ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor and Project guide
Prof. Hope Hue Rising for the continuous support of the Final Study and her patience,
motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge.
Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my project committee: Prof. Galen
Newman, Prof. Kenneth Hurst & Prof. Fernandez Solis, for their encouragement and
insightful comments.
I would also like to thank Dr. Chris Mulder, CMAI Architects, South Africa for providing
relevant data and information for the project site.
I take this opportunity to express gratitude to all faculty members of Landscape Architecture and
Urban Planning Department at Texas A&M University for their constant help and
support.
Finally, I thank my family for their unceasing encouragement and attention.
PROJECT ABSTRACT
Climate change has led to more severe heat waves, more sustained droughts, and more frequent wildfires with a couple of unprecedented floods per year. These extreme climate events pose a significant threat on the food security system all over the world. South Africa is one such country confronted with food insecurity due to climate change, poverty, and land ownership injustice. This project intends to demonstrate possible ways to combine agroecology with tourism to help increase food security South Africa.
Agroecology is a concept based on restoring justice to the environment as well as to the farming communities. The importance of agro-ecotourism resides in the potential to supplement farming income with revenues from tourism while assuring the conservation of animals, ecosystems, and the agricultural system in which it takes place. This project will propose a design framework for climate-proofing communities with guidelines from low carbon farming practices that facilitate water balance on site, restore ecosystems, integrate animal conservation, and generate clean renewable energies through the water-food-energy nexus. The design framework will be applied to a project site as a test case for creating a farm based community by applying principles of permaculture and regenerative agriculture.
This project helps me to focus on social and environmental issues by embracing our role as changemakers. Inspired by a growing understanding that development centered on food-production spaces can produce multiple benefits for individuals and communities. This project tries to highlight the key role of landscape architects in planning, creating, and operating projects with food-production areas.
This research-based design project will be undertaken through four phases – background study, design brief, data collection, and design development. For the background study and data collection phase, I interacted with the CMAI architects in South Africa, provided me with relevant data and information for the project site. I also interacted with LAND 484 studio, for initial data collection and site analysis.
The final product document will contain graphic and narrative description of Agro-eco community design along with cover page, acknowledgements, introduction, project introduction, site inventory, analysis/synthesis, goals and objectives, program, concepts, master plan, details, conclusions.
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
Food security is a national crisis in South Africa. The South African National Health survey taken by the South Africa Government pointed out that in 2017,6.8 million individuals and 1.7 million households experience hunger across the country. (Chersich M. F., Wabiri, N., Risher, K., Shisana, O., Celentano, D., Rehle, T.,& Rees, H. 2017) This complex problem sits amid a myriad of social, economic, environmental, and political problems. While climate change, land reforms & poverty, in particular, are three main drivers for food security in South Africa (Hanjra, M. A., & Qureshi, M. E. (2010), the most important factor limiting agricultural production in South Africa is the availability of water.
Statistical evidence suggests that South Africa has been getting hotter over the past four decades, average yearly temperatures increasing by 0.13°C with higher levels for fall and summer periods. Moreover, the average rainfall in the country is very low, estimated at 450mm per year – well below the world’s average of 860mm per year – while evaporation is comparatively high. The impacts of climate change, such as more sustained droughts and heat stress, have reduced crop productivity due to less availability of water for commercial farming and especially subsistence farming. (Benhin, J. K. 2006).
Various studies suggest the interrelationships between food security, unemployment, poverty and inequality (FAO 2017, Wight et al 2014, NPC, 2017. According to the country’s National Development Plan (NDP) (NPC, 2014), food insecurity is both a cause and a consequence of poverty. While there is sufficient food available for everyone in South Africa through domestic food production and food imports, the means to access food at household level is still a challenge due to high levels of income inequality. Lack of transportation and high levels of unemployment exacerbates the situation. Food security solutions thus necessitate economic development and job opportunities that benefit the low-income populations.
Research on poverty in South Africa shows that the unyielding poverty stance in South Africa is attributed to former policies of the apartheid regime that targets racial inequality, segregation and unsustainable settlement patterns (Bhorat and Kanbur, 2006). A review of the history of food security policy in South Africa reveals a clear lack of concern for land issues in areas where land reform is taking place or where land rights remain unclear. Even today, 46% of the South African land is owned by private companies and organizations while the state only owns 16% of the land. When measured in hectares, 72% of farm lands are owned by white people and only 4% is owned by Black African. Therefore, in addition to job generation, South Africa needs a new food security system that is integrated with land reform focusing on the return of land rights to black subsistence farmer.
Eastern Cape is the most populated province of South Africa. It is also the province with the highest number of agricultural households due to its unique climate & vegetation variation. Addressing food security in Eastern Cape also means paying attention to the black rural subsistence farming districts in the suburban area Port Elizabeth City. Port Elizabeth, also known as Nelson Mandela Bay, is a popular domestic and tourist destination located at the end picturesque Garden route along the coast. The project site is located in Kouga municipality, which is a suburb of Port Elizabeth in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Kouga Municipality is located approx. 80 KM from the Port Elizabeth city and home to 70,000 people. Its subtropical climate is ideal for outdoor adventures and agricultural activities. Apart from being on the Garden route, the site is also surrounded by coastal towns of Jeffreys Bay, St Francis Bay, Cape St Francis and Oyster Bay.
South Africa is hub of tourism with cultural & historical spots, eco-tourist and agro-tourist resorts, other rural scenic destinations, and wineries. Tourism is a key driver of South Africa’s national economy and contributes to job creation. The sector contributes about 9% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Agriculture and bio-diversity are also key elements of the economy in South Africa. By harnessing these three major economic engines to address poverty and food security in the face unfolding impacts of climate change, this project intends to develop a climate-adaptive design framework for transforming black farming land into resilient agro-ecotourist destinations in the suburbs of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Ecotourism in South Africa has largely been driven by animal conservation and the economic benefits of wildlife viewing. Wildlife was the single most important factor that attracts tourists to most of the private game reserves (PGRs) in Eastern Cape. However, the wildlife is perceived to be attractive only when it occurs in a natural setting with pristine nature and scenic beauty free from noise and air pollution in proximity to high quality tourist accommodation and service. PGRs typically conduct a variety of activities in their reserves, including live game sales, canoeing, hiking, and river cruising while an average of 82% of their income comes from the most common activity, wildlife viewing. The so-called charismatic megafauna, despite being a very small portion of the vertebrate biodiversity, attracts most of the wildlife viewing tourists with elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard, and buffalo (Kerley et al, 2003) as the major draw cards (Goodwin & Leader-Williams 2000). According to 10 private game reserve in Eastern Cape, changing from farming to game-based ecotourism has been found to generate 4.5 times more jobs and a 32-fold increase in the average wage bill while protecting a total of 116, 608 hectares from six of the country’s eight biomes with a rich diversity of plants and animals (Langholz and Kerley, 2006).
The constant instability of net farm incomes and the loss of jobs in rural areas have led to a human and financial capital drain from many rural areas, leaving many farming families and businesses under economic stress. As has been realized already agriculture alone can no longer be dependent upon to provide the economic stability for rural villages. But the integration of tourism and agriculture activities will open up a new horizon and can play the key role as new employment partners for rural communities thereby improve the economic status. Besides this, agro-ecotourism forms a potential “alternative to routine tourism,” which is farm-based and harmonious with nature. However, it is difficult to predict whether there is a viable market for agritourism that does not offer wildlife viewing if ecotourism that offers view wildlife viewing is able to integrate farming activities in a protective zone from animals.
