The Kat River Valley has always been a highly contested area in South Africa. It has been subjected to the full force and range of land dispossession and resettlement in South Africa’s history. In 1995 the agricultural and economic success of the community-based Hertzog Agricultural Co-operative (HACOP) was becoming apparent in this area, and the activities within it were deemed to be issues worthy of a major study. The dependence of community initiatives on the natural environment justified an interdisciplinary study that sought to integrate a range of skills from the human and natural sciences. The investigation was designed to explore, describe and explain the phenomenon of local economic development in the study area and to determine the influence of natural, social, tenure, historical and marketing issues on that development initiative. The study was initiated by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and was co-ordinated and managed by the HSRC.