Livestock production on South Africa’s commons strongly contributes to livelihoods of communal
households offering status, food and income. Management innovations are generally top-down and
informed by commercial practices such as rotational grazing in combination with conservative
stocking. Implementations often ignore how the specific socio-ecological context affects outcomes
and the impact on equity. Science now acknowledges that rangeland management must be context
specific and a universally agreed-upon recommendation for managing semi-arid rangelands does
not exist. We present a socio-ecological simulation model derived from a case study in South
Africa. It is used to assess the socio-ecological effects of rotational vs. continuous grazing under
conservative and opportunistic stocking rates. We find that continuous grazing under conservative
stocking rates is best suited for the system under investigation. However, past legacy under
apartheid and participants’ expectations render its successful application unlikely.
