- Title
- The challenges of alleviating poverty through ecological restoration: Insights from South Africa's “working for water” program
- Creator
- McConnachie, Matthew M, Cowling, Richard M, Shackleton, Charlie M, Knight, Andrew T
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2013
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181003
- Identifier
- vital:43680
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12038"
- Description
- Public works programs have been posited as win–win solutions for achieving societal goals for ecological restoration and poverty alleviation. However, little is documented regarding the challenges of implementing such projects. A commonly cited example is South Africa's invasive alien plant control program “Working for Water” (WfW), which aims to create employment via restoring landscapes invaded with alien plants. Recent studies have raised questions over the effectiveness of this program in achieving both its restoration and poverty alleviation goals. This is the first study that we are aware of that synthesizes the knowledge of managers on both the poverty alleviation and environmental outcomes of a public works project. Herein, we sought to understand the challenges and constraints faced by 23 WfW managers in fulfilling the program's environmental and poverty alleviation objectives. We found that the challenges most frequently cited by managers related to the capacity and competence of managers and teams, followed by challenges relating to planning and coordination, specifically the challenges of being flexible and adaptive when constrained by operating procedures. In addition, the current focus on maximizing short-term employment was perceived by some as limiting the efficiency and long-term effectiveness of the WfW program in achieving its environmental and social goals. We suggest that improving the conditions and duration of employment could improve the effectiveness of invasive alien plant control and ecological outcomes. We also suggest that WfW measure the impacts of their interventions through an adaptive management approach so that it can learn and adapt to the challenges it faces.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (7 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Wiley Library Online
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Restoration Ecology, McConnachie, M.M., Cowling, R.M., Shackleton, C.M. and Knight, A.T., 2013. The challenges of alleviating poverty through ecological restoration: insights from South Africa's “working for water” program. Restoration Ecology, 21(5), pp.544-550, Restoration Ecology volume 21 number 5 p.544 2013 1526-100X
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Wiley Library Online Terms of Use Statement (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions)
- Rights
- Closed Access
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Collections
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
RU Department of Environmental Science
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
SDG 01. No Poverty
SDG 15. Life On Land
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details | SOURCE1 | The challenges of alleviating poverty through ecological restoration insights from South Africa's working for water program.pdf | 707 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |