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The next decade of environmental science in South Africa: a horizon scanCharlie M. Shackletona; Bob J. Scholesb; Coleen Vogelc; Rachel Wynbergd; Tanya Abrahamsee; SheonaE. Shackletona; Fred Ellerya; James Gambizaa

a Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa b

Environmentek, CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa c School of Geography, Archaeology and EnvironmentalStudies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa d Environmental EvaluationUnit, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa e South African National BiodiversityInstitute, Pretoria, South Africa

Online publication date: 16 May 2011

To cite this Article Shackleton, Charlie M. , Scholes, Bob J. , Vogel, Coleen , Wynberg, Rachel , Abrahamse, Tanya ,Shackleton, Sheona E. , Ellery, Fred and Gambiza, James(2011) 'The next decade of environmental science in SouthAfrica: a horizon scan', South African Geographical Journal, 93: 1, 1 — 14To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/03736245.2011.563064URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03736245.2011.563064

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The next decade of environmental science in South Africa: a horizonscan

Charlie M. Shackletona*, Bob J. Scholesb, Coleen Vogelc, Rachel Wynbergd,

Tanya Abrahamsee, Sheona E. Shackletona, Fred Ellerya and James Gambizaa

aDepartment of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa;bEnvironmentek, CSIR, P.O. 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; cSchool of Geography, Archaeologyand Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, P.O. Wits 2050, Johannesburg, SouthAfrica; dEnvironmental Evaluation Unit, University of Cape Town, P. Bag, Rondebosch 7701, SouthAfrica; eSouth African National Biodiversity Institute, P. Bag X101, Pretoria 0001, South Africa

Environmental systems are in constant flux, with feedbacks and non-linearitiescatalysed by natural trends and shocks as well as human actions. This poses challengesfor sustainable management to promote human well-being. It requires environmentalunderstanding and application that can accommodate such fluxes and pressures, as wellas knowledge production systems and institutions that produce graduates withappropriate skills. In this article we consider these challenges in the South Africancontext. Firstly, we summarise six significant environmental realisations from the lastdecade of environmental science internationally and question what they mean for theteaching of environmental science and research into environmental systems in SouthAfrica in the near future. We then consider these lessons within the context of a horizonscan of near-term pressing environmental issues in South Africa. These include water-use efficiency, poverty, food security, inequities in land and resource access,urbanisation, agrochemicals and water quality, promoting human well-being andeconomic adaptability in the face of climate change, and imbuing strongerenvironmental elements and stewardship into the integrated development planningprocesses and outcomes. Lastly, we consider the knowledge areas and skills thatenvironmental graduates will require to be able to confront these problems in SouthAfrica and simultaneously contribute to international debates and understandingsaround the complexity of environmental systems and how to manage them.

Keywords: complexity; interdisciplinary; socio-ecological systems; urbanisation

Introduction

The notion that environmental concerns and development needs can be viewed and treated

as separate spheres has long been dispelled (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)

2005). This has been replaced by a broad realisation that the social, economic and

ecological components are integrated, and that changes in one inevitably catalyses

changes in the other two. Linkages between ecosystems and human well-being are

reported in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), an important study of the health

of the global ecosystem involving biophysical, social and economic specialists from

around the world (including South Africa). The MA re-emphasised the notion that human

well-being depends upon ecological systems and their associated provision of ecosystem

ISSN 0373-6245 print/ISSN 2151-2418 online

q 2011 Society of South African Geographers

DOI: 10.1080/03736245.2011.563064

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*Corresponding author. Email: c.shackleton@ru.ac.za

South African Geographical Journal

Vol. 93, No. 1, June 2011, 1–14

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services (MA 2005). The coupling of humanity and ecological systems was remarkably

well captured in an analysis for each country of the relationship between our ecological

footprints and the human development index. These are the key components of

sustainability – limiting our ecological footprint whilst raising the quality of life of all

people in building a secure future for humanity. Environmental science as a discipline is at

the forefront of examining the complex relationships that make up the entity of what are

now being labelled as social–ecological systems, where human well-being is recognised

as being firmly entrenched in the health of ecological systems (e.g. Norgaard et al. 2009,

Ostrom 2009, Ramakrishnan 2009).

With growing pressures on ecological systems resulting from increasing use and abuse

by human populations, a wide variety of unknown or unanticipated outcomes continue to

manifest, which has ripple effects in the social and economic domains (Rockstrom et al.

2009). Global climate change is a prime example, but others such as expansion of oceanic

dead zones, accumulation of toxins in riverine sediments, deforestation and loss of coastal

and inland wetlands easily come to mind. Solutions to all of these require more than just

ecological understandings and fixes – they need to address social and economic systems

and thinking that underpin and drive use and abuse of ecological systems and resources.

Because of the rapid pace of change in these pressures on ecological systems,

environmental science as a discipline is also rapidly evolving as new understandings and

hypotheses are generated, as new environmental concerns emerge and as the complexity of

each is revealed (Ostrom 2009). The last decade has seen significant strides in

conceptualisation and understanding of environmental issues globally (Rockstrom et al.

2009). Increasing recognition of environmental issues by the general public and policy

makers is to be welcomed, but also raises the expectations of environmental researchers

and policy makers to find workable solutions, rather than simply identifying challenges

and concerns.

Because the discipline is evolving so swiftly, university curricula and research

programmes must keep abreast by scanning the horizon for emerging issues in the near

future. If they fail to do so, new graduates will be ill-equipped to deal with the new

environmental challenges and thinking as they emerge, and research programmes will be

unable to contribute to meaningful knowledge frontiers or solutions. This places a

particular responsibility on universities to adopt a dynamic approach to teaching and

research around environmental science, as well as the need for frequent stock taking and

alignment of environmental science programmes with the latest developments

internationally. The concept of horizon scanning has been proposed as a method for

identifying risks and opportunities before they manifest themselves (Sutherland et al.

2006, Sutherland and Woodroof 2009). Horizon scanning requires that stakeholders (e.g.

government departments, non-governmental organisations and academics) work together

to identify key research questions and emerging threats or trends. The involvement of

decision markers and practitioners at the initial stage of problem identification is crucial

for the adoption of the subsequent research findings. Universities are well placed to drive

the process of horizon scanning that can also feed into curriculum development.

Universities responding to environmental challenges

As the demand for greener lifestyles and greater resource-use efficiency grows, it is

incumbent upon universities and research agencies to produce graduates and knowledge to

lead the way (Wright 2002, Corcoran and Wals 2004). Many are rising to this challenge as

evidenced by the increasing number of environmentally orientated courses offered and

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graduates produced throughout the developed world. Furthermore, the cross-disciplinary

nature of ‘environment’ has led to the appropriation of the word by many disciplines such

that courses offered within a range of disciplines have an overwhelming environmental

slant (viz. environmental biology, economics, education, engineering, ethics, geology,

history, journalism, law, politics, management and many others). Despite this burgeoning

of curricula and graduates with exposure to environmental topics, our ability to solve

environmental problems wisely remains challenging.

Universities not only have to produce the graduates with appropriate environmental

and thinking skills, but increasingly they are also called upon to conduct all their activities

in an environmentally responsible fashion (Viebahn 2002, Baboulet and Lenzen 2010);

acting as environmental role models and the conscience of society and corporate

institutions. Therefore, environmental science is a rapidly evolving discipline with new

challenges arising as older ones are either addressed or lose vogue (Miller, G.T. 2005).

Traditional ways of doing things do not seem to work, illustrating the need for

understanding complexity in order to solve the complex problems of today’s world.

The route towards environmental sustainability is unknown and strewn with surprises

and pitfalls along the way, yet it is a pathway that all societies seek to a greater or lesser

extent.

Because of the rapid evolution of the discipline, universities and research agencies

need to maintain a strategic, and at times, visionary focus to ensure that they are

producing graduates with the best skills, capacities and knowledge to cope with each new

challenge. We need innovation in the ways that we understand the world and in the

solutions that we find, particularly for developing countries in a rapidly globalising

world driven by markets that emphasise consumption. In order to participate in global

debates and research programmes to understand and solve environmental challenges, both

at home and abroad, environmental scientists in South Africa need to be constantly

anticipating the next challenge and how they may best play a role. Horizon scanning is

a potentially useful tool for this purpose (King and Thomas 2007, Sutherland and

Woodroof 2009).

The need for horizon scanning in the environmental science field in South Africa

recently came to the fore at a workshop and debate at Rhodes University in celebration of

the 10th anniversary of the Department of Environmental Science. Using the last 10 years

as the basis of their analyses, participants were asked to look forward for the next 10 years

in terms of how Rhodes, and other South African universities, will need to respond. This

was achieved by considering (i) the broad-scale salient lessons from international trends

and lessons of the last 10 years, (ii) issues that are likely to be priority environmental

challenges within South Africa in the next 10 years and (iii) the knowledge and skills

areas, gleaned from international debates and the experiences of the workshop

participants, with which environmental graduates will need to be equipped to address

these future challenges for the development of the country, and the well-being of all South

Africans and the environment in which we live.

Significant realisations from the last decade of environmental science

Environmental issues and their scientific investigation have come of age in the last decade

in most countries of the world (King and Thomas 2007, Lawton 2007, Sutherland et al.

2010). Yet, from the plethora of journals, books and commentaries, several key

realisations around how people now view the world and the environment in which we live

(as opposed to priority vogue environmental issues) can be identified.

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Society at large has begun to recognise the limits to growth

First, in the last decade, the human population at large became aware of the finite limits

to growth. Although first aired and debated amongst academics and learned societies

since the time of Malthus in the early 1800s and the Club of Rome’s ‘Limits to Growth’

in 1972, the finite limits of potential human population growth have never, until recently,

been adequately internalised by world leaders and the general population at large.

However, the last decade has seen a significant number of assessments, both

internationally and nationally, of key environmental resources and communication of the

outcomes beyond just academic circles. The landmark Millennium Ecosystem

Assessment (MA 2005) was the first ever international collaboration involving over

1300 scientists, working at multiple scales, to provide a comprehensive picture of the

state of the world’s ecosystems. The findings were communicated widely to both

scientists and world leaders via the United Nations. In many respects they make sobering

reading (Carpenter et al. 2009): global fisheries are declining, climate change is

threatening and requires immediate action to reduce CO2 emissions by 95% within the

next two decades, humans now appropriate over 50% of the world’s net primary

production (Haberl et al. 2007), coastal dead zones are expanding (Stramma et al. 2008),

and extinction of species is accelerating (Balmford and Bond 2005). In South Africa,

90% of arable land is already used, water quality is declining rapidly and land

degradation continues apace. Overall, South Africa’s environments are in a state of

decline (DEAT 2006).

In recognising that there are limits to growth, new research areas have evolved to

predict or quantify the limits for core ecological stocks and flows, and how these vary at

different scales. At a global scale, Rockstrom et al. (2009) proposed the novel concept of

planetary boundaries. The planetary boundaries approach focuses on biophysical

processes and their associated thresholds that influence the functioning of the Earth

System (Scheffer and Carpenter 2003, Walker et al. 2004), and are described as the safe

space within which humans can operate without causing adverse changes in the

environment (Rockstrom et al. 2009). The boundary values are set at a safe distance from a

given threshold. Rockstrom et al. (2009) have identified nine planetary boundaries. These

are climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone, biogeochemical nitrogen and

phosphorus cycles, global freshwater use, land system change, rate of biodiversity loss,

chemical pollution and atmospheric aerosol loading. They argue that humans have already

transgressed three planetary boundaries, namely climate change, biodiversity loss and

global nitrogen cycle.

Awareness that ecosystem goods and services support human endeavours andwell-being

Second, not only has society at large come to realise that degradation of natural

ecosystems is occurring and that biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate, but in the

last decade the links between environmental health and human health and well-being

have been realised. This is a primary outcome of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

(MA 2005). This consciousness is not yet as widespread as needed, but is gaining rapid

credence within research circles, resulting in increasing case studies and evidence

globally. The environmental basis of human well-being is steadily being uncovered and

communicated; whether it be a rich urban resident in a developed country or a poor

farmer in a developing one, all require clean potable water, fresh air, sufficient food and

the like. Links between human well-being and ecosystem health demand research and

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policy attention across all disciplines (Le Maitre et al. 2007). Allied to this is the

potential of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a mechanism for capturing the

value of what have previously been un-monetised ecosystem goods and services (Jacka

et al. 2008, Wunder 2008). In this way, degradation of such services will no longer be

simply deemed as externalities, but the costs will be internalised into land-use planning,

decision making and management. PES is not without implementation problems, and the

issue of scale is important, but the results from many fledgling projects are promising

(Milder et al. 2010).

Recognition of the complexity of environmental systems

Third, the last decade has seen environmental scientists beginning to appreciate and

grapple with the unpredictability of complex environmental systems. It has long been

realised that environmental systems are complex in that they respond in nonlinear ways

to externalities, and that at times they are unstable in that they may change their

composition, structure and function as environmental thresholds are crossed. Thus,

ecosystems are frequently unpredictable in that they often do not respond simply. But the

last decade has seen such complexities now being built into the very core of many

research programmes. Furthermore, the communication to policy makers and managers

of the outcomes of research into complexity is being examined because of the perceived

urgency of many environmental problems (e.g. Burns et al. 2006, Pinol et al. 2007). The

concepts of uncertainty, thresholds, multiple stable states, disequilibrium, feedbacks,

multiple and simultaneous stressors and windows of opportunity are now research topics

in their own rights (e.g. Kinzig et al. 2006, Doak et al. 2008), and their implications for

management now have wider appreciation. Linked to this is that many systems are being

pushed beyond historical limits (Rockstrom et al. 2009). Thus, researchers and managers

are more frequently operating in grey areas, areas outside of what is normally studied,

documented and understood (e.g. climate change; Carpenter et al. 2009), where the

concepts of uncertainty and thresholds become ever more pertinent. We need new and

sophisticated research to understand, communicate and manage the complex problems

that face us.

Appreciation that environmental systems have integrated human and biophysicaldimensions

Fourth, the role of people in environmental systems has come of age. For decades, humans

were more often than not regarded as external to environmental systems; simply a negative

driving pressure of overuse of environmental resources and absorptive capacity. The last

few years has seen a wide acknowledgement that humans are an integral component of

environmental systems and their livelihoods depend upon environmental resources

irrespective of where they reside or the modernity of the societies in which they live. This

has resulted in burgeoning research programmes into social–ecological systems (e.g.

Folke et al. 2004, Liu et al. 2007, Carpenter et al. 2009) based on the recognition that

humans depend upon the environment and that they influence its condition and productive

capacity; but that they also respond to it (Reynolds et al. 2007). There is increasing

integration of the biological and physical sciences (e.g. International Geosphere-

Biosphere Programme), of the biophysical and human sciences (e.g. MA), science and

policy (e.g. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and public accountability of

science (e.g. Environmental Impact Analysis review processes).

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Most of the world’s population now live in urban areas

Fifth, during the last decade, the proportion of the world’s population living in cities and

towns surpassed that living in rural areas (UN-Habitat 2006). This trend is ongoing, with

ever diminishing proportions of people in farming and rural communities. This has as yet

unexplored implications in a range of disciplines from economics to environmental

psychology, from biodiversity conservation to human health and education and from

politics and governance to consumerism. At the forefront will be the ever expanding

ecological footprints of urban areas, as well as future generations’ experiences and

perceptions of natural lands, species and ecosystem processes, encapsulated in concepts

such as ‘extinction of experience’ (Miller, J.R. 2005) and ‘nature deficit disorder’ (Louv

2006). Concerns around poverty profiles will shift from rural areas to urban ones,

especially in the developing world where urbanisation frequently does not improve

standards of living in the short term as the ecological uncertainties of a rural lifestyle are

swapped for the economic uncertainties of an urban one. Consumer and voter patterns will

inexorably change, demanding proactive vision and responses from policy makers and

researchers as the environmental attitudes and issues deemed important by the general

populace take on a more urban bias.

Acknowledgment that ecological restoration is necessary and possible on a wide scale

Sixth, during the previous century, primary responses to land or ecosystem degradation

were to either move on or increasingly rely on external inputs. Communal farmers moved

elsewhere, whereas commercial farmers sold up and bought another farm or moved to the

cities and a different means of livelihood, or applied escalating quantities of

agrochemicals. However, as more and more lands became degraded, these options

became ever more untenable. In response, during the last decade, the necessity,

attractiveness and viability of restoration (or rehabilitation) have been acknowledged.

Restoration ecology has moved beyond restoration of small areas such as mine dumps and

sensitive wetlands, to large-scale areas such as whole catchments, whole farms and entire

districts. South Africa’s Working for Water Programme is an example of restoration of

catchments (Binns et al. 2001). Of necessity, operation at these larger scales brings in

economic and social dimensions, moving it solely from ecology to an integrated approach.

Although there are many unknowns and a fertile ground for research, the necessity for

restoration is increasingly acknowledged by the management, policy and research

fraternities (Aronson et al. 2007).

Challenges for the next decade of environmental science in South Africa

In building on the landmarks of the previous decade, a number of environmental

challenges facing South Africa and the well-being of its environmental systems and

human population can be identified. In prioritising the environmental challenges facing the

nation for the next decade, universities can consider their curricula and research

programmes to produce the necessary knowledge and skills to address these challenges.

Some of these are already apparent, but are likely to intensify in the coming years.

With respect to limits to rates of resource exploitation, key areas in South Africa relate

to water-use efficiency, energy-use efficiency and food security. Unsustainable use of

water, energy and land will intensify over the next decade, requiring urgent efforts to

promote greater resource-use efficiency, especially by industry, agriculture and the

wealthy. Although South Africa is a developing country, there is a somewhat expedient

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tendency to use this fact to justify unsustainable patterns of consumption. The reality is

that our ecological footprint is already too high and growing – second only to Libya on the

African continent – with a ranking of 93 out of 146 countries in terms of our efforts

towards environmental sustainability. One contribution in this respect is the need to totally

reform the agricultural sector and policy, which is focussed on capital- and technology-

intensive, large-scale production through mono-cropping systems, with attendant

increasing reliance on greater chemical inputs, water demands and genetically modified

organisms. We are caught up in a very dated model of agriculture that believes that

smallholder farmers are unviable, to the detriment of sustainable livelihoods, adequate

nutrition, food security and local farming knowledge. It is clear that South Africa has the

capacity and means to feed its people, but this will take innovation and require that the

rural poor are placed at the centre of initiatives to promote sustainable farming. They need

to be empowered through participation and not disempowered through capital-intensive

State-driven initiatives, which do little to help food security of the poor. A second pathway

will be to advance research and implementation around PES as a means of promoting wise

land use and sustainable livelihoods (e.g. Turpie et al. 2008, Milder et al. 2010).

With respect to participating in debates and research into socio-ecological systems,

South African environmental scientists need to engage more meaningfully in finding

solutions pertaining to (i) the environmental dimensions of poverty, (ii) the failings of the

land reform programme, (iii) food insecurity and (iv) weak environmental dimensions of

the municipal integrated development planning (IDP) processes. Despite supportive

policies and the fact that countless efforts have been made to integrate environmental

considerations into the land reform planning process, in reality this is just not happening

(Wynberg and Sowman 2007, Clover and Eriksen 2009). Increasing pressures on

government to meet land reform targets, cumbersome and often inappropriate

environmental assessment procedures, massive capacity constraints and a confusing

multitude of laws all contribute to this neglect. Success is being measured in terms of the

number of claims lodged and settled, and the area of land transferred, rather than the

ability to deliver sustainable livelihoods and land-use options. Moreover, there are 122

land claims in protected areas that remain unresolved. As was recently witnessed at

Ndumu Forest in KwaZulu-Natal, protected areas are soft targets and we need to be

vigilant in ensuring that sustainable livelihoods are not compromised in the name of

political expediency. The failing of the land reform programme and IDP processes to

deliver sustainable livelihoods is exacerbating the already extensive poverty levels in the

country. Recipients of redistributed land are more food insecure than those who are not

beneficiaries (Valente 2009). Poverty will continue to be a major environmental issue for

other reasons too (Kates and Dasgupta 2007), not least of which stem from the stresses

placed on the environment through inequities in provision of sufficient and appropriate

housing, sanitation, energy, education and livelihood support. South Africa is in danger of

missing the majority of the Millennium Development Goals. Despite the noteworthy

efforts and infrastructure programmes of the post apartheid era, 58% of the population are

still poor. The gap between rich and poor has widened – and will likely continue to do so,

with attendant environmental challenges.

South African legislation boasts strong devolution of environmental decision making

as advocated by international agreements such as Agenda 21. These have been built into

the design of what is required of the local and district government IDPs. However,

currently, environmental sustainability and environmental issues receive little coverage in

most IDPs, other than some mention of endangered species and perhaps sanitation issues.

Many local municipalities do not have environmental officers, or have too few or with

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inappropriate qualifications. Many view the environment as a largely green issue which is

a luxury when considered against infrastructure backlogs and demands, as opposed to a

foundation for sustainable development and a satisfactory quality of life. Novel ways are

required to promote the necessary skills at local level and to integrate environmental

fundamentals into all planning and decision-making processes.

In terms of the unpredictability of environmental systems (Gunderson and Holling

2002), the key challenge in the next decade in South Africa will be how to build

adaptability to climate change, even in the face of much uncertainty of how it will manifest

at the local level. Some 65% of the South African population could be at risk of water

stress by 2025 and our agricultural systems will experience considerable disruption due to

water shortages alone (Walker and Schulze 2008). People will become increasingly

vulnerable to the vagaries of droughts, floods and changed patterns of diseases such as

malaria. How can we build a low carbon economy and a climate change resilient society?

What specific adaptation measures do we need to adopt in specific areas of the country?

How can we support and enhance existing adaptive capacity of the poor and vulnerable?

(e.g. Thomas et al. 2007, Bryan et al. 2009). We are one of the top 10 countries of the

world contributing to greenhouse gas emissions: how can we change our pattern of

economic activities to reduce dependencies on fossil fuels whilst simultaneously halving

unemployment by 2014? Importantly too – how can we ensure that the broader

environmental agenda is not completely dominated and overwhelmed by climate change

concerns?

Urbanisation in South Africa has accelerated over the last decade due to a number of

push and pull factors including underdevelopment in the rural areas and the lure of better

livelihoods in urban ones. More people now live in urban areas than rural ones, and the rate

of change is unlikely to decrease within the coming decade. This poses different

challenges to government agencies from national through to local levels. Laudable efforts

have been made in supplying basic infrastructure such as housing, water and electricity to

the growing urban populations. However, as with the land reform programme, the

numbers game dominates and the quality of infrastructure and service provision is at times

neglected and weakly monitored (e.g. Huchzermeyer 2001). The issue of urban

sustainability is poorly considered by planning agencies. For example, urban green-space

needs were not mentioned in the much vaunted presidential urban renewal programme in

the early part of the decade, and are markedly less addressed in Reconstruction and

Development Programme areas than older townships and suburbs previously designated

for whites (McConnachie and Shackleton 2010). Connections for clean water are

supported, but treatment of waste water or stormwater runoff does not keep apace, so

rivers and dams are increasingly polluted with untreated or inadequately treated sewerage,

along with previous and accumulating concerns around pollution from mining residues

and agrochemicals (e.g. Jagals 1997, Oberholster et al. 2008). Being a largely arid country

and with a growing human population, water-use efficiency is paramount, and hence dual

water reticulation systems will require design and social and economic testing (Ilemobade

et al. 2009). But water-use efficiency is only a viable strategy if water quality is sufficient.

Consequently, innovative and interdisciplinary mechanisms are required to balance

protection and use (O’Keefe 2009).

Agrochemicals are an integral part of modern commercial mono-cropping farming

systems, and to some commentators are a brazen signal of the unsustainability of modern

farming methods. Irrespective of the above mentioned facts, there is mounting evidence

that application levels of agrochemicals in South Africa are excessive, resulting in

negative effects on soils, aquatic systems (Qadir et al. 2003) and potentially human health

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(Dalvie et al. 2003, Bollmohr et al. 2007). For example, Bollmohr et al. (2007) found the

level of chloryrifos in the Lourens River in the Western Cape to be 450 times greater than

international water quality guidelines, and Sibali et al. (2008) reported that organochlorine

pesticides in the Jukskei River in Gauteng were ‘above maximum acceptable levels’. This

requires researchers to find mechanisms to reduce or eliminate these harmful effects as

well as identify and test means for agriculture to produce the required goods in more

environmentally acceptable ways.

What skills will graduates need to develop innovative insights and contribute

potential solutions?

The overarching need is for graduates comfortable with and capable of practising greater

multi- and inter-disciplinary science (Burns et al. 2006, Carpenter et al. 2009). Most of the

environmental challenges listed as priorities for the next decade are not uni-disciplinary

issues. There are a number of emerging (or growing) environmental fields that are striving

to integrate across what have been traditionally separate sciences, which include: (i)

Sustainability Science, (ii) Resilience Science, (iii) Social Learning, (iv) Environmental

Justice and Governance, (v) Environmental Economics and (vi) Environmental Modelling

and Scenario Development. All of these span the traditional ecological, biological or

geographical core competencies, but are linked into broader social science understandings

in economics, governance, politics and human behaviour. Funding agencies such as the

National Research Foundation need to lead the way in promoting trans- and inter-

disciplinary programmes, with societal sustainability as a core competency.

Second, providing graduates with insights and tools to deal with complexity and

uncertainty are paramount. We have noted that environmental systems are complex and

consequently rarely behave predictably because current knowledge fields only consider

small components of the overall complexity and for short periods of time. Synergistic and

antagonistic effects between different drivers of change at different scales are poorly

understood, and may take decades if not centuries to unravel. New graduates need to

understand what these uncertainties and complexities mean in the real world, and be

provided with creative and thinking skills in how to analyse complex systems and

mainstream the effects and consequences of uncertainty, thresholds and feedbacks. An

essential approach is systems thinking and analysis.

Restoration science will require increased attention as we attempt to revive and restore

areas and ecosystems neglected over the century or more of a mindset of limitless

resources, and so increase the stock of natural capital available (Aronson et al. 2007). The

Working for Water programme is an enviable example, spanning ecological, social and

economic spheres, and seeking to restore some of South Africa’s most valuable ecosystem

goods and services, especially water yield and biodiversity.

At a postgraduate and researcher level, these same fields become even more pertinent.

Additionally, attention is required to equip graduates with skills to bridge the ‘learning–

doing’ gap (Knight and Cowling 2006), so that research outputs become more than just

academic journal papers. A social learning approach is one mechanism to address this, as

well as a process of imbuing in postgraduates and researchers the need to make research

results available, not just to the direct funder, but also to all stakeholders who may be

affected (Shackleton et al. 2009). This needs to be then mainstreamed through

development of environmental awareness and skills courses for local government officials

and civil society (Cowling et al. 2008). Social learning does, however, require funding

agencies to consider longer time frames than has been the case over the last couple of

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decades; a 3–5-year period would typically be inadequate (Sayer and Campbell 2004).

But producing new and young researchers with a commitment to long-term stakeholder

engagement will be a step in the right direction. This could proceed in a variety of ways,

with central elements being sensitised during the postgraduate phase, adequate reward and

recognition systems for impact rather than just output, forging of strategic partnerships

between postgraduate schools and management agencies and NGOs, and longer term

funding grants with guides on the proportion that should be assigned to communication

and impact (as with the new international ESPA programme; Available from: http://www.

nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/espa/).

Having indicated that many components of environmental systems in South Africa are

in decline, it is crucial that decisions are made and programmes implemented on the basis

of sound information. This requires the design and implementation of cost-effective and

targeted monitoring systems operating at fitting scales to capture the necessary qualitative

and quantitative data and information (e.g. Lindenmayer and Likens 2009). The design of

such systems, their implementation and the subsequent analysis of the data and

information require graduates and postgraduates in sufficient numbers and with the

necessary skills and knowledge pertaining to environmental monitoring.

Promoting such interdisciplinary sciences and research requires enabling conditions to

be in place (Lawrence and Despres 2004, Van Breda 2008). This is a fertile area for debate,

and the mechanisms differ between institutions as well as between undergraduate,

postgraduate and the research spheres. At the undergraduate level, the main approach is to

reduce the disciplinary divides (Daily and Ehrlich 1999) such as through: allowing

flexibility in the construction of degrees so that students can take courses across faculties,

exposing undergraduates to interdisciplinarity courses and case examples in lectures,

promoting an appreciation of all disciplines through eliminating academic arrogance of

one discipline over another and reducing disciplinary academic jargon. At the

postgraduate level, key approaches entail the development and offering of interdisci-

plinary courses, as well as the creation of opportunities for involvement in

interdisciplinary research projects in which they are members of a team of researchers

from different backgrounds and epistemologies. At the research level, basic enablers for

interdisciplinarity include an emphasis on interdisciplinarity by funding agencies (as many

now do); focussing research endeavours on complex questions which invariably require

perspectives from more than one discipline to develop effective insights, understandings

and solutions; rewarding researchers for working in teams rather than as individuals;

fostering of formal and informal contact between researchers from different disciplines in

the same institution; lowering of disciplinary barriers through development of

collaborating schools (as well as physical proximity such as shared buildings or staff

common rooms); increasing subscriptions to interdisciplinary journals; identifying

interdisciplinary research champions to lead large research teams and reducing the use of

disciplinary academic jargon (Wear 1999).

Universities responding to pedagogic challenges

Although the focus of this paper is on the environmental science disciplinary terrain, it is

recognised that the needs of the discipline will only be met if the developments that have

been taking place in the last two decades in higher education in South Africa are taken

into consideration. In particular, the growth in the overall student numbers and the

change in composition of the student body are having a marked impact in terms of

student throughput and success rates, with 56% entering higher education institutions in

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2000 having left without graduating (Scott et al. 2007). It is recognised that the

weak quality of schooling is playing a large contributing role in the poor performance

at university, but because the school system is unlikely to change significantly in the

near future, it is incumbent upon universities to address issues of student success in

creative ways.

The need to cater educationally for the increased numbers and diversity of students

requires not only broad-scale policy and institution-wide responses, but also responses at

the level of the disciplinary curriculum. With regard to the latter, it is recognised that it is

not sufficient to afford students physical access (i.e. entry) to tertiary institutions without

ensuring ‘epistemological access’ (Morrow 1993). Morrow argues that tertiary institutions

distribute knowledge in different forms from school, and learners require some sort of

induction into academic practices. Moll (2004), in a study of curriculum responsiveness

to accommodate students’ socio-cultural realities, also talks of the importance of

socialisation into the specialised knowledge structures of a discipline, which requires

careful consideration of sequencing and progression in curriculum design as well as

making visible what is essentially the tacit or hidden part of the knowledge structures of a

discipline. Also needed is the use of a wide range of instructional and assessment strategies

and more flexible approaches to the rhythms and tensions of learning than are currently

used in many institutions. To ensure that environmentalists in South Africa are

representative of the entire socio-cultural spectrum in South Africa, the above are

important considerations.

In conclusion, the fact that environmental sustainability is a prerequisite for all human

endeavours is being recognisedmore andmore by both the public at large and policymakers.

However, translation of this into sound and workable policies and practices is not easy

because of the multiple trade-offs it raises in the face of an incomplete knowledge base.

Environmental science is the discipline at the forefront of these challenges. In South Africa,

as a developing country with high levels of poverty and inequity, these uncertainties and

trade-offs are more acute. Graduates and researchers need to be equipped with the skills to

deal with these challenges and they need to constantly seek improved and innovative

approaches. These skills are not vested in a single discipline alone, and require broad multi-

and inter-disciplinary teaching and research programmes to equip graduates and researchers

with core competencies of sustainability science, adaptability, innovation, dealing with

uncertainty and trade-offs, social learning and integration of different knowledge systems.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Rhodes University for sponsoring the development of this work.

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