Nkovokeni CCA workshop – 10th April 2024
Parcipants:18 women (mix ofolder and younger). Nkovokeni hub sta, and MDF team (Tema,
Mazwi, Erna and Nqobile)
Figure 1: A view of the parcipants for the Nkovokeni CCA focus group discussion 10th April 2024
NOTE: 2 days could not be allocated to this process in the community, due to late arrival on day 1 and
a funeral in the area on the 2nd day. The agenda was therefor truncated to t into the 4 hours
available for this process.
WORKSHOP OUTLINE
1Community and team introducons: Introducon of the organisaon/s and purpose of this
workshop- link to already ongoing acvies if possible and introduce visitors and other
stakeholders involved. Climate change as a concept, people's concept of it. And overall impact,
dierence between weather and climate.
2Past, present and future: Whole group discussion on what people are presently doing… in all
livelihoods (including farming, resources use, etc) - how does this compare with past and future
3Presentaon on scienc informaon re CC for the area: SAEON Maputuland presentaon for
research conducted around lake Sibaya
4Summary of impacts and possible soluons: Plenary discussion summarising points raised and
further addions regarding climate change impacts and possible adapve strategies, (including
what people in the area are already trying/doing).
5Parcipatory poverty assessment: Presentaon of summary informaon for the Nkovokeni
baseline surveys conducted. Plenary discussion around group-based wealth ranking for all
households – to assist in targeng beneciaon from dierent aspects of the EbA programme
COMMUNITY AND TEAM INTRODUCTIONS
MDF outlined their role as support for climate resilient agriculture acvies and working with new
ideas and pracces that can assist in intensifying producon, with the aim also to reduce the
pressure on the natural resources in the area. MDF is one of a number of partners and sub-projects,
including also cra, tourism, small business development, and specic support to vulnerable women
and children.
Community members introduced their daily acvies and farming being undertaken in the village.
According to the parcipants, everyone in the village is planng, mostly in the gardens next to the
lake as there is no water at homestead level. Crops include sweet potatoes, potatoes, amadumbe
(taro), cabbage, onions, spinach, green peppers, carrots, beetroot, leuce and tomatoes. These
communal gardens need to be fenced and the community can only aord to do this in a small area,
meaning there is presently only one small garden being acvely used. They would like to increase the
size of this garden.
Some households also keep livestock like goats, but they die easily, and people are unsure about
whether it is a lack of grazing or other causes. Three households in the village own livestock. Women
need permission from their husbands to sell livestock Some households also keep tradional
chickens, but they are heavily predated, so they can not build up their ocks. Some of the women
harvest incema (reeds0 and sell these to people in neighbouring villages. They make grass mats, but
there is no market for those. The men do shing, both in the lakes and in the seas. There are many
sh species, also including lobsters, freshwater prawns and abalone. Women mainly do harvesng of
mussels and red bait and in some cases crabs – although they are a lile afraid of the large ones.
Most households have fruit trees such as mangoes, guavas, oranges, lemons and avocados, but the
monkeys now destroy their harvests almost enrely. People also harvest wild fruit. Some tradional
medicine and bulbs are harvested from the veld and coastal forests, but availability of these has been
decreasing in recent years.
Responses related to parcipants’ knowledge regarding climate change included that it is caused by
industry and smoke that builds up in the ozone layer. One parcipant talked about clouds building up
in dierent places and brining rain to this village, that is dierent from the past. One lady
emphasised that everything has changed, rain doesn’t come in July as in the past and one just has to
work out when to plant and also society has changed, women have children even at the young age of
13yrs, not waing unl their early 20’s as was the case in the past.
This was followed by a short discussion on the dierence between weather and climate, although
from parcipants’ responses they are already aware of this disncon.
Below is a summary of the changes in climate that parcipants menoned:
•It is so much hoer, even now in April it is sll very hot-dicult to tell the dierence
between winter and summer.
•Rainfall at dierent mes, unusual for it to be raining in April, as rain usually ends in
February.
•Tides have changed, higher des than before, even low de is higher than in the past, so it is
dicult to do the coastal harvesng and more dicult to cross the lake on foot.
•These days in the shing areas, there are very few sh – even the sh kraals are being
inundated…making them a lot less eecve.
•Where the lake meets the sea, more salty water is being pushed water up into the lakes,
which is changing the number and types of sh in the lakes themselves.
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE-TRENDS IN LAND USE AND LIVELIHOODS
PAST
•Before iSimangaliso there were many more households in the area, the villages from
kwaDapha stretching to Nkovokeni were connuous with households throughout. Even
though there are now so few households le, there is sll overuse of resources as people
come in from outside.
•In the past when we planted next to the lake, we could deal with the hippos that were
present, by making res along the lake edge at night. Now that there are more people and
more planng, more hippos are coming, and this strategy does not work anymore.
•Back in the days, when there was ooding along the lake edges and erosion of the sand, we
would make small terraces using logs to catch the soil and create spaces for planng.
•Our diet was dierent; sorghum, maize, peanuts, jugo beans, cowpeas (now eaten by
monkeys). We used to make a meal with cowpeas, peanuts and chillies. Even made ’vetkoek’
with these ingredients. We also grew cassava (indumbula), sweet potatoes, pumpkin,
amabece (tradional gourds), and harvested indigenous fruit such as Natal Mahogany.
•It has become more and more dicult to grow maize- soil is now washing away.
•We also used to grind our own maize meal – didn’t make puthu, which only came in as a
pracse later – used to grind it and make soup/gravy.
•We also used marula to make nuts.
•Also grew imfe (indigenous sweet reed)
•Most of the areas we grew on are now gone or have reverted to forest. Forest ahs also grown
up in areas where it was not before.
•We also used to build smaller sh traps, not just the few remaining permanent sh kraals.
There was a lot more sh and we used to be able to make a living trading sh caught. When
more and more people started to try and catch sh for sale the sh populaons declined.
•We used to use rituals and slaughtering of cale for calling rain. Also, ceremonies at a big
rock at Kosi Bay mouth. These days, such ceremonies are very uncommon.
PRESENT
•Diseases have increased a lot; HIV/AIDS, high blood pressure, diabetes, COVID, arthris,
cancer – all due to our diets changing- not eang healthy now.
•People are not planng, mainly because of the animals- people have been discouraged.
•The main problem is not climate change here- as there is sll rain. We need some soluons
for animals, so that people can go back to planng.
•There is more rain than in the past, which is good for collecng rainwater as there no
boreholes or taps.
•At the homes the problem is monkeys and bush-pigs– there is also no water which is only
down at the elds, and they would need to fetch water from down at the boom to garden
at household level.
•The are more people, which has aracted more wild animals. Also now, everyone is doing
their own small plots separately instead of trying to work together in one large area, which
was much easier in terms of management of wild animals. Also, as everything was in one
place, the damage to the environment was smaller.
FUTURE
•We will remain here, and others will return.
•We need to be taught about what the soluons are for climate change and what we can do
to connue to survive.
•As you have come here an interviewed us, now we are supposed to come up with a soluon
together, not chase us way from here.
PRESENTATION ON SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
This informaon was graciously provided by the SAEON team (Ms Sue van Rensburg) and is aached
to this report. In summary, we talked to the scienc understanding of climate change and showed
the cumulave impacts of extensive tree plantaons, loss of wetlands and climate change on the
system- drying of lakes (Lake Siaya water level has dropped by 4,5m) and loss of wetlands(60%
reducon in area) leading in some cases through inappropriate land use and burning – to long-term
burning of peat elds in the region. The modelled projecons are connued drying of the lakes
(which are rainfed rather than being fed by rivers), if large scale reducon in the area under
plantaons and restoraon of wetlands is not undertaken, despite potenally somewhat increased
levels of rainfall.
The parcipants were somewhat alarmed as to the reasons for the drying of the lakes and the
potenal for this to connue. They made a number of remarks about the plantaons and that not
that many people are involved there, but those that are would likely not agree to remove those
trees. They menoned that some people are aware of the dangers of burning in the wetlands and do
not do that in Nkovokeni. It is mostly the herders for the livestock owners that go about burning veld
and other areas and the community has lile control over this pracse.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS- ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES
The process started out as list of requests for assistance, but with some explanaon of how MDF is
planning to intervene – including trying out new ideas and supporng the more vulnerable
households the following was suggested.
•Awareness programmes, including those planng gum plantaons to see if people have a
change of heart and will remove some of those trees.
•Help us with fencing- for hippos and bush pigs.
•We need hand hoes.
•Are you saying you will come up with things to help us, or we must do it? MDF to work
together to work on soluons…
•We are living at the top; water is at the boom. We need ways to bring water closer to us-
we know it is impossible, but geng water closer to people that will help.
•If there is water closer to our homes, then we wouldn’t need to go down there. What are
opons – maybe another borehole, small dams, more Jo-Jos etc.
•In zone 1 there is a borehole that was damaged and is not in use. There is the present
community borehole and there is a 3rd one on the other side- that one is sll funconal. If we
x the two exisng boreholes and bring water closer to the households that would be a good
soluon for us. We do not need to start from scratch.
•Wild Oceans brough the water from the header tanks here to the hub. Maybe if we can nd
a way to get the water closer to the households from the hub, that could help as well.
•Possibly introduce new crop like for example broccoli, potatoes, beans, cucumber, okra,
brinjal, macadamia nuts, udhali (pigeon pea) and red onions.
•We would like to try out layer hens for egg producon.
•We have heard about grey water but are reluctant to use it…soap will kill the plants. MDF
menoned that there are ways in which you can work with this- for example clearing the
water with ash – or using stones and sand lters, etc.
PARTICIPATORY POVERTY ASSESSMENT
MDF started this session by discussing the intenon of the programme to support the vulnerable
people in the community and the need to understand the poverty status of all households in the
village to ensure equitable benet from the dierent aspects of the programme being provided.
The overwhelming response to this was that everyone in the village is poor and a queson as to
whether some people would not receive help. One older lady emphasised that people may be living
in a house that looks nice but can having nothing inside and not have enough food to eat. Another
lady menoned that they once received seed for planng and in that case, everyone was provided
with seed and that they would like that to happen again.
Despite recognising that some of the unhappiness in the recent selecon of youth for short term jobs
was due to a dierence in understanding and criteria as employed through the project and used by
the community and recognising the importance of having their opinions included in decision-making,
the group did not feel comfortable ranking households into wealth categories. The group agreed
unanimously that MDF should decide on who benets and that they trust MDF to make the right
decisions. They added that it would be too dicult for them to make these decisions as everyone
wants to be able to benet and that could cause tensions in the community.
A summary presentaon was then provided on the results from the household survey and raed by
the parcipants:
-Around 90% of households in the village live below the naonal poverty line.
-The most vulnerable households are: Households where most to all adults are unemployed,
women headed households, households with members living with disabilies, young single
mothers, households with a large number of small children between the ages of 0-6yrs and
households where not grants are received (‘Missing middle’ between ages of around 45yrs-
60yrs who do not receive child grants or pensions).
-Households where more than one member has short term contracts through iSimangaliso
and or WildTrust are beer o than others in the short term, but it doesn’t help much for
longer term income stability.
-Basic access to services is extremely limited and includes, water, energy, sanitaon and roads
(community access)
This led to a lively discussion around gas and electricity. One lady gave an example of the costs
associated with geng a gas bole replacement – which included a taxi to Manguzi (~R100), a boat
across the lake (~R700) and a porter to their home from the lake (R60), meaning a payment of R860
on top of the price of a gas bole. People were very excited about an opon to discuss alternaves,
of working together, or geng a gas bole outlet closer o their community or through the hub.
With solar energy the discussion was around the fact that the baeries that they purchased ‘died’
quite quickly and now they have no lighng at night – only charging straight from the panel during
the day. If there were charging staons for baeries at the hub, that would assist a lot. The women
were keen to discuss opons for learning bout solar energy, dierent charging opons, rental of
equipment and baeries and solar lights. They menoned that they are aware that there is a lot of
technology ‘out there’ that they do not know about but would be grateful to be introduced to.
