This article examines the challenges involved in certifying tropical community forestry operations, by drawing on a case study of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified community forest management in Honduras. We identify social, economic, and environmental factors that require increased attention to improve certification as an instrument for sustainable community forest management, and discuss the linkages between these factors. The complexity of resource rights, the heterogeneity of forest users, and the difficulty of small Southern producers in competing in certified markets would need specific attention concerning certified community forestry. Concerning environmental sustainability, the focus in fragmented community forests under low-intensive logging should be directed toward landscape connectivity and forest restoration instead of reducing mechanical logging damage. Finally, without changes to the position of small Southern producers in the global trade networks, the ability of certifications to create sustainable livelihoods is limited.
Southern Africa is particularly sensitive to climate change, due to both ecological and socioeconomic factors, with rural land users among the most vulnerable groups. The provision of information to support climate-relevant decision-making requires an understanding of the projected impacts of change and complex feedbacks within the local ecosystems, as well as local demands on ecosystem services. In this paper, we address the limitation of current approaches for developing management relevant socio-ecological information on the projected impacts of climate change and human activities. We emphasise the need for linking disciplines and approaches by expounding the methodology followed in our two consecutive projects. These projects combine disciplines and levels of measurements from the leaf level (ecophysiology) to the local landscape level (flux measurements) and from the local household level (socio-economic surveys) to the regional level (remote sensing), feeding into a variety of models at multiple scales. Interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and integrated socio-ecological approaches, as proposed here, are needed to compliment reductionist and linear, scalespecific approaches. Decision support systems are used to integrate and communicate the data and models to the local decision-makers.Observed temperature increases over large parts of South Africa during the period 1931-2015 have occurred at rates of about twice the global mean, and this trend is projected to continue into the future (DEA 2017). Other projections across Southern Africa include changes in rainfall amount, variability, intensity and seasonality, and increases in the likelihood of extreme
Abstract. Climatic and land management factors, such as water availability and grazing intensity, play an important role in seasonal and annual variability of the ecosystem–atmosphere exchange of CO2 in semi-arid ecosystems. However, the semi-arid South African ecosystems have been poorly studied. Four years of measurements (November 2015–October 2019) were collected and analysed from two eddy covariance towers near Middelburg in the Karoo, Eastern Cape, South Africa. We studied the impact of grazing intensity on the CO2 exchange by comparing seasonal and interannual CO2 fluxes for two sites with almost identical climatic conditions but different intensity of current and historical livestock grazing. The first site represents lenient grazing (LG) and the vegetation comprises a diverse balance of dwarf shrubs and grasses, while the second site has been degraded through heavy grazing (HG) in the past but then rested for the past 10 years and mainly consists of unpalatable grasses and ephemeral species. Over the observation period, we found that the LG site was a considerable carbon source (82.11 g C m−2), while the HG site was a slight carbon sink (−36.43 g C m−2). The annual carbon budgets ranged from −90 ± 51 g C m−2 yr−1 to 84 ± 43 g C m−2 yr−1 for the LG site and from −92 ± 66 g C m−2 yr−1 to 59 ± 46 g C m−2 yr−1 for the heavily grazed site over the four years of eddy covariance measurements. The significant variation in carbon sequestration rates between the last two years of measurement was explained by water availability (25 % of the precipitation deficit in 2019 compared to the long-term mean precipitation). This indicates that studied ecosystems can quickly switch from a considerable carbon sink to a considerable carbon source ecosystem. Our study shows that the CO2 dynamics in the Karoo are largely driven by water availability and the current and historical effects of livestock grazing intensity on aboveground biomass (AGB). The higher carbon uptake at the HG site indicates that resting period after overgrazing, together with the transition to unpalatable drought-tolerant grass species, creates conditions that are favourable for carbon sequestration in the Karoo ecosystems, but unproductive as Dorper sheep pasture. Furthermore, we observed a slight decrease in carbon uptake peaks at the HG site in response to resuming continuous grazing (July 2017).
<p>South African ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as increasing&#160;temperatures, modifications in rainfall patterns, increasing frequency of extreme weather events and fire, and increased concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>). At the same time, ecosystems are impacted by livestock grazing, cultivation,&#160;fuelwood collection, urbanization and other types of human land use. Climatic and land management factors, such as water availability and grazing intensity, play a dominant role in influencing primary production and carbon fluxes. However, the relative role of those parameters still remains less known in many South African ecosystems. Investigation of the carbon inter-annual variability at dwarf shrub Karoo sites will assist in understanding savanna dynamics and in constraining climate change scenarios as basis for climate adaptation strategies.&#160;</p><p>This research is part of the EMSAfrica (Ecosystem Management Support for Climate Change in Southern Africa) project, which aims at producing data and information relevant to land users and land managers such as South African National Parks (SANParks). A particular focus is given on the importance of carbon cycling in degraded vs. intact systems. We investigate the impacts of climate parameters and diverse land management on ecosystem-atmosphere variability of carbon fluxes, latent and sensible energy. Long-term measurements were collected and analyzed from two eddy-covariance towers in the Karoo, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Study areas had almost identical climatic conditions but differ in the intensity of livestock grazing. The first site represents controlled grazing and comprises a diverse balance of dwarf shrubs and grasses, while the second site is degraded through overgrazing in the past (rested for approximately 8 years) and mainly consists of unpalatable grasses and short-lived species. These ecosystems are generally characterized by alternating wet (December to May) and dry seasons (June to November) with the amount and distribution of rain (average 373 mm per year) and soil moisture as the main drivers of carbon fluxes. We observed peak CO<sub>2</sub> uptake occurring during the wet season (January to April) and a progressive decrease from wet to dry periods being highly controlled by the amount of precipitation. At the end of the observation period (November 2015 &#8211; November 2019), we found that both study sites were considerable carbon sources, but during wet periods 'overgrazed in the past' site had stronger carbon sequestration compared to 'controlled grazing' site. The higher carbon uptake could be an indication that resting of the highly degraded site for a long period may improve carbon uptake in the Karoo ecosystems. Our study shows that CO<sub>2</sub> dynamics in the Karoo are largely driven by water availability and the effects of grazing intensity on above-ground biomass.</p>
There is a lack of long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement infrastructures in Africa. This limits our understanding of the temporal dynamics of the biosphere-atmosphere exchange of carbon in response to climate change. Where relevant infrastructures have been established in externally funded research projects, they have often not been successfully transferred to local institutions at project termination, nor maintained in the long term. This leads to loss of capacity and continuity in primary data. We describe a collaborative approach where eddy-covariance (EC) towers for continuous long-term observation of carbon dioxide and energy fluxes were constructed under two consecutive German-funded research projects and designed to complement existing South African infrastructures. They will be transferred to partner institutions at project termination, supported by deliberate capacity building actions for long term sustainability. Joint activities were implemented to i) strengthen technical expertise for infrastructure maintenance, ii) introduce a new generation of academic scientists to the topic, iii) co-develop a training concept to enhance local capacity to continue teaching the topic, iv) improve the uptake and use of data by the research community, v) improve data use and access by stakeholders, and vi) facilitate knowledge exchange between institutions. Co-designed activities included training, apprenticeships and knowledge exchange, student exchange, co-supervision, and public outreach. Following a similar model in international research projects could significantly benefit 1) national capacity for emission inventories, 2) development of long-term GHG observation networks, and 3) the global scientific community via improved availability of data. While we specifically focus on a network of GHG observations, the principles are applicable for the infrastructure to observe other surface/atmosphere exchange processes or other long term observational infrastructure.
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