Sustainability Indicators for Swaziland

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NATURAL RESOURCE ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SWAZILAND

LAND MANAGEMENT

Background

Despite being located in the generally arid to sub-tropical region of Southern Africa, Swaziland has long been regarded as one of the best watered areas of the region because it is traversed by several large rivers.

The larger rivers flow from the Highveld in an eastward direction towards the Indian Ocean. The principal rivers are the Lomati, Komati, Mbuluzi, Usuthu and the Ngwavuma.

Three of the large rivers, (namely the Lomati, Komati and Usuthu) have their headwaters in South Africa. Over the years the rivers have either been dammed or the water consumption upstream has increased, leading to significantly reduced dry season flows

The challenges now facing Swaziland particularly in the environmental, educational, sociological, nutritional and agricultural sectors call for a new approach in the use and allocation of land to individual uses. The constraints in these sectors are intensified by the rapid increase in the Kingdom's population, and threaten to reduce the quality of life of every Swazi.

Already since the 1940's problems of natural resources depletion were manifested through overgrazing and soil erosion on both arable and grazing land. This became more evident as pressure on land increased as a result of human and livestock population growth. For the past 50 years land use planning, and more specifically rural planning, has been the preoccupation of the Ministry of Agriculture.

With the increase of land degradation in communal areas, it became evident that there was need for more land and that land had to be used for the purposes for which it was well suited. As early as in 1946 the Colonial Government introduced a land settlement scheme where privately owned land was purchased and communities were settled in villages. In such schemes, grazing and arable land were identified through soil surveys, and land for homesteads and grazing was demarcated. While arable land was allocated on an individual household basis, grazing land was communal. The consolidation of the arable and grazing land into blocks was thought to lead to improved agricultural production and also to improved natural resources management.

Although the planning of land settlement schemes was based on natural resources evaluation and appeared genuine and well thought, it did not provide for the participation of the communities in the planning process. It was perceived that the schemes were the most appropriate innovations and suitable for the people. People were expected to fit into the schemes without questioning it. Further, no future or forward planning was undertaken, with the result that the schemes crumbled because they did not take into consideration the interests of the communities. The people perceived the schemes as imposed on them by the Colonial Government. Problems of natural resources degradation continued despite the fact that the schemes were governed by the Land Settlement Act of 1946.

In 1950, the Swazi Administration Act was promulgated and this Act placed the responsibility for Natural Resources Management and the siting of settlement areas on communal land on the Ingwenyama and the Chiefs. This legislation empowered the Ingwenyama and the Chiefs to issue orders on the method of settlement. In 1953 the Ingwenyama issued orders concerning the method of cultivating land and introduced grass strips on arable land for reducing soil erosion.

The 1950 Swazi Administration Act also saw the birth of the Central Rural Development Board (CRDB) in 1954, having the responsibility for rural land use planning on Swazi Nation Land. The CRDB was empowered to oversee that appropriate land use planning was undertaken in communal areas with full community participation. The Ministry of Agriculture was empowered to provide technical expertise to the CRDB and the communities. This meant that a community land use plan could be approved after all parties concerned were in agreement. This type of arrangement continued until the early 70's.

From 1970 onwards, the Government of Swaziland intensified its agricultural development strategies through a Rural Development Area Programme (RDAP) which concentrated on intensified agricultural production, provision of infrastructure in rural areas, and addition of more private land to communal areas. Areas for arable irrigation, settlement of homesteads, and grazing were demarcated through technical land resources surveys with soil surveys taking the central role. The current Land Use Planning Division within the Ministry of Agriculture was born in 1968 with the following mandate:

"To ensure orderly development and exploitation of the country's natural resources particularly on Swazi Nation Land".

In all its activities the Land Use Planning Division has endeavoured to guide the country's policy makers on areas of high potential agricultural value by providing appropriate information on soil types and their suitability for various agricultural uses. The Division has also continued to participate in large scale land use planning exercises involving river basin development and was pivotal in producing community land use plans during the rural development area programme.

Land use plans produced during the RDA programme were often not implemented because of the poor communication that existed between the CRDB and the Division. The CRDB decided to spearhead allocation of land to various uses and ensured that communities participated in planning the use of their land since their views were sought. In some instances, the communities themselves drew up the plans of their areas and these community plans were submitted to the Land Use Planning Division for technical appraisal before final adoption by the communities and approval by the CRDB.

Despite the establishment of the CRDB, the creation of the Land Use Planning Division and incidental community participation in the land use planning process in Swaziland, Land Use Planning has failed to make a significant impact in the stewardship of land resources in the country. The failure of the process to make significant improvement in the management of the natural resources in the country may be attributed to the following:

The Land Use Planning process tended to concentrate on sectoral issues, to focus on the planning of the land for agricultural purposes and to disregard the existence of urban development. In turn, Urban Development tended to disregard the existence of the agricultural sector.
The Land Use Planning exercise has not adequately identified all stakeholders and tended to concentrate on a broad community approach without focusing on different group and individual interests within a community.
There has not been an adequate forum for dealing with communal grazing land management and no attractive alternatives to extensive livestock production in communal areas have been identified. No incentives were put in place to attract households to other alternative forms of land use.
There has been very poor institutional coordination between the CRDB and the Land Use Planning Division, even to such extent that the two organisations appeared to be pursuing different objectives.
Even though people have been encouraged to plan the use of their own land, there has not been a forum of information sharing between the communities, the CRDB and the technical divisions within the Ministry of Agriculture.
Information produced by the Land Use Planning Division for rational land use planning in rural areas has often been too technical, even for technical departments within the Ministry, let alone for the communities.
Competing land use uses have emerged because of the absence of a National Land Use Policy to guide land development.
Integrated Land Use Planning has been absent and sectoral self interests tended to compound the problem; e.g. there is no forum where agricultural and urban development interests and objectives are discussed.

In order to improve the Land Use Planning process three principle actions are necessary:

Create institutional linkages that will ensure proper identification of all stakeholders.
Formulate and adopt a National Land Use Policy that will guide land use allocation and land development.
Develop Guidelines that will ensure the involvement of all key players in the process of Land Use Planning.

This page was last updated on 03 February 2004