FAQ's


FAQ's
Why is the project needed? What are the Objectives of the project? How will the objectives be acheived? What are the projects innovative features?		What will the Project deliver and how? What are the other benefits of the Project? How will the benefits of Concerted Action be exploited?

Why is the project needed?
The extent and value of savannas is not well quantified, but they constitute about 75% of the area of Southern Africa (SA) and their ecosystem services and natural capital value has recently been estimated at about US$ 100 billion per year. However, very little research has studied the transnational implications of the continued use of savannas which are naturally dry and fragile and thus subject to high variability. They are increasingly coming under severe stress from human and animal population pressures and from land distribution policies; thus sustainable practices and policies are difficult to implement. Savannas in SA are subject to great climate variability which for sustainable use requires linked socioeconomic and environmental management strategies; but these processes are not now well documented or understood (see literature review). Unfortunately there has been very little integration between the social and natural environment management sciences in order to ensure sustainable use of the savannas while providing optimum resources for the local people. The proposed collaboration is between three EU groups which have considerable experience with savanna soils and vegetation and five Southern Africa groups which work on rangelands and agriculture, woodlands and agroforestry, wildlife, soils and water management, and economic and social sustainability. The three main savanna land use patterns will be studied: traditional "subsistence" agriculture and agroforestry, commercial agriculture and forestry, and wildlife utilisation. Each land use pattern will be studied from three viewpoints: ecosystem sustainability, economic sustainability, and social equity.
What are the Objectives of the project?
To promote best practices and policies for the sustainable use of SA savannas and to obtain value added use in the future through optimising utilisation patterns in response to existing climate variation, future climate change and population pressures. Capacity building to enable the research communities of SA (in cooperation with the EU) to respond to novel savanna based problems and transnational issues both now and in the future. To enable practices and policies to be developed which ensure long term sustainability and short term benefits. To facilitate the exchange of ideas and techniques for monitoring and understanding existing savanna utilisation and ecosystems. To develop an information source on SA savannas and through SCOPE provide a linkage to other sustainable biosphere projects.
How will the objectives be acheived?
By enabling 5 research groups in SA concerned with the utilisation and monitoring of savanna ecosystems to collaborate closely in a robust framework with 3 EU research groups with a proven history of practical research into savanna ecosystems. Development of a high quality information source to be used by all the partners and outside groups, the development of novel policies and practices, and to tackle both internal and transnational issues which have previously been unable to be addressed due to the historical political problems of the region. This Concerted Action will provide seed funding to overcome existing barriers to cooperation which include difficulties in communication, travel, data and scientific exchange. 3 Workpackages: (1) Environmental Sustainability, (2) Economic Sustainability, and (3) Social Equity, to be achieved through: 4 Tasks, (1) Assess Sustainability of Current Practices, (2) Define Alternative Practices and Policies to enable sustainability where problems currently exist, (3) Develop mechanisms to implement Sustainable Practices and Policies, and (4) Collation, exchange, dissemination, training and policy factors from the previous 3 tasks. Click here to see the interrelationships netween partners and activities.
What will the Project deliver and how?
1. Review papers by SA researchers in collaboration with EU partners 2. Regional Conferences presenting review papers, invited syntheses, contributed papers with active participation by varied stakeholders in the region. Workshops and training sessions for interaction with smaller research and local groups. Synthesis Conference toward end of project. 5. In Country presentations to key policy makers. Link to Milestones, deliverables and expected outcomes
What are the other benefits of the Project?
In addition to the production of reports and policies this Concerted Action is designed to promote cooperation between the research groups of the SA and the EU to provide the capacity to meet existing and future challenges to savanna utilisation. Facilitating cooperation in a CA will result in a significantly enhanced research capability on practices and policies for sustainable savanna management in SA. Click here to see the interrelationships netween partners and activities.
How will the benefits of Concerted Action be exploited?
There will be five types of outputs which will be disseminated and / or used for exploiting the benefits of this Concerted Action: a) Review papers b) Regional conference reports c) Workshop and meeting reports d) Synthesis conference reports e) Presentations (in-country) to policy makers These outputs will all be used for disseminating the results of the Concerted Action; this will be particularly important in the final stages of the project when the Synthesis Conference takes place and the in-country presentations are made to policy makers. It is also intended that both national and Southern African research and collaboration proposals will be made during and after this project, building on the outputs and capabilities which result from the project. Thus, in the future, it would be highly desirable to bring in the 5 other countries in SA who have savanna ecosystems as an important component of their countries. This would be relatively easy once we had established an operational methodology for synthesizing knowledge and making recommendations on practices and policies in the presently proposed 5 countries.



Innovative Features
Until recently, it was not possible to take a Southern African approach to the study of SA savannas because of the political difficulties. Now this constraint has fortunately disappeared so that researchers in SA and Europe can collaborate in pooling their knowledge on the sustainability factors involved in savanna uses. To our knowledge such a transnational project does not presently exist although a number of discussions have been held expressing the advantages of such an approach. The inclusion of both SA and EU partners means that this Concerted Action will foster both North-South and South-South cooperation and exchange to the benefit of all partners and regions. The 8 groups already have both overseas and SA interactions. The 5 SA groups represent the key savanna types and uses which would make the conclusions of the Concerted Action relevant to the other 5 remaining SA countries in the future. An important innovation is that this project could be associated with the International Sustainable Biosphere Project (SBP) coordinated by SCOPE (Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment; ICSU, Paris). The SBP has proposed 7 case studies including 2 which are already funded (Amazonia and the Baltic) and 5 others proposed (including SA Savannas). The overall aim of the SBP is to synthesise existing knowledge on the ecological impacts of resource uses, link policy options to their ecological consequences, identify practical strategies for implementing sustainable practices and policies, and guide future research towards unanswered management options. These are the same general aims as our SA Savanna proposal and we will have linkages to the existing SBP case studies so as to benefit from their experiences and advising scientists / policy makers. A key area of this CA will be the involvement not only of the project partners, but it will also encompass locally active groups in the SA countries in order to both, (i) gain from their knowledge and experience of the exploitation of SA savannas, but also (ii) to spread the knowledge gained through this CA back to the local user groups. This exchange with local groups will be achieved primarily through in-country meetings and workshops. One of the main aims of this CA is to foster cooperation and the exchange of information to engender a new atmosphere of cooperation and the development of transnational policies. This approach will lead to new policy development, as such transnational cooperation which has previously not been possible in the SA region. In addition to the above innovative features of this CA, an information base, website, ftp server and mail list server will be developed in collaboration between partners 1 and 8. Relation to development policies. There are EU and international priorities directed towards development of SA since the recent political changes in South Africa itself. An important requirement in such policies is that the development be sustainable and equitable. Since savannas are the dominant ecosystem in SA and support large human and animal populations, sustainable practices and policies are essential to the long term development of the SA region. It is also important that Climate Change, Biodiversity and Desertification conventions are seen to be relevant to the use of SA Savannas.

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