High (altitude) expectations: Mapping the way forward for research in southern African mountains

Snow-covered peaks welcomed AfroMont members to a very chilly Mohale in Lesotho. (Photo D. Thompson) Sue van Rensburg, Coordinator of the SAEON Grasslands-Wetlands-Forests Node, shares the history of vegetation and stream-flow monitoring in the Cathedral Peak catchments. (Photo S. Niassy) Given its data-rich history, Cathedral Peak in the central uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, South Africa, emerged as a priority mountain site for global change research. The SAEON Grasslands-Wetlands-Forests Node is driving continued monitoring and research in the area. (Photo D. Thompson) Dr Dave Thompson, Biodiversity Scientist at the SAEON Ndlovu Node, introduces colleagues from neighbouring southern African countries to SAEON. (Photo S. Niassy) SAEON Ndlovu staff head up the Soutpansberg in north-eastern South Africa to sample long-term vegetation monitoring plots. Sister global change observatories have been established in the Waterberg and in the northern reaches of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg. (Photo D. Thompson) Following discussions as four break-away interest groups (Climate & Hydrology, Biodiversity, Agriculture & Livelihoods and Management & Governance), delegates reconvened to identify cross-cutting concerns and research priorities under a ‘Global Change in Mountain Ecosystems’ umbrella. (Photo S. Niassy)

By Dr Dave Thompson, Biodiversity Scientist and Wim Hugo, Chief Data & Information Officer, SAEON

Over 50 academics, policy makers and other interested parties from four countries and 25 regional and national institutions converged on an icy Mohale in Lesotho for the inaugural AfroMont¹ workshop on research in southern African mountains.

The workshop was organised by the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Programme and AfroMont and co-funded by the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment and SAEON. The meeting represented a first critical assessment of current mountain research and monitoring activities, and future research priorities for the region.

Overview

Oral and poster presentations by individual researchers gave an overview of selected mountain research efforts currently under way in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa, and covered topics from spiders and serval to wetlands and pollen.

Sue van Rensburg, Coordinator of the SAEON Grasslands-Wetlands-Forests Node, presented a summary of past vegetation and stream-flow research in the catchments of Cathedral Peak (central uKhahlamba-Drakensberg). She outlined how best to build on these initiatives within the global change context.

Dr Dave Thompson, Biodiversity Scientist at the Ndlovu Node, introduced SAEON and the newly established long-term vegetation monitoring observatories located in the Waterberg, Soutpansberg and northern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg ranges.

Thomas Sikhwivhilu, an MSc student working with SAEON’s Ndlovu Node, provided further details on the monitoring activities being carried out over the altitudinal gradient of the vegetation observatory located in Marakele National Park.

Against the backdrop of these focused and localised research and/or monitoring case studies, four discussion groups based on interests or expertise were formed: i) Climate & Hydrology, ii) Biodiversity, iii) Agriculture & Livelihoods and iv) Management & Governance.

As groups, delegates unpacked issues around data availability and sharing, research priorities, and the need for and feasibility of regional and continental collaboration, before trying to reach consensus. Identifying unifying concerns and themes (summarised below) proved surprisingly easy given the diverse interests, backgrounds and motives of the audience.

Unifying concerns and themes

1) Making mountain ecosystem data available to the scientific community

Discussions around existing data sets and sources of mountain-relevant data, and their accessibility, specifically highlighted a lack of systematic data across all taxa -- raw, derived or published.

Meteorological data seem more readily available in southern Africa, but their scientific value is lessened given limited metadata on localities, data type and resolution. South Africa’s Sani Pass and Cathedral Peak emerged as being data-rich, and especially important as current and future mountain research sites.

In order to effectively embark on global change mountain research, there is a clear need for greater data sharing within and between countries in the region -- principally because mountain ranges do not respect political boundaries. This is reflected by at least one cross-border mountain conservation area within the region -- the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area. The meeting agreed that the creation of a meta-database to catalogue existing data and data sources was critical as a first step towards identifying, and filing, data gaps.

Wim Hugo, Chief Data & Information Officer for SAEON, provided the broader landscape for standards-driven data repositories, and highlighted important international and national initiatives that support improved discoverability and access to Earth and environmental observation data. SAEON committed to assisting AfroMont with its data management requirements, and will create and maintain a collaboration area for AfroMont within the SAEON Data Portal. This will serve as the platform needed to make the necessary data inventory possible, and will facilitate the orderly and comparable publication of data and metadata of specific relevance to southern African mountains.

Training workshops for regional stakeholders, including AfroMont collaborators from within the region, will ensure that data are described properly, and published openly and in standardised form whenever possible.

2) Research priorities across countries and between stakeholders

How to prioritise research in mountain areas and indeed, what those priorities should be within the southern African context, dominated group discussions. However, a remarkable degree of convergence emerged between the Climate & Hydrology, Biodiversity, Agriculture & Livelihoods and Management & Governance discussion groups, with each highlighting the interaction between biodiversity, ecosystems and humans as benefiting from focussed research (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Understanding the interactions between biodiversity, ecosystems and humans emerged as critical in enhancing resilience in the face of global change. Within this framework, ecosystem services (ES) and governance (Policy) were identified as priority research areas.

In particular, resource use/ecosystem services (ES) and governance (customary rules or policy), and how these processes will, and must be, impacted by climate change and variability, were identified as priority research areas. Significant emphasis was placed on ensuring that outcomes of research programmes adequately translate into implementable polices that enhance resilience of societies in the face of global change.

Five closely-related priority topics relevant to mountain ecosystems were distilled from this framework, and are listed below without rank. Creating and maintaining baseline and on-going data sets for driver and response variables within each sector underpins each of the topics, and is required to enable our understanding of the effects of global change.

• The evaluation and management of ecosystem services for sustainable livelihoods.
• Effects of global change on the resilience of mountain ecosystems and their natural resources.
• Effects of global change on sustainable biodiversity management.
• The effects of global change on mountain hydrology and wetlands.
• The effects of global change on human cultural and governance systems.

With respect to the research priorities supporting baseline data sets and sustainable biodiversity management, a need for comparable biodiversity assessments (i.e. using standardised methodologies and indicator taxa) was recognised. These should be comparable within the region, but also aligned with international programmes such as the Mountain Research Initiative and the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment.

3) Promoting communication and collaboration

Collaboration within and between countries was immediately recognised as a pressing need among delegates, with much discussion looking to identify opportunities for collaboration, and also to resolve perceived obstacles with respect to collaborative research. As a network, AfroMont is poised to play a critical role in promoting and facilitating priority research across southern Africa.

Continued communication and exchange between academics, policy and decision makers, government departments and equivalent NGOs and industry involved in mountain research, data collection, resource use and conservation, cannot be over-emphasised. To this end, an active web-presence and annual forum were suggested.

This inaugural workshop -- the bringing together of the larger southern African mountain research community in a single place and for a single purpose -- provides proof of the vital role that can be played by a coordinating body such as AfroMont in driving mountain-relevant research.

The success of the workshop is further evident from the formation of focus groups and smaller partnerships -- also involving SAEON and SAEON staff -- which will move forward with various projects and ideas under the regional mountain research umbrella created by AfroMont.

Readers wishing to know more about AfroMont should consult the webpage or contact the Programme Coordinator, Dr Saliou Niassy

¹ AfroMont is a network of scientists and environmental and resource specialists that promote research into (and implementation of sustainable livelihoods in) mountain areas of Africa within the context of long-term climate change.