Environmental rehabilitation and rural development
Lima acknowledges the intrinsic link between people and their natural environment, particularly for South Africa’s rural population. Lima’s implementing staff therefore continues to apply the values of sustainable management and conservation of natural resources in all activities that they engage in.
Lima’s emerging environmental division has built a strong foundation in the Upper Umzimvubu river catchment. Lima has been a principal member of the Umzimvubu Catchment Partnership (UCP) since 2014. The UCP is a collection of organisations that aim to conserve the full extent of the Umzimvubu River system through sustainable restoration and maintenance interventions that integrate local communities into planning and implementation. These interventions are executed in a manner that supports economic development and job creation for local people and enhances the relationship between communities and their environment.
Lima’s team based in the Umzimvubu Catchment engages in restoration activities across a range of applications. These include:
Alien invasive plant clearing
Lima has partnered with the Department of Forestry Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) as an implementing partner of the Working for Water Programme.
Catchment coordination
Lima’s approach focuses on embedding staff within communities to provide a direct link to local people and act as a resource to community members. As such, Lima is in a position where staff members are able to provide an external link to organisations looking to engage with community members as well as integrate communities into activities being implemented in the landscape.
Lima has been providing a coordination role in the Tsitsa catchment, an Umzimvubu sub-catchment. The Tsitsa Project is funded by the DFFE and is implemented in partnership with several research institutions, as well as implementing partners based in the catchment.
Natural resource management security
Local communities rely on natural resources for consumptive and productive purposes such as access to water, arable land for food production, and income generation. The importance of access to water has been emphasised during the global COVID-19 pandemic as water forms the keystone to public health infrastructure and personal hygiene.
Enhanced water security through the protection and further development of natural water supply infrastructure such as springs. Lima works with livestock-owning members of communities to foster sustainable management of communal rangeland for a more productive landscape and more productive livestock.
Local green economy development and market links
Natural resource-based income generation stimulates local livelihoods and presents long-term incentives that cause shifts in behaviour and catalyse sustainable practices within communal landscapes.
Lima has partnered with service providers to deliver market access to isolated rural communities through mobile livestock auctions and sheep shearing facilities.
Rangeland Management and Carbon Sequestration
Lima, together with Meat Naturally, implements rangeland and livestock management programmes with Communities in Maclear. This project produces a substantial individual benefit to farmers and society alike. The project is funded through the international trading of carbon credits.