A stark line is sometimes drawn between ‘industrial/commercial’ and ‘informal’ segments of South Africa’s meat industry. But are such distinctions helpful?

As the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists calls attention to the global diversity, importance, and governance of the world’s rangelands, the myth of the tragedy of the commons is particularly relevant and illustrative of the power and dangers of universalising and reductive myths.

To understand the challenges of landscape stewardship in South Africa, we need to appreciate how rangelands have been shaped by history, and how this continues to affect the way rangelands are governed today.