Project Description


Approach and Methodology Milestones, deliverables and expected outcomes Meetings Review Papers & Publications
Approach and Methodology
The approach taken for this concerted action is to enable 4 eminent research groups in Southern Africa (SA) concerned with the utilisation and monitoring of savanna ecosystems to work closely together in a robust collaborative framework with 3 EU research groups with a proven history of practical research into savanna ecosystems. This collaborative framework is designed to promote cooperation and information exchange and to enable the development of a high quality information source on SA savannas. This information source will be used by all the partners and outside groups for the development of sustainable policies and practices, and to tackle both internal and transnational issues which have previously been unable to be addressed due to the historical political climate 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. The methodology developed to achieve the objectives of this concerted action is to bring together the 3 EU and 5 SA partners who study sustainability factors in the use of savannas from the three following perspectives: (1) ecosystem sustainability (Workpackage 1), (2) economic sustainability (WP2), and (3) social equity (WP3). Each of these three perspectives comprises a Workpackage which will be lead by one SA partner with the relevant expertise. (See fig.1) There are 4 Tasks which must be accomplished to pull together the Workpackages: (1) evaluate current practices and policies, (2) describe alternative practices and policies to achieve sustainable savanna systems, (3) develop mechanisms to implement appropriate sustainable practices and policies, and (4) build an analysed information source on SA savannas which describes the current status of these savannas and the state-of-the-art with regard to research and policy formulation and implementation. Tasks 1-3 will be lead by the same 3 researchers as Workpackages 1-3 and Task 4 will be lead by the EU coordinator. Three main savanna land use patterns will be studied: (1) traditional "subsistence" agriculture and agroforestry (LU1), (2) commercial agriculture and forestry(LU2), and (3) wildlife utilisation (LU3). Two SA research groups will be responsible for collating the information on each land use type. At the basic resource level there will be three main areas of study, (a) soils and water (R1), (b) flora (R2), and (c) fauna (R3). Each area will be the responsibility of two research groups, one EU and one SA. Milestones, deliverables and expected outcomes The success of this Concerted Action will be measured by the output from the relevant meetings, exchanges, workshops and the synthesis conference. It will also be measure by the potential for future collaboration enabled by this Concerted Action. Exchange visits, review papers, conferences, workshops and training sessions and finally in-country presentations will be the main activities. These will all be accomplished according to a set time schedule which will be monitored by the EU coordinator and the SA leaders of the 3 Workpackages. (see section 5.4.) Meetings: All meetings (1 week) will be held in SA institutions. 1^st year- A kick-off meeting has been hosted by Prof. Helen Watson (UDW) in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, in the third month of the project (4th to 8th October, 1998). This meeting was attended by all partners, and a working document was produced outlining (in draft form) the current state-of-the-art on SA savannas as understood by the partners. A second meeting will be held during March 1999 at the Biomass User's Network, Harare, Zimbabwe, during which all the junior accademics assocciated with the project will be invited to attend. It is intended that the detailed work outline and relationships between the groups will be finalised during this meeting. Two more meetings will be held which will be atteneded by all partners. The second year meeting will be hosted by Dr. Donald Kgati at the University of Botswana, and the third year meeting will be hosted by Antionio Ribiero at CEF, Mozambique. (1 meeting each site) 2^nd year- 1 meeting, UB, Botswana- October 1999 3^rd year- 1 meeting, CEF, Mozambique- October 2000. Exchanges Year 1. Each EU partner will visit and work with 3 of the SA sites individually for 2 weeks each. Each SA partner will visit and work with 3 SA sites for 1 month each. Years 2 & 3. Each EU partner will visit 1 SA site, and each SA partner will visit 1 SA site. Review Papers & Publications Review papers and working documents / reports will be produced after each meeting and will be an integral part of the exchange visits. Project publications will also be produced as a Proceedings from the Synthesis Conference to be held at the end of the Concerted Action. Other Development of the information resource will require detailed interaction between all partners and will occur through the maintenance of a database (including a website and mail listserver) at Partner 1 (in conjunction with partner 8) and will involve dedicated time by all partners.

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