Source of plants Sixty percent of people in both Monywaneng and Ga-Sekgopo mentioned that they collect plants from communal areas. The most common reasons for the
preferences of this land include free access to plants, es- pecially those used for firewood. Firewood is highly used as an alternative source of energy (due to the high cost of electricity) for cooking, boiling water, and heating houses. However, participants complained about the in- creased distance to collection sites, and availability of certain species compared to the past. This has resulted in them harvesting material from nearby communities, thus initiating conflict with those communities. Those community members who did not collect material in communal areas cited the availability of electricity, un- availability of preferred species, and safety factors. A study by Paumgarten and Shackleton et al. [39] in vari- ous areas of South Africa, found that those villagers who did not utilise communal areas for livelihood needs tended to purchase medicine, firewood and food. This difference in the utilisation of communal lands corre- lates highly with the socio-economic status of partici- pants and their proximity to major metropolitan areas.