Towards a framework for assessing the sustainability of local economic development based on natural resources: honeybush tea in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
- Polak, James, Snowball, Jeanette D
- Authors: Polak, James , Snowball, Jeanette D
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69201 , vital:29445 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2016.1196348
- Description: Despite the popularity of local economic development (LED) as a job creation and economic growth strategy in South Africa, many LED projects have not proved to be sustainable in the long-run, especially where human systems interact with biological ones. This article examines the relationship between sustainability and LED within the context of the emerging honeybush tea industry in the Eastern Cape. Data were gathered from provincial as well as local government policy documents and reports, and via key informant interviews. The data were analysed using Connelly’s [(2007). Mapping sustainable development as a contested concept. Local Environment, 12 (3), 259–278] three pronged approach to sustainable development as a lens through which to view the local industry. Findings showed that the industry offers many opportunities for development, including job creation in poorer, rural households; sustainable wild harvesting using a permit system; commercial cultivation; potential to develop social capital; potential for community-based LED; and product diversification. However, there are also corresponding challenges: There is currently no reliable data on the maximum sustainable yield, which is needed to guide quota allocations for entrepreneurial harvesters harvesting from wild stocks; possible biodiversity loss; and enforcing the permit scheme is proving difficult in remote rural areas.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Polak, James , Snowball, Jeanette D
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69201 , vital:29445 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2016.1196348
- Description: Despite the popularity of local economic development (LED) as a job creation and economic growth strategy in South Africa, many LED projects have not proved to be sustainable in the long-run, especially where human systems interact with biological ones. This article examines the relationship between sustainability and LED within the context of the emerging honeybush tea industry in the Eastern Cape. Data were gathered from provincial as well as local government policy documents and reports, and via key informant interviews. The data were analysed using Connelly’s [(2007). Mapping sustainable development as a contested concept. Local Environment, 12 (3), 259–278] three pronged approach to sustainable development as a lens through which to view the local industry. Findings showed that the industry offers many opportunities for development, including job creation in poorer, rural households; sustainable wild harvesting using a permit system; commercial cultivation; potential to develop social capital; potential for community-based LED; and product diversification. However, there are also corresponding challenges: There is currently no reliable data on the maximum sustainable yield, which is needed to guide quota allocations for entrepreneurial harvesters harvesting from wild stocks; possible biodiversity loss; and enforcing the permit scheme is proving difficult in remote rural areas.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Unexpected transformations of 3-(bromoacetyl)coumarin provides new evidence for the mechanism of thiol mediated dehalogenation of α-halocarbonyls
- Magwenzi, Faith N, Khanye, Setshaba D, Veale, Clinton G L
- Authors: Magwenzi, Faith N , Khanye, Setshaba D , Veale, Clinton G L
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66200 , vital:28916 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2017.01.082
- Description: publisher version , The mechanism for the thiol mediated dehalogenation of α-halogenated carbonyls has remained an unresolved problem, despite its ongoing application in synthetic organic chemistry. Nakamura and co-workers first proposed that net dehalogenation occurs via sequential nucleophilic substitutions, while Israel and co-workers concluded that the rate at which dehalogenation occurred suggested that dehalogenation proceeds in a single concerted step. In this study, we investigated the debromination and nucleophilic substitution of 3-(bromoacetyl)coumarin with a variety of thiophenols, whose electron donating or withdrawing natures resulted in large variations in the degree of nucleophilic substitution and dehalogenation products, respectively. Results from these experiments, in addition to an unexpected formation of thioether containing dibenzo[b,d]pyran-6-ones from a Robinson annulation, has provided new evidence for this disputed mechanism.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Magwenzi, Faith N , Khanye, Setshaba D , Veale, Clinton G L
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66200 , vital:28916 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2017.01.082
- Description: publisher version , The mechanism for the thiol mediated dehalogenation of α-halogenated carbonyls has remained an unresolved problem, despite its ongoing application in synthetic organic chemistry. Nakamura and co-workers first proposed that net dehalogenation occurs via sequential nucleophilic substitutions, while Israel and co-workers concluded that the rate at which dehalogenation occurred suggested that dehalogenation proceeds in a single concerted step. In this study, we investigated the debromination and nucleophilic substitution of 3-(bromoacetyl)coumarin with a variety of thiophenols, whose electron donating or withdrawing natures resulted in large variations in the degree of nucleophilic substitution and dehalogenation products, respectively. Results from these experiments, in addition to an unexpected formation of thioether containing dibenzo[b,d]pyran-6-ones from a Robinson annulation, has provided new evidence for this disputed mechanism.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Waiting for happiness in Africa
- Moller, Valerie, Roberts, Benjamin J, Tiliouine, Habib, Loschky, Jay
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Roberts, Benjamin J , Tiliouine, Habib , Loschky, Jay
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67225 , vital:29061 , https://s3.amazonaws.com/sdsn-whr2017/HR17-Ch4_lr.pdf
- Description: publisher version , From Introduction: Are the people in Africa really among the least happy in the world? And if African countries do have a ‘happiness deficit’, what are the prospects of Africa achieving happiness in the near future? These are questions we shall try to address in this chapter. The World Happiness Report (WHR), published since 2012, has found that happiness is less evident in Africa than in other regions of the world. It reports Gallup World Poll (GWP) ratings of happiness, measured on the ‘ladder of life’, a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 indicating greatest happiness. On the map of the Geography of Happiness, published in an earlier World Happiness Report Update 2015, the happiest countries in the world are shaded green, the unhappiest red. Africa stands out as the unhappiest continent, being coloured almost entirely in shades of glaring red (See Fig. 4.1). In 2017, the WHR reports that average ladder scores for over four in five African countries are below the mid-point of the scale (see Fig. 4.2). And only two African countries have made significant gains in happiness over the past decade . There are also considerable inequalities in life evaluations in African countries, and this inequality in happiness has increased over the past years . In this chapter, we shall tentatively seek a number of explanations for the unhappiness on the African continent, which is home to about 16% of the world’s population. It will be no easy task to identify factors that may have shaped perceptions of well-being among the 1.2 billion African people who live in 54 nation states with different historical, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. Nonetheless, we shall attempt to describe some of the positive and negative experiences in the lives of people in African countries that likely impact on personal well-being. We shall also try to identify the prospects for change and development that could spell hope for increasing the happiness of African people in future.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Roberts, Benjamin J , Tiliouine, Habib , Loschky, Jay
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67225 , vital:29061 , https://s3.amazonaws.com/sdsn-whr2017/HR17-Ch4_lr.pdf
- Description: publisher version , From Introduction: Are the people in Africa really among the least happy in the world? And if African countries do have a ‘happiness deficit’, what are the prospects of Africa achieving happiness in the near future? These are questions we shall try to address in this chapter. The World Happiness Report (WHR), published since 2012, has found that happiness is less evident in Africa than in other regions of the world. It reports Gallup World Poll (GWP) ratings of happiness, measured on the ‘ladder of life’, a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 indicating greatest happiness. On the map of the Geography of Happiness, published in an earlier World Happiness Report Update 2015, the happiest countries in the world are shaded green, the unhappiest red. Africa stands out as the unhappiest continent, being coloured almost entirely in shades of glaring red (See Fig. 4.1). In 2017, the WHR reports that average ladder scores for over four in five African countries are below the mid-point of the scale (see Fig. 4.2). And only two African countries have made significant gains in happiness over the past decade . There are also considerable inequalities in life evaluations in African countries, and this inequality in happiness has increased over the past years . In this chapter, we shall tentatively seek a number of explanations for the unhappiness on the African continent, which is home to about 16% of the world’s population. It will be no easy task to identify factors that may have shaped perceptions of well-being among the 1.2 billion African people who live in 54 nation states with different historical, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. Nonetheless, we shall attempt to describe some of the positive and negative experiences in the lives of people in African countries that likely impact on personal well-being. We shall also try to identify the prospects for change and development that could spell hope for increasing the happiness of African people in future.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017