Sociocultural constraints on sustainable cattle production in some communal areas of South Africa

Abstract

For decades the problem of overstocking, generally accepted as the major cause of the degradation of natural resources in the communal farming areas of South Africa, has remained unresolved. Both documented evidence and empirical findings indicate that sociocultural factors place significant constraints on stock reduction. There has been no decrease over time in the need for cattle but cattle are kept increasingly for financial reasons. The number of cattle owned remains an important indication of status and this militates against stock reduction. The general understanding that there is ‘too little land’ rather than ‘too much stock’ indicates tons a degree of fatalism and a preference for waiting for changes in land allocation rather than accepting individual responsibility for improving the present situation.