Sakhile NSUKWINI, University of Mpumalanga, South Africa
Urmilla BOB, University of Mpumalanga, South Africa
This study assessed the influence of household livelihood strategies on the socioeconomic wellbeing of communities neighbouring the Somkhanda Game Reserve (SGR) and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP), KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. The independent variables for this study included four different livelihoods strategies common amongst rural communities. The livelihood strategies included: subsistence farming, wages, remittances, pensions, child support grants and other sources. The dependent variable was subjective wellbeing of the households in Hlambanyathi and Cotlands villages neighbouring the SGR and Mpembeni and KwaSeme villages neighbouring HiP. A questionnaire was self-administered with the help of research assistants through simple random sampling, with households used as sampling units. The study highlighted agriculture to be the main economic activity and income earner among the households in both study areas which, however, was being practiced on a purely subsistence basis due to various attendant challenges including shortage of land, land farming knowledge/skills, lack of capital/input, aridity and destruction of crops by wild animals. The inefficiency of agriculture has forced the majority of households to resort to other income sources for survival, with the major ones in both study sites including fishing, selling of crafts, selling of non-timber forest products, selling of firewood and brick moulding. However, the alternative income sources are based on the natural environment, which poses a serious threat to environmental sustainability in the study areas. With the loss of remittances from urban areas due to the current economic decline in the country, which had become an important income source for most rural households in South Africa, it is not surprising to see many households resorting to the natural environment as a source of income.
Mots clés : livelihood|agriculture|communities|remittances|economic
A104773SN