Towards a ‘systems’ approach for guiding agricultural environmental management: a South African case study of a small-scale maize farming system

Abstract

Environmental management processes which aid integrative understanding of systems can facilitate holistic proactive approaches to development within environmental constraints. This paper describes a social-ecological system approach for identifying environmental management intervention points in an agricultural system, illustrated through a case study of a small-scale maize farming system in South Africa. A review of documented information on the ecological, socio-political and economic components of the system was followed by mapping and analysis of interactions within the system, which was validated through a stakeholder engagement process. The Driving Forces-Pressures-State-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework was used to organise the information and to summarise relationships between components of the system. Two types of drivers: direct and indirect, influenced the state of the environment in the system. Indirect drivers influenced the system in a hierarchical manner, starting by affecting direct drivers at local level and exerting influence from different levels up to national level policies. This clarification of the relationships between state of the environment, direct drivers and indirect drivers could assist decision making by identifying possible points for intervention that are relevant to the function or level of responsibility of different decision makers. The proposed social-ecological system approach can provide a better understanding of the causes underlying the state of the environment and promote more proactive and integrated management decisions through an improved understanding of complex interactions.