The Bushbuckridge Hiking Club: creating access to nature for Mpumalanga’s young people BlogFeatured BlogHome Slider

The Bushbuckridge Hiking Club: creating access to nature for Mpumalanga’s young people

Kulani Nyakane In a world where conservation has become a global priority, the conversation often revolves around protecting endangered species, saving habitats, or reversing the effects of climate change. Yet, there is another equally important dimension: ensuring that local communities, especially young people, have meaningful access to the very ecosystems being conserved. Without that connection, conservation risks becoming distant, abstract,…
PLAAS
September 23, 2025
Decolonising conservation – where do we begin? A reflection from Prof Kepe’s Masterclass BlogFeaturedFeatured BlogHome Slider

Decolonising conservation – where do we begin? A reflection from Prof Kepe’s Masterclass

Conceptions of conservation are changing in Africa. The meanings change from place to place - in some instances, decolonised conservation looks like withdrawing from colonial powers. To others, it means rejecting conditioned feelings of inferiority and taking back people’s dignity. In his Masterclass on decolonising conservation, Professor Thembela Kepe in May spoke about the need for decolonisation at three primary…
Oluwaseyi Agboola
August 27, 2025
Prof Thembela Kepe: A masterclass in decolonising conservation Blog

Prof Thembela Kepe: A masterclass in decolonising conservation

Image caption: Zodwa Masinga returns from grass cutting on the edge of Lake St Lucia at KwaNibela, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Picture: Screenshot from 'Indalo Yethu' documentary, shot by Shoot the Breeze for PLAAS. 2024 By Professor Thembela Kepe For many people in the conservation sector, discussions about the ugly history of colonial conservation are sensitive. In order to have a…
PLAAS
August 12, 2025
Meeting notes: Merging Maputo National Park with UNESCO World Heritage Site iSimangaliso Wetland Park BlogFeaturedFeatured BlogHome Slider

Meeting notes: Merging Maputo National Park with UNESCO World Heritage Site iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Professor Moenieba Isaacs On 25 June 2025, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape attended a public meeting on iSimangaliso Wetland Park’s (IWP) expansion programme with Maputo National Park - a new transfrontier park between South Africa and Mozambique to be declared a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).…
PLAAS
July 6, 2025
Livelihood bricoleurs: young people composing livelihoods in post-land reform Zimbabwe Blog

Livelihood bricoleurs: young people composing livelihoods in post-land reform Zimbabwe

To conclude this series and give a flavour of some of the themes explored across the previous nine blogs, this post presents a series of five cases offering in-depth reflections on how livelihoods are composed across a range of activities and in response to a variety of challenges. The cases highlight some of the experiences of different young people in…
PLAAS
June 23, 2025
Pathways of accumulation followed by young people in Zimbabwe’s land reform areas Blog

Pathways of accumulation followed by young people in Zimbabwe’s land reform areas

With limited assets and multiple constraints to access to land, accumulation by young people in our A1 land reform sites is challenging. This blog looks at the multiple pathways followed, highlighting how livelihoods, gender relations and styles of farming are being reinvented in the process. Challenges faced The challenges of generating livelihoods, building up assets and wider accumulation faced by…
PLAAS
June 23, 2025
Livelihood asset accumulation by young people in post-land reform Zimbabwe Blog

Livelihood asset accumulation by young people in post-land reform Zimbabwe

Our studies of young people across our A1 land reform sites in Zimbabwe show the real challenges that young people face in getting established as independent economic actors. This requires putting together a portfolio of activities, diversifying opportunistically while also seeking a stable source of income through acquiring land. This is not easy. It is hard work, stressful and not…
PLAAS
June 23, 2025
‘Waithood’ and the challenges of household establishment amongst young people in Zimbabwe Blog

‘Waithood’ and the challenges of household establishment amongst young people in Zimbabwe

When we last explored what was happening to young people across our field sites in 2016, the experience of ‘waithood’ was very evident (see our ROAPE paper for a discussion). This is a period between childhood and adulthood that can extend for years when it is impossible to establish oneself independently. You can’t get land, you have no job, you have…
PLAAS
June 23, 2025
Is going to school still worth it? Dilemmas for young people in post-land reform Zimbabwe Blog

Is going to school still worth it? Dilemmas for young people in post-land reform Zimbabwe

There is a large literature on the economic returns to education around the world. Most of this points to the value of schooling in simple economic terms for boys and girls at both primary and secondary levels. But what happens when the type of jobs that school leavers usually get no longer exist? Under such circumstances is going to school…
PLAAS
June 23, 2025
Reinventing tradition: new forms of inheritance in Zimbabwe’s land reform areas Blog

Reinventing tradition: new forms of inheritance in Zimbabwe’s land reform areas

Longstanding traditions around land and its use within and between families and amongst men and women are up for renegotiation in post-land reform Zimbabwe. Young people must balance cultural norms – sometimes insisted on by their elders – with the necessities of providing for the next generation in highly land-constrained settings Changes in inheritance patterns, for example, are occurring in…
PLAAS
June 23, 2025