| Title |
Sustainable management of savannas – Integrating practitioners’ knowledge |
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| Author |
Bischofberger, Jenny, Oliver Schulz, Katharina Brueser and Stefan Liehr |
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| Abstract |
Namibian savannas are characterised by a variable climate in which societal processes are inextricably coupled with natural processes through land management and the benefits that people derive from the ecosystem. Savannas are home to a large proportion of the world’s human population, and any disruption to the balance between these feedback mechanisms risks the livelihood of millions of households that depend on a sustainable provision of a variety of ecosystem services such as water supply, forage production and tourism. This provision is under extreme threat due to both climate change and the increasing pressure on land use. Starting from the challenge to better understand how the management of water and land use can mitigate degradation in Namibian savannas and enable their sustainable use, we present how our concept of social-ecological systems (SES) can be used to structure research and integrate practice-based knowledge along with scientific knowledge. Based on the results of an initial literature review and interviews with Namibian livestock farmers, we illustrate how the integration of ecosystem services (ESS) into the SES concept (according to Hummel et al. 2011) enables a systematic formalisation of feedback in SES. It is outlined how this approach improves the integration of non-scientific knowledge into our Namibian case study, thereby helping to reconcile non-scientific knowledge with simple analytical models. We argue that applying the SES concept in this way ultimately allows for a more detailed exploration of mechanisms within the social-ecological model, while improving iterative communication of research results to practitioners. |
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| Citation |
Bischofberger, J., Schulz, O., Brueser, K. & Liehr, S. (2015). Sustainable management of savannas – Integrating practitioners’ knowledge. Tropentag annual proceedings, full paper. |
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