We add a new layer ... South Africa's complicated land use ...

We have added a new layer to the Mining and Energy subscription maps - the SA Land Use Map

This is a custom map layer put together by the team at AmaranthMaps - a collaboration between AmaranthCX and 1Map.

We have classified the actual land use - not necessarily the legal ownership - of the surface area of South Africa.

1. Communal Areas - rural land outside formal urban areas where people live communally - often under tribal authorities or other traditional communities, including Community Property Associations (CPAs) - except where the CPA owns land which is used for commercial agriculture or forestry, rather than for residential or subsistence purposes. Much of this land used to be "homelands" - but now includes many areas subject to various land restitution and land reform programmes. It does not include land restitution or reform farms owned or leased by individual farmers as commercial operations.

2. Military Facilities - military training areas, air force bases, ammunition depots and military test ranges outside of formal urban areas.

3. Police Facilities - this includes police training academies and colleges, outside formal urban areas.

4. Prison Farms - the Department of Correctional Services operates over 45 000 hectares of agricultural land, within multiple prison farms across the country. Prisons within urban areas are not included in this category.

5. Protected Areas - all areas that enjoy some sort of official protected status - everything from national parks to declared private game reserves - it includes protected areas which are not traditional nature reserves - where commercial agriculture or or other activities may take place in the protected area. Private game farms - some of which host dangerous animals like the big 5 (elephants, rhinos, lions, leopard and buffalo) but enjoy no official protected status are not included.

6. Research Facilities - these are agricultural research farms, university research facilities, and facilities of other government entities used for scientific and commercial research, other than military test ranges, outside urban areas.

7. State Forests - state owned commercial plantations and indigenous forests. Some of these forests are leased and operated by private consortia, but they remain state land.

8. Urban Areas and Commonage - this is all formally declared towns and townships, and the associated agricultural land owned by the town in question. Commonage may be leased to farmers or farmer collectives, however it is administered by the municipality in question.

What is left is freehold rural land - used for agriculture, forestry, game farming, leisure and recreation. transport infrastructure like roads or railways, water infrastructure or its use in unknown.