Rachel Wynberg

University of Cape Town | UCT · Department of Environmental and Geographical Science

Traditional foodways are under threat due to historical factors like profound racial discrimination, alongside the pressures of a highly capitalised and industrialised food system and environmental degradation. In the northern Cederberg mountains of South Africa, bread-making forms an integral part of the cultural heritage of rural communities and...

In an era of climate change, South Africa’s kelp forests offer important opportunities for sustainable resource utilization. However, these opportunities also bring risks of over-exploitation. The mismanagement of kelp forests through monistic and exclusionary strategies must therefore be avoided. Emphasizing the value of plural knowledges and cult...

Benefit-sharing agreements are a new, prescriptive way of treating trade, biodiversity and the commercial use of traditional knowledge. However, these agreements have met with surprisingly little critique as a development paradigm. Through the lens of the industry around rooibos, a plant native to South Africa, we offer new, critical perspectives o...

Seed embodies life, power, and culture. From Africa’s deserts and drylands to its mighty river systems and tropical forests, from those growing a multiplicity of grains, legumes, and vegetables, to others struggling to produce enough to feed their families, seed provides the mainstay for the continent’s 500 million small-scale farmers and is at the...

Farmer-managed seed systems and the conservation of agrobiodiversity are increasingly recognized as important components of food and seed sovereignty. In contrast, hybrid, genetically modified (GM), and, increasingly, gene-edited crops continue to be promoted by Green Revolution proponents as a "climate smart" package that includes fertilizers, pes...

AGRA (formerly known as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) was founded in 2006 by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation to initiate agricultural transformation in Africa. Although critics have argued that AGRA’s approach insufficiently addresses the needs of African smallholder farmers, there has been little analysis of th...

Introduction Interventions aimed at improving the seed security of smallholder farmers do not always yield positive results. Governments, donors, and other actors have neglected local seed systems as they are assumed to be incapable of addressing farmers’ seed challenges. Instead, external actors use seed aid and formal seed provisioning outlets, s...

Kelp are large seaweeds that provide a variety of contributions to humans and the environment. In South Africa, kelp forests are expanding as a consequence of climate change. Considering this expansion, assessing local perceptions and values around kelp’s contributions may assist with the implementation of inclusive management strategies. The lack...

The recent involvement of Nestlé in the Africa Food Prize reinforces the presence of the ultra-processed food industry in the continent and invites us to reflect on the implications this may have for Africa’s sustainable food systems agenda.

A recent report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed how the sustainable use of wild species benefits people and nature, and which policies work best to prevent unsustainable exploitation. In the context of an accelerating and alarming biodiversity crisis, the assessment findings...

Access and benefit sharing (ABS) is a central approach to address biopiracy – the misappropriation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge without consent or compensation, often tied to patenting. Benefit-sharing agreements comprise a core element of ABS and are intended to leverage greater social and economic justice, create incentives for...

Increasing anthropogenic pressure on the sea and alteration of coastscapes challenge the functioning of marine ecosystems and long-term reliance on blue economies, especially for developing southern economies. The structural hardening of shores can result in ecological disruptions, with cascading effects on the wellbeing and livelihoods of marginal...

Using the lens of the baobab tree, this paper explores the ecological outcomes of different tenurial arrangements and implications for resource sustainability. With thee mergence of markets for baobab products, a central concern is to confirm whether use patterns differ across different tenure regimes and, if so, their ecological out-comes. The stu...

This chapter reviews the range of policy options available for the sustainable use of wild species. Four broad and overlapping categories of instruments are considered: i) legal and regulatory, ii) economic and financial, iii) social and information based, and iv) customary and rights based. Evidence for their effectiveness in supporting the govern...

The multiple sectors of food and agriculture globally operate within a rapidly changing environment of legislative, administrative and policy measures on access and benefit-sharing (ABS). These regulate access to, and use and transfer of, genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with them, including genetic resources for food and ag...

Contestations about the way in which digital sequence information is used and regulated have created stumbling blocks across multiple international policy processes. Such schisms have profound implications for the way in which we manage and conceptualize agrobiodiversity and its benefits. This paper explores the relationship between farmers’ rights...

Le rapport est axé sur les points suivants : - Comprendre les mécanismes de renforcement des acquis APA pour les communautés, la recherche en matière de biodiversité, la conservation et l’utilisation durable ; - Explorer comment ces efforts permettraient d’atteindre des objectifs plus larges de conservation des écosystèmes et des habitats ; - Éclai...

Technological changes embedded in the processes of agrarian modernization have profoundly reshaped agricultural environments , practices, discourses and institutions worldwide. This article explores how social-ecological relations shift in agricultural practices following the introduction of modern seed varieties , including hybrid and genetically...

The risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops is assumed to be a benign regulatory tool due to its perceived objectivity and freedom from the morals and values that pervade society. Yet, against the current backdrop of ecological, social and political volatility, issues that cannot be resolved using the existing framework in South Africa a...

The report centers on: - Understanding how to strengthen the gains for communities, biodiversity research, conservation and sustainable use from ABS; - Exploring how broader objectives of ecosystem and habitat conservation might be achieved through these efforts; - Untangling the relationship between traditional knowledge (TK) and biodiversity cons...

The report centers on: - Understanding how to strengthen the gains for communities, biodiversity research, conservation and sustainable use from ABS; - Exploring how broader objectives of ecosystem and habitat conservation might be achieved through these efforts; - Untangling the relationship between traditional knowledge (TK) and biodiversity cons...

Never before has the biosphere, the thin layer of life we call home, been under such intensive and urgent threat. Deforestation rates have soared as we have cleared land to feed ever-more people, global emissions are disrupting the climate system, new pathogens threaten our crops and our health, illegal trade has eradicated entire plant populations...

Social Impact Statement Patents can be used as a measure of innovation and to illustrate the commercial potential of plant and fungal biodiversity. The proportion of plant species named in patents represents only 6.2% of plant species, whereas the proportion of fungi is likely less than 0.4%. Fungi clearly justify further research. Innovation on a...

Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi project provides assessments of our current knowledge of the diversity of plants and fungi on Earth, the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them. Produced in conjunction with an international scientific symposium, Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi sets an important inte...

Life has evolved in the ocean for 3.7 billion years, resulting in a rich ‘ocean genome’, the ensemble of genetic material present in all marine biodiversity, including both the physical genes and the information they encode. Rapid advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have enabled exploration of the ocean genome and are informing i...

The ‘ocean genome’ is the foundation upon which all marine ecosystems rest and is defined here as the ensemble of genetic material present in all marine biodiversity, including both the physical genes and the information they encode. The dynamics of the ocean genome enable organisms to adapt to diverse ecological niches and changing environmental c...

Several UN policy processes are embracing a calcified approach to conservation and equity in science

Developing a governance framework for Marine Genetic Resources (MGRs) is a crucial element of the proposed treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Negotiating countries' positions on MGRs, including questions on the sharing of benefits from their use, range from no regulati...

“Access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits” (ABS) has become, arguably, the most studied and reflected upon concept in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) process since 1992. But despite all of this attention, it is still not clear what is included under the scope of ABS. In other words: what does ABS actua...

Urbanization and scarce income-earning opportunities have led to increasing commercialization of non-timber forest products in southern Africa, including the nutritious mopane worm Imbrasia (=Gonimbrasia) belina. The mopane worm contributes substantially to incomes and food security in households across the region, but little research has addressed...

News article in the Mail & Guardian analysing the rooibos benefit-sharing agreement

A brief about ongoing research focused on farmer-led seed systems in Zimbabwe

Explores the ethical issues associated with agricultural research in resource-poor settings

The research and development of any “new” agricultural crop created using genetic modification technologies, even if undertaken with the best of intentions, is accompanied by novel human health, environmental, social, economic and other risks. To date, much of the research that has accompanied the release of genetically modified (GM) crops has focu...

New global code of research ethics. Also available in other languages from the Code website http://www.globalcodeofconduct.org/

Like many other countries, South Africa has come under public pressure to introduce mandatory labelling for genetically modified (GM) foods. Although there is increased understanding of the social and political implications of GM labelling in developed countries, implications for the global South are still poorly understood. South Africa, as a coun...

This report from the EC-funded TRUST provides guidance on community engagement in research operating globally, from the perspective of the 4 TRUST values: fairness, respect, care and honesty. These values were identified by a global group including representatives from vulnerable research populations. They form the cornerstone of equitable research...

The world is entering a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, where humans are believed to be responsible for having as much of an impact on the e arth’s system asgeological processes themselves.1 Given rapid anthropogenic change, scientists havedefined a “safe operating space” for planetary systems, referred to as the nineplanetary boundaries, t...

Available examples of multifunctional landscapes are derived from developed countries, and do not typically shed light on the spatial clashes and synergies between traditional subsistence and commercially intensive production activities in developing countries. This paper explores the relationships between multiple land uses in a rural South Africa...

Investigations into natural resource use and access are often limited to rural areas; such use is not considered an integral part of urban livelihood strategies, especially amongst the poor. With growing urban food insecurity, poverty, and unequal access to services, natural resource use may provide a viable alternative to cash-based resources, thu...

South Africa is one of few African countries to have a comprehensive legal and policy framework in place for access and benefit sharing (ABS). Indeed, discussions about ABS were initiated more than twenty years ago, in line with the country’s transition to a democracy and together with the revision of its biodiversity policy to incorporate provisio...

Fact-finding and scoping study on digital sequence information on genetic resources in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. Prepared for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to inform the ad-hoc technical working group on digital sequence information on genetic resources

Local seed systems that are developed, managed and maintained by farmers are a fundamental practice in small- holder crop production, supporting more than 80% of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and feeding more than 70% of its population. The resilience of such systems is under threat from poverty, climate change, drought, increased pests and diseas...

New rules for access and benefit sharing (ABS) of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge have been established by the Nagoya Protocol but have not kept up with rapid scientific and technological advances in biodiscovery. This suggests the need for innovative, transdisciplinary approaches to regulate ABS and emerging technologies.

Millions of small-scale farmers on the African continent save and exchange the seed of their traditional crops, yet the social and cultural values of these systems remain under-researched. Through ethnographic research conducted in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, this study set out to improve understanding about the mechanisms and signi...

Hoodia gordonii, an indigenous plant used by San peoples in southern Africa to suppress their appetites, is just one of many indigenous plants that corporations and other organizations have sought to discover, patent, and market. Such efforts to co-opt and commercialize the traditional medicinal knowledge of indigenous peoples have been called "bio...

There is a growing demand to incorporate social, economic and ethical considerations into biotechnology governance. However, there is currently little guidance available for understanding what this means or how it should be done. A framework of care-based ethics and politics can capture many of the concerns maintaining a persistent socio-political...

Non-timber forest product (NTFP) commercialisation can have both detrimental and positive effects on the livelihoods of indigenous peoples yet there is a paucity of empirical studies from which to draw conclusions, especially when economic activities are linked to traditional use and knowledge. Based on research conducted in arid areas of north-wes...

Over the past decade, a series of controversies has arisen about equity and justice in the rooibos industry, centred both on the biological resource and on the traditional use and knowledge that fostered the growth of this lucrative trade. Accusations of biopiracy, meaning the misappropriation and patenting of genetic resources and knowledge withou...

This paper reviews the location of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approaches within the access and benefit sharing (ABS) policy spaces of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Nagoya Protocol. We describe how a range of dialogues on ethical research practices found a home, almost inadvertently, within the ABS policy process. H...

Indigenous seed, knowledge and agricultural systems are vital for small-scale farmers in South Africa: they enhance food security, strengthen social cohesion, maintain cultural integrity, and build climate resilience. Increasingly, however, such systems are under threat from rural flight and urbanisation, changed lifestyles and eating habits, degra...

Concerns about ecological sustainability and inequality are driving increased formalization of the natural product trade, including both biotrade of bulk, raw materials (or nontimber forest products [NTFPs]) and bioprospecting for genetic resources. However, there has been little interrogation as to whether the policy tools used to achieve sustaina...

Biofuels are controversial because of uncertain environmental benefits and reported social drawbacks, including ‘land grabs’ and threats to food security. The present study investigates the relevance of these concerns for a proposed bioethanol project in Cradock, South Africa. The proposed project is anticipated to lead to economic upliftment and c...

This paper aims to enhance understanding about the influence of governance arrangements in non-timber forest product value chains on ecological sustainability and equity outcomes. This is done through the lens of two plant species endemic to southern Africa: Hoodiagordonii, succulent plants developed as appetite suppressants based on traditional kn...

The concept of benefit sharing has seen growing adoption in recent years by a variety of sectors. However, its conceptual underpinnings, definitions, and framework remain poorly articulated and developed. We aim to help address this gap by presenting a new conceptual approach for enhancing understanding about benefit sharing and its implementation....

Understanding the governance of complex social-ecological systems is vital in a world faced with rapid environmental change, conflicts over dwindling natural resources, stark disparities between rich and poor and the crises of sustainability. Improved understanding is also essential to promote governance approaches that are underpinned by justice a...

Zimbabwe has undergone a number of intense governance changes as it has pro-gressed from the colonial to the postcolonial period. These include initiatives to centralize, decentralize, recentralize and democratize the governance of natural resources, as well as economic and land reform policies that have had far-reaching effects. Despite a multitud...

This chapter aims to enhance understanding about the influence of different governance arrangements in NTFP value chains on ecological sustain-ability and equity outcomes. We do this through the lens of two plant species endemic to southern Africa. In the first case, we explore the commercialization of Hoodia gordonii, a succulent plant developed a...

Coastal resources are vital for communities in developing countries, many of whose coastal-dwellers live in severe poverty. These resources also hold significant value for a number of different sectors of the economy, such as mining, fisheries, forestry and tourism, which supply expanding global consumer markets. Although these activities provide o...

Understanding the governance of complex social-ecological systems is vital in a world faced with rapid environmental change, conflicts over dwindling natural resources, stark disparities between rich and poor and the crises of economic, social and ecological sustainability. Improved understanding is also essential to promote governance approaches t...

The embrace of socio-economic rights in South Africa has featured prominently in scholarship on constitution making, legal jurisprudence and social mobilisation. But the development has attracted critics who claim that this turn to rights has not generated social transformation in practice. This book sets out to assess one part of the puzzle and as...