Plastic pollution is a major global issue and its impacts on ecosystems and socioeconomic sectors lack comprehensive understanding. The integration of plastics issues into the educational system of both primary and secondary schools has often been overlooked, especially in Africa, presenting a major challenge to environmental awareness. Owing to the importance of early age awareness, this study aims to investigate whether plastic pollution issues are being integrated into South African primary and secondary education school curriculums. Using face-to-face interviews with senior educators, we address this research problem by investigating (i) the extent to which teachers cover components of plastic pollution, and (ii) educator understandings of plastic pollution within terrestrial and aquatic environments. The results indicate that plastic pollution has been integrated into the school curriculum in technology, natural science, geography, life science, life skills and life orientation subjects. However, there was a lack of integration of management practices for plastics littering, especially in secondary schools, and understanding of dangers among different habitat types. This highlights the need for better educational awareness on the plastic pollution problem at both primary and secondary school level, with increased environmental programs needed to educate schools on management practices and impacts.

This paper investigates the drivers and dynamics of livelihood and landscape change over a 30-year period in two sites in the communal drylands of Zimbabwe (Marwendo) and South Africa (Tshivuhulani). Of particular interest to us was how access to social protection and a wider range of options may mitigate increased vulnerability under a changing climate. A mixed methods approach (using household surveys, focus group discussions, life history interviews, transect walks and secondary sources of data) was applied to develop human–environment timelines for each study site. Findings indicate that prolonged periods of droughts, unreliable rainfall, changing socioeconomic policies and development-related projects were among the major drivers of both positive and negative change in both villages. Marwendo, in particular, experienced a suite of negative drivers in the last 10 years that increased vulnerability and forced households to diversify into potentially maladaptive activities. In contrast, the expansion in social grants in Tshivhulani provided an important safety net that reduced vulnerability, but also led to a decline in farming and a narrowing of livelihood activities for some households. We demonstrate that rural development initiatives such as electrification and road construction can strengthen local people’s capacity to respond to drivers of change, while new methods of farming and diversification of the livelihood portfolio can make them more climate-resilient. However, long-term changes in landscapes and ecosystem services and feedbacks on livelihoods could reverse some of the benefits of development by eroding the natural capital many households still depend on.

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies aims to engage, inform, and catalyse scholarly discourse within research and real-world practices that work towards the minimisation of vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout developing communities with special emphasis on Africa.

Effective management responses to different risks posed by invasive alien plants (IAP) rely on the ability to assess the appropriateness of the decision‐making process involved. IAP management is highly dynamic and complex, involving diverse stakeholders and it remains unclear whether the current decision‐making processes are appropriate for managing IAP. However, there have been some notable successes both locally and elsewhere in the world. Here, 30 key informant interviews were conducted with private landowners (n = 7), natural resource managers from government parastatals (n = 7), private sector (n = 5), non‐governmental organisations (NGO) practitioners (n = 6) and researchers (n = 5) involved in IAP management, to better understand the perspectives on the current decision‐making process. In addition, the compliance of the current IAP decision‐making process to the principles of robust decision‐making was assessed. The availability of a plethora of management plans, science‐based decisions, the creation of jobs, flexible process and coordination were frequently identified strengths. Furthermore, the results showed no significant differences among stakeholder groups in how the respondents characterise their current IAP decision‐making process, with infrequent mention of the principles of robust decision‐making. The findings demonstrate how infrequently the principles of robust decision‐making are incorporated into the current IAP decision‐making process. Incorporating the principles of robust decision‐making offers an avenue for improving the decision‐making process for invasive alien plant management.