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Showing items 1 through 9 of 14.
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Library Resource
The interface between environment and conflict has gained traction in policy and security circles in recent times. Growing scholarly interest on the linkage stems from increasing awareness on the role climate change plays in precipitating resource contestations and conflict over depleting natural resources, particularly in poor regions. Such impacts sometimes result from secondary consequences of environmental decline and resources scarcity which give rise to stiff competitions over access to available resources.
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Library Resource
South Africa, Southern Africa
Meat production in South Africa is on an increasing trend. In South Africa rising wealth, urbanisation and a growing middle class means South Africans are eating more processed and high-protein foods, especially meat and dairy products. These foods are more land- and water-intensive than fruit, vegetable and grain crops, and further stress existing resources. Traditional agricultural farms cannot keep up with the increasing demand for animal products and these farms are being replaced with concentrated animal feeding operations.
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Library Resource
South Africa, Southern Africa
Background, aim, and scope The blue swallow (Hirundo atrocaerulea) is one of the most threatened bird species in southern Africa. Among terrestrial birds, its plumage is known to be the most water repellent, an adaptation to foraging on the wing in dense fog. Despite this unique adaptation, the nesting success of the blue swallow at the Blue Swallow Natural Heritage Site (BSNHS) is lower during years with high incidence of fog. As the phenomenon is not observed at other nesting sites, we hypothesized that this is due to changes in the air chemistry at the BSNHS.
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Library Resource
South Africa, Southern Africa
Land is the basic resource that is needed by man in order to survive: It provides humans with living space, nutrition and energy resources. The rapid growth of the human population, climate change and pollution on a catastrophic scale has caused the quality of land resources to be compromised. Remote sensing is a useful tool in land cover change detection providing information to decision makers.
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Library Resource
South Africa, Southern Africa
We describe an initiative to improve the flow of information between researchers and managers as part of two international scientific symposia on biological invasions held in South Africa in 2008 and 2009. Formal workshops and information sessions for land managers were run during the symposia. At the end of each symposium, the managers ran dedicated question-and-answer sessions on the research they felt was needed to improve their work. We discuss the potential of such interventions to increase interaction and awareness between researchers and managers of biological invasions.
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Library Resource
Despite their importance to rural livelihoods, the economic and environmental sustainability of contemporary communal pastoral systems of the Kalahari is increasingly being put under scrutiny. Using data collected from a survey of randomly selected pastoral households from two districts of Ghanzi and Kgalagadi South, Botswana, this paper outlines the major constraints affecting contemporary extensive pastoral systems. Because of the prevailing semi-arid climate, recurrent drought outbreaks were cited as a common challenge in both study areas together with lack of fenced grazing areas.
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Library Resource
South Africa, Southern Africa
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Karoo biomes of South Africa are major feed resources for livestock farming, yet soil nutrient depletion and degradation is a major problem. The objective of this study was to assess impacts of long-term (>75 years) grazing during spring (SPG), summer (SUG), winter (WG) and exclosure (non-grazed control) treatments on soil nutrients, penetration resistance and infiltration tests.
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Library Resource
Despite their importance to rural livelihoods, the economic and environmental sustainability of contemporary communal pastoral systems of the Kalahari is increasingly being put under scrutiny. Using data collected from a survey of randomly selected pastoral households from two districts of Ghanzi and Kgalagadi South, Botswana, this paper outlines the major constraints affecting contemporary extensive pastoral systems. Because of the prevailing semi-arid climate, recurrent drought outbreaks were cited as a common challenge in both study areas together with lack of fenced grazing areas.
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Library Resource
South Africa, Southern Africa
Tree-on-tree competitive interactions may be more important in affecting the distribution of the tree components of savannas than inter-specific competition with grasses. The presence of intraspecific competition is expected to negatively affect inter-tree spacing, individual size distributions and plant physiology as well as survival/mortality.
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Library Resource
South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa
In the early 1980s residents of Hobeni, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, were subjected to forced resettlement, under “betterment” policy ostensibly aimed at soil conservation. They were moved into a spatially contiguous but socially differentiated village. South Africa’s political transition ended this policy, and in the early 1990s, some people, mainly from part of the resettlement area (Kunene) characterized by dense kinship networks who had faced pressure to leave, and began to return voluntarily to their former sites, opting to live in dispersed, flexible settlements.
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