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Deagraianisation is a worldwide phenomenon with widespread social, ecological and economic effects yet with little consensus on the local or higher level causes. There have been contested views on the causes and consequences of deagrarianisation on South Africa's Wild Coast, which is an international biodiversity hotspot. Using GIS, household interviews and ecological sampling, we compared the perspectives of current and former cultivators as to why some have abandoned farming, whilst also tracking the uses and woody plant cover and composition of fields abandoned at different periods. The GIS analysis showed that field abandonment had been ongoing over several decades, with a decline from 12.5 % field cover in 1961 to 2.7 % in 2009. The area of forests and woodlands almost doubled in the corresponding period. There was a distinct peak in field abandonment during the time of political transition at the national level in the early 1990s. This political change led to a decrease in government support for livestock farming, which in turn resulted in reduced animal draught power at the household and community level, and hence reduced cropping. The study showed it is largely the wealthier households that have remained in arable agriculture and that the poorer households have abandoned farming. The abandoned fields show a distinct trend of increasing woody biomass and species richness with length of time since abandonment, with approximately three woody plant species added per decade. Most local respondents dislike the increases in forest and woodland extent and density because of anxiety about wild animals causing harm to crops and even humans, and the loss of an agricultural identity to livelihoods and the landscape.

Biodiversity is the foundation of life-support systems on earth and underpins the delivery of ecosystem services (ES) important for human well-being. The loss of biodiversity worldwide, however, remains one of the most daunting challenges. Among the major causes of biodiversity loss is habitat loss due to transformation of land to agricultural, mining and urban areas. We applied the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) biodiversity modelling tool to assess the condition of habitats to support the delivery of ES in a biosphere reserve (BR) in South Africa. Results indicated that 72% of the surveyed habitats were of high quality to provide the necessary services. However, some of the habitats were found to be affected by threats as follows: low (0–20%) to moderate (20–32%) habitat loss was recorded in habitats adjacent to mining and plantation areas, and high (32–56%) to severe (56–95%) habitat loss was recorded in habitats in close proximity to urban and cultivated areas. At least 56% of the vegetation types found in the study area were threatened by transformation to agriculture, mining and urban areas. We strongly recommend that existing biodiversity policies and legislation should be enforced to avoid habitat loss and degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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