News

This paper, authored by Diego Menestrey, analyses the practices of Ovaherero pastoralists in the Okakarara constituency to keep their cattle herds alive, the challenges they experienced thereby, and the strategies used for recovering their livestock losses in the context of the 2019 severe drought. This ethnographic study reveals that essential drought-coping practices, such as livestock mobility, along with various long-term risk reduction mechanisms, such as reservation of emergency pastures and social institutions of exchange, are limited in the communities described in this research. The paper discusses the main reasons for these conditions and their implications for local farmers, considering that more frequent droughts of similar severity are projected for the coming years in the region.

 

A new NamTip paper has been published. This methodological paper with first author Vistorina Amputu used field measurements to test how accurately and efficiently indicators of rangeland condition (forage biomass and rangeland attribute cover) can be estimated using drone technology in a Namibian dry savannah. The paper demonstrates and confirms that drone-based predictive models offer the possibility for more efficient, flexible, unbiased and timely monitoring of vegetation parameters in drylands. This is highly relevant to better inform land management policies and adaptive decision-making in the Anthropocene era.

Special issue: completed master and bachelor theses
On the occasion of the end of the year, we would like to take a look back and honor the final theses of our students. For example, this year Lena Bickel (top left), Melissa Gurny (top right) and Katinka Mustelin (accompanied by Moomins) have achieved their master degrees. Lena examined "Rangeland desertification and land use changes on commercial land in Namibia's Waterberg Region over the past 60 years", Melissa investigated "Bush fodder production on commercial farms in the Waterberg region, Namibia: Challenges and Potentials" and Katinkas topic was "Livelihood security in the face of looming desertification: exploring long-term social-ecological dynamics using an agent-based model". Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the bachelor's degree of Lena Barth, who wrote her thesis on "Land degradation assessment using Residual Trend Analysis (RESTREND) of Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), soil moisture and rainfall in Greater Waterberg Landscape, Namibia, from 2001 to 2020". We congratulate you all on your graduation and wish you all the best for the future.

 

 

 

New experiment set up in communal areas

4th Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) Europe Conference
Members from NamTip and MoreStep organized the session “Ecological tipping points and societal transformation processes in social-ecological systems” at the 4th Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) Europe Conference in Heraklion, Greece. In the session, NamTip student Lena Bickel gave a talk on “Rangeland desertification and land use changes on commercial land in Namibia’s Waterberg region” and NamTip researcher Markus Rauchecker presented a paper on “Post-independence development projects to combat desertification in communal areas in Namibia's Waterberg region”.

 

As part of the Namibian Rangeland Forum, there was an extra day in the field where local communal farmers were invited. The Tipping Point Experiment was visited and there were exciting presentations by our team members.

 

Several NamTip scientists enriched the Namibian Rangeland Forum with their contributions and discussed with local farmers and stakeholders.

The NamTip general assembly was held in hybrid format this time. This year we were especially pleased to have more time for exciting and fruitful discussions.

The NamTip project was represented with three poster presentations at Tropentag 2022 in Prague. Lena Bickel presented the topic of her Master's thesis "Rangeland desertification and land use changes on commercial land in Namibia's Waterberg region", Melissa Gurny also presented the topic of her Master's thesis entitled "Bush fodder production on commercial farms in the Waterberg region, Namibia: challenges and potentials" and PhD student Lisa-Maricia Schwarz presented results on "Functional diversity as an indicator of rangeland degradation - insights from a Namibian grazing gradient study".

Our PhD student Katrin Zimmer, who specializes in soil science, presented her results regarding "Drivers of rangeland degradation in Namibian semi-arid savannas" with a poster at the World Congress of Soil Science in Glasgow. At the conference of the German Soil Science Society in Trier, Germany, we were able to listen to an exciting presentation by her.

An excursion group from the University of Bonn visited our TipEx experiment at Hamakari Farm. The approximately 20 visitors first got an insight into the theoretical background of the experimental setup and then could experience its implementation on site.

 

 

Our Remote Sensing PhD students Vistorina Amputu and Florian Männer present forage quality models using hyperspectral data and how accurately drone technology maps arid rangelands.

 

Fieldwork on development projects to combat desertification
We wanted to find out how desertification and rangeland policies are implemented on the ground. We focused on five development projects to combat desertification, which were implemented in the communal areas of the Waterberg region since 1991. We interviewed representatives from state entities, universities and NGOs, who were part of these projects. Additionally, we collected project documents from state and private archives.

 

 

A radio interview with Prof. Dr. Anja Linstädter on "Why desertification is increasing worldwide" was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk.

 

The first conference contribution on site!
Florian Männer presented at the Living Planet Symposium 2022 of the European Space Agency ESA with the poster "Exploring capabilities modeling forage provision using field spectrometry and UAV imagery in a semi-arid rangeland" Vistorina Amputus and his idea of upscaling forage quality and biomass production of the Namibian savanna to landscape level.