuma (Social Forestry Department – Fort Cox College). The project will fund two master student bursaries and is funded by the South African Netherlands Program for Alternative Development (SANPAD)

Key anticipated outcomes of the project include:
· Novel interdisciplinary methodology for assessing local landscape values and their significance for biodiversity conservation in non-Western societies
· Improved insights into the nature of landscape values in modernized rural villages in South Africa and social factors effecting these values
· Improved insights into the relation between landscape values and use and conservation of bio-diversity in culturally-valued landscape components.
· Identification of innovative approaches for incorporating local people’s values in biodiversity conservation programmes in South Africa.
· Training of students in new approaches towards studying people-environment relations.