Postdoctoral Research Fellow; appointment

The University of the Free State’s Restoring Biodiversity and Connection to Nature in the Southern African Mountains Research Chair invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to participate in an interdisciplinary project examining the economic impacts and social uptake of improved rangeland management practices. The project investigates how rangeland interventions and livestock value chain strategies affect livestock owners’ incomes and livelihoods, with an emphasis on pre- and post-intervention analysis.

The study seeks to generate policy-relevant evidence on sustainable land management, livestock value chains, rural livelihoods, and climate-resilient agriculture within communal and smallholder livestock systems in and around the Witsieshoek Indigenous and Communal Protected Areas (WCCA) of Phuthaditjhaba. This research forms part of a broader initiative led by the HANS HOHEISEN Charitable Trust in partnership with Meat Naturally and AFRO-MONTANE RESEARCH UNIT, aimed at reducing biodiversity loss and supporting the rewilding of the WCCA.

Achieving key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires livestock production systems that are environmentally sustainable and capable of supporting food and nutrition security, incomes, and animal welfare under climate change. Globally, livestock supports over 1.3 billion livelihoods and contributes around 40% of agricultural output, with particularly rapid growth in developing regions (World Economic Forum, 2019; FAO, 2023). Yet livestock keepers remain disproportionately poor;

in Sub-Saharan Africa, about 85% are classified as poor, with even higher rates in remote mountainous areas (de Glanville et al., 2020). Livestock keepers in these areas battle rugged, infertile landscapes, infrastructure and accessibility constraints, harsh climatic events, and vegetation degradation that undermine productivity.

Phuthaditjhaba is a mountainous area marked by high poverty and food insecurity. Around 70% of Qwaqwa consists of nutrient-poor, non-arable mountain landscapes, limiting crop production. With minimal forest cover, livelihoods rely heavily on extensive grasslands that support livestock farming (Taylor, 2023), on which approximately 36% of households depend. However, rapid urbanisation and land‑use change threaten livestock viability: between 1989 and 2019, built-up areas expanded by 270% while farmland declined by about 30% (Onaolapo et al.,

2022), leading to shrinking and increasingly congested pastures and heightened environmental risks associated with intensification.

Although urbanisation poses significant challenges, expanding markets offer opportunities to strengthen livestock-based livelihoods. Sustaining these livelihoods requires improved rangeland management alongside strategies to enhance livestock value chains. A project led by the HANS HOHEISEN Charitable Trust at the University of the Free State is implementing rangeland management interventions on degraded grasslands in the WCCA. However, robust evidence on how such interventions and market strategies affect livestock productivity, incomes, and livelihoods in Phuthaditjhaba remains limited.

• Examine social uptake, perceptions, and behavioural responses to improved rangeland management practices.
• Design and implement impact evaluation frameworks comparing livelihoods and income outcomes before and after rangeland management interventions.
• Design and implement impact evaluation frameworks comparing livelihoods and income outcomes before and after livestock market/value chain strategies.
• Analyse household and community-level socioeconomic data, including income, productivity, and welfare indicators, for smallholder livestock farmers in WCCA and…