Die Ontwikkeling van Bergveldbestuur in Suid-Africa

SUMMARY The development of vegetation management in the humid mountain catchments of South Africa is described. The vegetation comprises grass and fynbos veldtypes with scatterd forest remnants and is of little agricultural value. Veld management by early white pasturalists in South Africa was based on veld-burning as used by aboriginal tribes. Some of the travellers in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries observed that fire influenced the development of vegetation types, but noted that grazing combined with burning was causing the veld to deteriorate. Early legislation for control of veld-fires was aimed chiefly at protecting crops and buildings. In the latter half of the nineteenth century veld-fires were consistently described as destructive. This opinion, based on observations of the combined effects of fire and unwise grazing, became entrenched in the first half of the twentieth century. It influenced official policy and legislation and determined the conservation measures applied in mountai...