Maximising the Use of Environmental and Cultural Resources for Community-Led Entrepreneurship Development in Rural South Africa

Abstract

Limpopo is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa. This state of poverty is despite the province's potential to be self-supportive from its well-endowed natural and cultural heritage resources. This chapter argues that commercialisation of these resources could promote sustainable community-led entrepreneurship and local economic development. This chapter hypothesises that there is an economic linkage between the environment and local economic development as GebreMichael and Waters-Bayer found in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. A plethora of emerging literature on local economic and entrepreneurship development reveal that there was considerable linkage between commercialization of these resources and sustainable entrepreneurship and local economic development. This chapter locates itself in the context of “Rural Development” and would be anchored on Monaheng's theorisation on development; the technocratic, the radical, and the reformist approaches.