Data generation techniques

In this study questionnaires, interview, observations and ecological techniques have been used.

3.6.1 Questionnaires

Closed-ended questions were used to prompt a yes or no response or any other kind of A or B response to corroborate information and secure specific details (Rudacille, 1994). For example, have you ever been to the forest? (Appendix D, Q1). A funnel sequence and inverted funnel sequence was used in questionnaire design so as to motivate respondents to

33

co-operate and fully complete a questionnaire (Fisher and Geiselman, 1992; Loftus et al., 1975). Questionnaires were administered by continuously responding to learners who need clarity. They were used to mobilise learners’ prior everyday knowledge about plant conservation. Learners answered a series of questions in writing as Irwin (2002) suggested.

However, Worker (1993) warns that questionnaires may suffer some problems of mass production and lack of interpretive opportunities. Thus, questionnaires could be misunderstood and that could result in undesirable responses. I administered the questionnaires and so was able to monitor the process of answering in order to ensure that the learners were able to ask for clarification. This also helped in making sure that all questionnaires were returned. Questionnaires were written in English although learners were allowed to respond or ask questions in their home language.

In Chapter 4 questionnaires were used to determine the level of knowledge about conservation for each learner prior to the designed experience. In these Source Based Questions, the learner could use the herbarium and the botanical garden as a source of information to correctly answer the questions in a way as proposed by Venkateswaren et al.

(2004). In working with sources, especially primary sources, learners are offered an exciting opportunity to study and work. During the administering and monitoring of the process of answering the questionnaires by the learners, care was taken to ensure that learners were able to ask for clarification.

In Chapter 5 learners were given worksheets with questions that were used to determine what learner perceptions about botanical garden were before visiting it. This made it possible to determine what learned and they enjoyed about the botanical garden trip?

3.6.2 Interviews

Merriam (2002) regards interviews as the best technique to use when conducting intensive case studies of a few selected individuals, especially if semi structured. Interviews are flexible, which allows the researcher to change the sequence of questions, even the wording, to probe the unexpected. Open-ended questions were used in the interviews to assess the subject’s knowledge, attitudes, opinions, beliefs and feelings. For example, what kinds of activities, programs and strategies have you experienced or received related to plant protection and conservation issue? What community institutions or structures have been involved in plant protection and conservation efforts in your community and why? Please explain. Who has historically been seen as ‘responsible for’ plant protection and

34

conservation relations in your community? What is that person’s occupation and title?

Please describe him/her (Appendix D; Q1, Q5, Q6). I chose semi-structured interviewing as I was not going to get more than one chance to interview each participant (Bernard, 1988).

According to Merriam (2002), this is where the interview, as a primary instrument of data generation, has its advantages. This type of interview ensures that a specific question does not lose its purpose (Sanders, 1999).

I also used interview questionnaires to find out how community members see, interpret and relate to nature. I asked local communities what their real needs are because there is a tendency to think that our power, knowledge and resources can give us the right to predict what communities need without actually asking them. When our imposed initiatives fail, we often accuse these communities of a lack of interest in our issue. During interviews, it is important to guard against the common pitfalls of presuming that what scientists have to offer is what the community wants and needs.

Interview questionnaires were a l s o used to obtain information from street vendors on medicinal and cultural plants (Appendix E). Since these were semi-structured not all questions were designed and phrased ahead of time, allowing both the interviewer and the person being interviewed the flexibility to probe for details or discuss issues. Street vendors answered a series of questions put to them and their answers were written on the questionnaire (Appendix E). This also ensured that answers were relevant to the questions asked. Questionnaires were written in English although community members could ask in isiXhosa for clarification and also reply in their language of choice. It was first established that street vendors understood the questions before their replies were recorded.

Interviews seek to cover both a factual and a meaning level, though it is usually more difficult to interview on a meaning level (Kvale, 1996). According to Merriam (2002), interviews allows the interviewer to change the sequence of questions, even the wording, to probe the unexpected so as to ensure that the questions do not lose their purpose. Interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences. The main task in interviewing is to understand the meaning of what the interviewees say (Kvale, 1996). The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic. Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g., to further investigate their responses (McNamara, 1999).

35 3.6.3 Observations

I have used the non-participant observation technique to capture behavioural reactions to the questions in order to supplement the data generated through questionnaires and interviews.

I decided to use observation because it is a purposeful, systematic and a selective way of watching and listening to an interaction phenomenon as it takes place (Kumar, 1996). I documented whatever I observed during administration of the questionnaires and was able to provide reflections on this process. I also chose non-participant observation as it involves observing participants without actively participating (Liu and Maitlis 2010).

3.6.4 Analysis of documents

The documents on plants and their uses kept in the Albany Museum herbarium were analysed. These were compared with the information given by community members in the questionnaires. Street vendors indicated that plant species such as Rubia petiolaris, Strychnos henningsii, Cassipourea flanaganii, Bulbine latifolia, Silene undulata and Rhoicissus tomentosa are in demand by the community for medicinal and cultural purposes. The use of documents and filed plant specimens in Albany Museum herbarium allow prediction of possible locations plant species (Peterson et al., 2000; Anderson et al., 2002; Anderson, 2003; Anderson and Martinez-Meyer, 2004). Such predictions may be used alien species before they are introduced and as a result this may help to evaluate the environmental risk they pose (Sanchez-Cordero and Martinez-Meyer, 2000; Peterson and Vieglais, 2001;

Arriaga et al., 2004; Iguchi et al., 2004). The likelihood that a species will occur in a particular suitable location may depend on past history in terms of its distribution or its likely ability to disperse from other locations where it also occurs (Jimenez-Valverde et al., 2008).

3.6.5 Data validation

Xhosa plant names from street vendors and community members were matched to scientific names by following the preliminary list of Xhosa plant names from the Eastern Cape, South Africa (Dold and Cocks, 1999). The botanical nomenclature of this list follows Germishuizen and Meyer, (2003). In addition to literature reports Selmar Schönland Herbarium specimens were used to validate the ethnobotanical information given by the community members and street vendors. Herbaria are repositories of information in the form of vouchers, originally serving economic botany, and increasingly seen primarily as resources for plant taxonomy (Bebber et al., 2010; Van Andel el al., 2012). Today, the wider value of herbaria is appreciated (Lavoie et al., 2013). Herbaria worldwide house more than 300 million

36

specimens collected over 400 years and as such are a rich repository of specimen collection dates and localities (Thiers, 2014).

3.6.6 Ecological techniques

Fieldwork was conducted by collecting plant samples from two schools, 17 streets, community gardens and the Makana botanical garden. A 1 m x 1 m quadrat was used and the cover abundance of the species in each quadrat were estimated. The woody species were measured by the means of counting the number of trees in the area. The number of quadrats measured in each green space were done in proportion to its area: four quadrats for an area more than 500 m², two quadrats for an area less than 500 m² but more than 100 m² and 1 quadrat for an area less than 100 m². All the samples collected were pressed for later identification in the Selmar Schönland Herbarium.

Searches were undertaken specifically for Red List species and any other species of conservation concern. All exotic species were recorded and categorised as alien or weeds.

The National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 2004 (Act No 10 of 2004) (NEMBA, 2004) provides for the management and conservation of South Africa’s biodiversity and the establishment of a National Biodiversity Institute for the implementation of the Act. A person may not carry out restricted activities involving a specimen of alien species on such list without a permit issued in terms of Chapter 7 of the Act, which shall only be issued after the prescribed assessment of risks and potential impact on biodiversity is carried out. Restricted activities include amongst others importing, having in possession, conveying, moving or translocation, and acquiring or disposing of a listed invasive species.

Historical occurrences of threatened plant species were drawn from NewPOSA (http://newposa.sanbi.org/) for the quarter degree square of the area. According to SANBI this website provides access to South African plant names (taxa), specimens (herbarium sheets) and observations of plants made in the field (botanical records). Data is obtained from the Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA; Golding, 2001). In one of the continent's largest collaborative conservation projects to date, South Africa has become the first megadiverse country to fully assess the status of its entire flora. The Red List of South African Plants (http://redlist.sanbi.org/) provides up to date information on the national conservation status of South Africa's indigenous plants. Vegetation sensitivity was based on the concept of irreplaceability (SANBI, 2017). Areas containing high diversity, threatened species, high habitat complexity or systems vital to sustaining ecological functions were considered sensitive. South Africa uses the internationally endorsed IUCN

37

Red List Categories and Criteria in the Red List of South African plants. This scientific system is designed to measure risk of extinction. The purpose of this system is to highlight those species that are most urgently in need of conservation action. Due to its strong focus on determining risk of extinction, the IUCN system does not highlight species that are at low risk of extinction but may nonetheless be of high conservation importance. Because the Red List of South African plants is used widely in South African conservation practices such as systematic conservation planning or protected area expansion, we use an amended system of categories designed to highlight those species that are at low risk of extinction but of conservation concern. The Regulations to the Act as well as the list of invasive species were both published on 1 August 2014 and the Regulations came into force on 1 October 2014.

I also investigated plant diversity, abundance and distribution of street trees in the Makhanda area because they can be an important resource for plant conservation as well as environmental education in the Makhanda area. Town streets in Makhanda were randomly sampled, and as a result not all streets were counted. All the trees growing in the streets listed in Table 1 of Chapter 8 were sampled. Sampling took place in the spring and early summer (October, November and December).

3.7 Designing and developing the learning activities