Options for sustainable land use adaptations in savanna systems: ORYCS

Namibian savannas are hot spots of climate, land-use and socio-economic change that function as model-region for many savannas worldwide. Increasing temperatures, changing amounts and distribu- tions of precipitation, rising levels of atmospheric CO 2 together with intensifying land-use threaten the functioning of these sensitive ecosystems and thus the livelihood of thousands of households who depend on a sustainable provision of multiple ecosystem services (e.g. water provision, forage production, biodiversity and tourism). Maladapted land management increases the risk of land degradation and loss of ecosystem services by disrupting the regulating functions of complex feedbacks between geo- and biosphere, for example between herbivores, vegetation, soil, water and carbon. Already today much of Namibia’s rangelands are in an alarmingly degraded state (e.g. 31.5% of Namibia’s land surface suffers from bush encroachment) with concomitant impacts on the national economy including the tourist industry, and observed increases in poverty levels. Thus, new land-use options that are better adapted to changing environmental conditions are urgently needed.

One recent important development is a widespread change from domestic livestock production towards wildlife-based management strategies. In Namibia, in addition to National Parks, currently about 35% of the land surface is dedicated to wildlife-based management thereof 20% in 79 communal conservancies and 15% on freehold conservancies and private game farms. Applications for the approval of further conservancies are currently under revision. Not only the identification of the economic value of wildlife management (e.g., trophy hunting, game meat production, eco-tourism) has led to this change, but wildlife-based land use options have been strongly supported by National policies such as the National Rangeland Policy or Namibia’s 2nd National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2022. Key reasons for this policy support are the predicted potentials and benefits of wildlife management to conserve key ecosystem services including biodiversity and indigenous knowledge, to reduce land degradation for example through shrub encroachment, and the higher adaptive capacity of native herbivores to unfavourable conditions as compared to livestock.

In principle, these potential advantages would make wildlife-based land use an ideal option for adaptive management under regional and global climate change. Surprisingly, however, the predicted positive effects have never been put to thorough scientific scrutiny, even though many conservancies and commercial wildlife ranches have been operating for almost 20 years. In fact, many game farms exhibit a poorer savanna rangeland quality and lower species diversity than neighbouring livestock farms and wildlife-based management often seems to be poorly adapted to local conditions.

Given this background, the overarching key objective of ORYCS is to provide the first, urgently needed, scientifically rigorous assessment of wildlife-based land use options in Namibian savannas that can be extrapolated to similar savanna systems worldwide. In ORYCS we use the traditional definition of wildlife i.e. large, wide-ranging and undomesticated animal species. We specifically focus on endemic large herbivores with different feeding patterns (Mountain zebra, Plains zebra, Kudu, Oryx and Eland antelopes) and human-wildlife conflict species (elephants and large predators such as lions and leopards) that have a high intrinsic value and are vital to Namibian savannas. By understanding and aiming to improve wildlife-based management options, ORYCS contributes to better protect all other biodiversity of plants and smaller animal species that shelter under the canopy of selected wildlife.

ORYCS is structured in six workpackages (WP1-6). WP1 is the overarching workpackage and coordinates ORYCS. WPs are centered on the main scientific tasks of the project and interlinked to each other in several ways reflecting the interdisciplinary approach of the project (see respective sections 5 in WP descriptions in part II).

The project coordination (in WP1) will be based at the University of Potsdam (Jeltsch, Blaum). On the Namibian side, project coordination of field work will be supported by NUST (Hauptfleisch), while the technical coordination of workshops and the education & exchange program will be supported by UNAM (Wanke). Transparency of decision-making is the foundation of ORYCS project management and will be achieved by (i) making fundamental decisions within a steering committee consisting of all workpackage leaders and (ii) by having a German-Namibian co-lead for each workpackage. Further, the project will start with a kick-off and initial stakeholder workshop including all project partners members, followed by annual workshops and a final conference with a stakeholder outreach workshop. Continuous evaluation of project progress by WP1 will assure successful achievement of milestones (see workpackage description for details) and facilitate synergistic cooperation between workpackages.

A scientifically sound assessment of wildlife-based land use options in savannas is currently hampered by an insufficient understanding of their short and long term impacts on key ecosystem processes and services. Complex geo-biosphere feedbacks impede the understanding of the processes and there are major knowledge gaps on the full feedbacks between vegetation composition, condition and dynamics, animal behaviour, soil processes, and eco-hydrological dynamics under different scenarios of land use and climate. In close dialogue with stakeholders, ORYCS will apply a combination of field observations and experiments, remote-sensing, socio-ecological assessments, and process-based computer models to close these knowledge gaps. Immediate and final results will be disseminated, exchanged and discussed with stakeholders, land-use experts, students and researchers during summer schools, national stakeholder workshops and trainings, the scientific exchange program, German-Namibian tandem research projects and one international outreach workshop. These steps will largely advance our understanding of the potentials and risks associated with wildlife-based land use for the conservation of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and services and rangeland livelihoods. ORYCS thus aims for a reliable scientific basis for recommendations on sustainable use and management of wildlife in savanna rangelands under current and future climatic conditions and atmospheric CO 2 concentrations.