Spatial synergies for urban foraging: A South African example

Area of Science:

• Urban Ecology
• Environmental Management
• Community-Based Natural Resource Management

Background:

• Urban foraging offers significant benefits for human well-being and ecological stewardship.
• Integrating foraging into urban planning can improve accessibility, equity, and overall advantages.
• Eastern South Africa presents a unique context for exploring urban foraging strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the recognition and provision of urban foraging in eastern South African municipalities.
• To develop and assess land-use configurations for planned urban foraging.
• To identify stakeholders and co-produce desirable outcomes through collaborative greenspace governance.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of forager and land manager interviews.
• Analysis of existing urban policies related to greenspace use.
• Application of community-based natural resource management design principles.
• Development of four distinct land-use configurations for urban foraging.

Main Results:

• Four feasible land-use configurations for planned urban foraging were developed.
• Stakeholder identification and governance structures for each configuration were outlined.
• Urban foraging was shown to co-produce benefits aligned with diverse stakeholder priorities.
• Locally-specific actions for enabling collaborative greenspace governance were identified.

Conclusions:

• Planned urban foraging can be effectively integrated into municipal land use in eastern South Africa.
• Collaborative governance models are essential for equitable and beneficial urban foraging.
• The proposed configurations and actions offer a framework for supporting urban foraging initiatives.