SHORT AND LONG TERM INFLUENCE ON SOIL EROSION OF SETTLEMENT BY PEASANT FARMERS IN KWAZULU NATAL

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper describes a study carried out in a subarid riverine and interior lowland area of the Mfolozi catchment. The area was depopulated in the early 19th Century, and remained unoccupied until 1958 when Zulu peasants were settled there as part of the apartheid government's “betterment” scheme. Five sets of sequential aerial photographs taken between 1937 and 1983 were used to obtain estimates of temporal and spatial variations in eroded surfaces, sparsely vegetated surfaces susceptible to erosion, and active gullies. Eroded and sparsely vegetated surfaces were very localised prior to settlement and increased dramatically during the first few years after settlement. While they continued to increase over the following two decades, they did so at substantially lower rates. The increasing trend in eroded surfaces was reversed by the mid 1970s wet spell. The sparsely vegetated surfaces also contracted during this wet spell, but then expanded during the early 1980s dry spell. The initial influence ...