Afrikaans: Die studie het uitgeloop op die gevolgtrekking dat 'n bodembenuttingstrategie, wat onder
meer 'n ingrypende verandering in die gesindheid jeens Suid-Afrika se bodem op die oog het, en
wat deel van 'n omvattende hulpbronbenuttingstrategie kan uitmaak, as nasionale prioriteit
benader moet word. Die mens se verhouding tot en wisselwerking met die bodem is van die basiese menslike
aktiwiteite wat neerslag vind in wat ons kultuur noem. Kultuur is immers die "groeiende en die
veredelende uitkoms van die proses van bewerking van die wereld om en in die mens." Vir die
Christen staan die verhouding tussen mens en bodem in die teken van die mens se
aanspreeklikheid teenoor God, Skepper en Gewer van die bodem as oorspronklike
produksiemiddel vir die instandhouding van die menselewe op aarde.
In die suiwer agrariese bestaan is die mens se verhouding tot die natuur deur momente binne
sy totale omgewing in ewewig gehou. Maar sedert die agtiende eeu is die ewewig versteur - onder
meer deur die ingrypingspotensiaal wat die opkoms van die wetenskap meegebring het, die
industriele omwenteling met die gepaardgaande vraag na landbou en voedselproduksie, krimping
van die aardbol deur die ontwikkeling van kommunikasiestelsels, eksponensi"ele bevolkingsgroei,
en nuwe geesteshoudinge by die mens wat onder die druk van 'n veelheid nuwe en soms ontredderende momente binne sy totale omgewing gevorm is.
Die gevolge van onbeheerste groei - veral wat nywerheidsontwikkeling en bevolking betref -
het die mens van die twintigste eeu ook ten opsigte van die natuurlike hulpbronne voor 'n
krisissituasie te staan gebring - 'n situasie waarin die nuwe begrip: ekologiekrisis, kortsluiting in
die mens se verhouding tot die natuur weerspieel. Die problematiek van bodemvernietiging maak
deel hiervan uit maar hou ernstiger gevolge in omdat dit regstreeks verband hou met die mens se
stoflike voortbestaan op aarde. So' word die hedendaagse mens dan gedwing om horn ten opsigte van sy verhouding tot die landbouhulpbron - die bodem - te verantwoord in die lig van die
toekoms. In terme van die Christelike etiek behels die verantwoording 'n sedelike oordeel.
Teen die agtergrond is die Suid-Afrikaanse situasie nagevors. Daar is gepoog om die bodem
(wat as die gesteldheid van die land en die grond as biologiese gemeenskap opgevat word) binne kultuurverband te plaas; om die mens se benutting van die bodem aan 'n sedelike imperatief te koppel; om dit Suid-Afrikaanse bodembenuttingspatroon teen die agtergrond te evalueer en
riglyne vir bodembewaring as kultuurstrategie vir die toekoms aan te dui.
English: This study culminated in the conclusion that a land-use strategy - including, inter alia, a
drastic change in attitude towards South Africa's soil - which could become part of a
comprehensive resource-use strategy, must be approached as a national priority.
Man's relationship to and interaction with the land are basic human activities that crystallise
into what we call culture. Indeed, culture is the "growing and elevating result of the process of
cultivation of that world around and within man". To the Christian, the relationship between man
and land involves man's responsibilities to God, Creator and Giver of the land as the original
means of production for sustaining human life on earth.
In the purely agrarian world, man's relationship to nature was kept in equilibrium by factors
within his total environment, but this balance was disturbed in the eighteenth century by, among
other things, the intervention potential of the emerging sciences, the industrial revolution with the
concomitant demand for agriculture and food production, shrinking of the globe through the
development of communication systems, · exponential population growth, and new spiritual
attitudes which developed in man under pressure from a multitude of new and sometimes
bewildering and momentous events within his spectrum of experience.
As a result of uncontrolled growth - particularly as regards industrial development and
population - twentieth century man is now faced with a crisis situation as far as the natural
resources are concerned - a situation in which the new concept: ecology crisis, reflects a
breakdown in man's relationship to nature. The problem of the destruction of the land forms part
of this, but is more dangerous because it directly involves man's material survival on earth.
Modern man is therefore compelled to justify himself with regard to his attitude towards the
agricultural resource - the land - with regard to the future. In terms of Christian ethics this
justification involves a moral judgement.
The South African situation was researched against this background. An attempt was made
to place the land (by which is meant the condition of the country and the land as a biological
community) within the cultural context; to link man's use of the land with a moral imperative; to
evaluate the South African land-use pattern against this background and to suggest guidelines for
the conservation of this land as a cultural strategy for the future.
