Service Contract No 2007 / 147-446 Strategic ... - Swaziland

safety net would alleviate fears around food (in) security, and of spiralling into the cycle ofpoverty if cane farming does not succeed, and needs to be standardised across all projectdevelopments involving small cane growers.An additional option for consideration is to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the socioeconomicimpacts of mechanisation on the sugar industry.Many financial aspects affecting cane growers have been addressed, primarily as part of theSSAs Smallholder Assistance Action Programme and implementation of the NAS.Complementary to this, and filling in a gap that has been identified during this StrEA, couldbe research into the impact of mechanisation on income and hence cash flow. Mechanisationwill have both positive and negative affects; it may reduce labour requirements (thusindirectly related to HIV/AIDS) and labour costs, yet result in higher investment in equipmentand energy costs, and cause the loss of jobs and potentially increase levels of poverty.Research into mechanisation would thus link in with broader socio-economic impacts.Recommendations for intervention are based on the above options, giving priority toinvestigating alternate management models for small cane growers. The other issuesidentified can be supportive to this, running parallel to the process, namely strengtheningcapacity building and training, assurance of a safety net through allocation of parcels of landto alternate (subsistence) crop production, and research into the socio-economic implicationsof increased mechanisation of the sugar industry.5.4 Key aspect 3: Loss of biodiversity due tol and- take for sugar cane expansion (HighPriority)5.4.1 Current stateVarious components of Swaziland’s biodiversity have been inventoried and researched overthe past few decades. Most of this work has been aimed at producing checklists and atlases,which document presence and distribution of species, respectively. Recently work has alsobeen conducted on mapping ecosystems and vegetation types.5.4.1.1 EcosystemsDuring the development of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), theimportance of taking an ecosystem approach for the successful conservation of biodiversitywas recognised and an ecosystem map for Swaziland was drafted. This map showsecosystems as opposed to geographical regions or vegetation types. The four ecosystemsare (see Figure 15): (1) montane grasslands; (2) savanna-woodland mosaic; (3) forests; and(4) aquatic systems.RDMU (Strategic Environmental Assessment of the National Adaptation Strategy) - Page 65