SP 5 - Impacts of altered land use practises on the plant related ESF&S
The Okavango basin is still covered to a large extent by woodland savannas which have been identified as one of the top ten global tipping point regions regarding changes of biodiversity and ecosystems. These woodlands provide and regulate ecosystem services essential to sustain the livelihood of a fast growing human population. Therefore, the objective of subproject 05 is to integrate ecosystem functions and services based on the vegetation into an ecological and economic approach towards sustainable land management at a regional scale.
The overarching key questions are:
- How can the values of plant-based ecosystem services be quantified?
- How are they related to climate zones, soil types, environmental parameters and land use types?
- How do plant-based ecosystem services respond to disturbance and degradation in terms of time and intensity, lag phases, resilience, tipping points and cascading effects?
- How can restoration measures contribute to strengthening ecosystem services within degraded ecosystems?
- How can an optimum of plant-based ecosystem services be conserved considering different scenarios of future development?
Photographs in the right menu display:
Woodlands in the upper Cubango Catchment, Angola.
Forest-grassland mosaics in the upper Cubango Catchment, Angola.
Charcoal trading north of Menongue, Angola.
Slash and burn agriculture, Caprivi, Namibia.
