Land consolidation and the expansion of game farming in South Africa: Impacts on farm dwellers' livelihoods and rights to land in the Eastern Cape

Abstract

This chapter examines the ways in which two forms of wildlife-based tourism in South Africa, hunting farms and private luxury game reserves, have accelerated land consolidation and shifting land use and access patterns. It also shows that the spread of game farming and wildlife-based tourism is actively producing new landscapes with important cultural, social and economic consequences for farm dwellers. In light of recent land acquisition trends, this land consolidation process is arousing qualms regarding its social costs. The social impacts of conversions to wildlife production on farm dwellers vary somewhat by region and mode of wildlife utilisation. Farm dwellers have strong connections to the farming areas. Their removal from the properties means they lose access to land for grazing and cultivation. Numerous farm dwellers have been evicted but their displacement is induced by withholding certain basic services, refusal to employ them and introducing dangerous game without any protection.