Start main page content

Sustaining Natural Resources in African Ecosystems

Biodiversity provides a range of ecosystem services that are critical for human survival and well-being. At the same time, human activities impact on the composition, structure and function of ecosystems that deliver these services to society.  Therefore, in order to find solutions to the environmental problems we face today, more research is needed on the complex relationships between people and ecosystems in coupled human-natural systems.  This research program focuses on the sustainable use, management and governance of natural resources in order to sustain livelihoods and human well-being in African socio-ecological systems. The double meaning in the programme name is thus intentional.  Prof. Wayne Twine and his postgraduate students and collaborators conduct their research at the human-environment interface in rural African settings, including research themes such as resource ecology, sustainable resource use, community-based natural resource management, access and benefit-share from conservation, sustainable rural livelihoods, and food security.

Some examples of this research include:

  1. Blair, A.M, Thompson, D.I, Twine, W. & Grab, S. (2021) The social-ecological drivers across land-use transects driving marula tree population dynamics in north-eastern South Africa, Forest Ecology and Management, 492:119209.
  2. Ragie, F. H., Olivier, D. W., Hunter, L. M., Erasmus, B. F. N., Vogel, C., Collinson, M., & Twine, W. (2020). A portfolio perspective of rural livelihoods in Bushbuckridge, South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 116(9), 1–8.
  3. Mbiba, M., Collinson, M., Hunter, L., & Twine, W. (2019) Social capital is subordinate to natural capital in buffering rural livelihoods from negative shocks: Insights from rural South Africa. Journal of Rural Studies, 65:12-21.
  4. Findlay, S.J., & Twine, W.C. (2018). Chiefs in a democracy: A case study of the “new” systems of regulating firewood harvesting in post-Apartheid South Africa. Land 7:35 doi:10.3390/land7010035
  5. Swemmer, L., Mmethi, H. & Twine, W. (2017) Tracing the cost/benefit pathway of protected areas: A case study of the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Ecosystem Services, 28:162-172.
  6. Twine, WC & Holdo, RM (2016) Fuelwood sustainability revisited: Integrating size structure and resprouting into a spatially realistic fuelshed model. Journal of Applied Ecology, 53:1766–1776.

Research Prof. Twine

Research Prof. Twine_2

Share