Assessing the threat of landscape transformation and habitat fragmentation in a global biodiversity hotspot

Ntshanga, Nasiphi K.; Procheş, Şerban; Slingsby, Jasper A.

doi:10.1111/aec.13037

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The high rate of habitat loss in these parks is considered the main driver of the loss of wildlife in SSA [19][20][21]. These land uses not only fragment the landscape, as indicated by the landscape analysis, but also destroy sensitive habitats and inhibit the natural movements of animals [97].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and Temporal Change of Land Cover in Protected Areas in Malawi: Implications for Conservation Management

2022

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Protected areas (PAs) transform over time due to natural and anthropogenic processes, resulting in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. As current and projected climatic trends are poised to pressurize the sustainability of PAs, analyses of the existing perturbations are crucial for providing valuable insights that will facilitate conservation management. In this study, land cover change, landscape characteristics, and spatiotemporal patterns of the vegetation intensity in the Kasungu National Park (area = 2445.10 km2) in Malawi were assessed using Landsat data (1997, 2008 and 2018) in a Fuzzy K-Means unsupervised classification. The findings reveal that a 21.12% forest cover loss occurred from 1997 to 2018: an average annual loss of 1.09%. Transition analyses of the land cover changes revealed that forest to shrubs conversion was the main form of land cover transition, while conversions from shrubs (3.51%) and bare land (3.48%) to forest over the two decades were comparatively lower, signifying a very low rate of forest regeneration. The remaining forest cover in the park was aggregated in a small land area with dissimilar landscape characteristics. Vegetation intensity and vigor were lower mainly in the eastern part of the park in 2018. The findings have implications for conservation management in the context of climate change and the growing demand for ecosystem services in forest-dependent localities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and Temporal Change of Land Cover in Protected Areas in Malawi: Implications for Conservation Management

2022

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“…Landscape or habitat fragmentation is the result of a gradual reduction in the natural environmental surface as well as its progressive isolation (Ziv and Davidowitz 2019). This process is one of the main threats to biodiversity (Hanski 2015;Fletcher et al 2018;Ntshanga et al 2021). This study showed that, on a small scale, the plant diversity level of a park is less affected by the landscape surrounding the park, i.e., roads, buildings and green space within the buffer zone have weaker correlations with species richness, and Margalet, Shannon and Simpson indices.…”

Section: Effects Of Exterior Characteristics On Species Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the drivers of woody plant diversity in urban parks in a snow climate city of China

Zhang

et al. 2022

J. For. Res.

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Urban parks are an important part of urban ecosystems and play an important role in biodiversity conservation. However, it is still unclear how park characteristics affect plant diversity which could hinder the conservation of urban biodiversity due to the ineffective design of urban parks. The diversity of woody plants in 33 parks of Changchun, China, was measured with plot measurements and linked with urban park characteristics (e.g., size and age of the park) to uncover the relationship between them. The results show that urban woody plant species were abundant, with 98 species belonging to 51 genera and 26 families in the snow climate city of Changchun. The variation in woody plant diversity was largely explained by internal patch characteristics (e.g., size, age, shape), and external factors surrounding the park (e.g., land use type and socioeconomic level) accounted for only 16.0% in our study. For internal patch characteristics, older urban parks with larger areas demonstrated a richer level of plant diversity and increased nonlinearly with increasing park area. The threshold size significantly affecting plant diversity variation was approximately 30 ha. Plant diversity had positive linear relationships with the ages of urban parks, supporting the legacy effect. In addition, woody plant diversity nonlinearly decreased with increasing park shape index, which suggested that the plant diversity could also be increased by optimizing the park shape. Regarding the external factors surrounding parks, the spatial distribution of woody plant diversity varied greatly from the urban center to the suburbs. House prices around the park had positive linear relationships with woody plant diversity in parks, supporting the luxury effect. However, building and road proportions, and green space proportion had no relationship with plant diversity in parks. This study can provide a robust reference for enriching plant diversity in urban parks, thus improving the development of urban sustainable cities.

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“…Nonetheless, the natural biodiversity that underpins the persistence of fynbos wild edible species is currently threatened by conventional agriculture, urbanisation, encroachment by alien invasive species, and climate change (Midgley and Bond 2015;Richardson et al 2018;Ntshanga et al 2021). Furthermore, much of the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) around the use of NUS in the Cape Floristic Region is considered either lost or declining (Philander 2010;de Vynck et al 2016a;Botha et al 2020).…”

Section: Data Collection and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging the potential of wild food for healthy, sustainable, and equitable local food systems: learning from a transformation lab in the Western Cape region

Pereira

Kushitor²,

Cramer³

et al. 2022

Sustain Sci

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Food insecurity and diet-related diseases do not only have detrimental effects to human health, but are also underpinned by food systems that are environmentally unsustainable and culturally disconnected. Ensuring access to a healthy, affordable, and sustainable diet is one of the greatest challenges facing many low- and middle-income countries such as South Africa. These challenges in accessing a diverse diet often persist despite biocultural richness. For example, South Africa is globally recognised for its rich biodiversity, an ecologically unrivalled coastline, and a rich body of traditional knowledge amongst wild-food users. In this paper, we explore the potential that coastal wild foods as neglected and underutilised species (NUS) can play in local food systems in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. Following a previously established transformation lab (T-Lab) method, here we report the observations and outcomes emerging from a two-day workshop held in May 2019 with a group of 40 actors involved in the local food system in diverse ways. Farmers, small-scale fishers, indigenous knowledge holders, representatives from non-profit organisations, chefs, bartenders, academics, activists, conservationists, and government officials were brought together with the aim of strengthening an emerging coalition of coastal wild food actors. Findings highlighted the existence of a fledgling economy for coastal wild foods, driven by high-end chefs. The T-Lab was essentially a tool of knowledge co-production around food system transformation and helped to surface deeply embedded issues on land, race, history, and culture that warrant engagement if a better food system is to emerge. In a country that is drought prone and vulnerable to climate change, a more resilient and sustainable food system is a necessity. But defining alternative governance systems to shift towards a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable food system will require concerted effort across all stakeholders.

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Assessing the threat of landscape transformation and habitat fragmentation in a global biodiversity hotspot

Cited by 17 publications

References 54 publications

Spatial and Temporal Change of Land Cover in Protected Areas in Malawi: Implications for Conservation Management

Spatial and Temporal Change of Land Cover in Protected Areas in Malawi: Implications for Conservation Management

Understanding the drivers of woody plant diversity in urban parks in a snow climate city of China

Leveraging the potential of wild food for healthy, sustainable, and equitable local food systems: learning from a transformation lab in the Western Cape region

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