Is land degradation neutrality in African drylands an open question? Remote Sensing based assessment in the agro-pastoral regions of Botswana
Appelstrasse 9a, Room 719
Abstract
Achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN) has been proposed as a way to stem the continued loss of land resources globally. This loss has ecological, biophysical, socioeconomic, climatic consequences. Particularly impacted are the majority of the world’s poor in drylands who are heavily dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods with limited adaptation capacity. Till date, operationalizing the LDN at country level has remained a challenge both from a policy and scientific perspective. Using an integrative approach to assess land degradation, this research combines remote sensing and geostatistics with lab analysis of soil properties. These broad breadth and assessment depth are required to gain a comprehensive knowledge of land degradation processes. Future monitoring of land degradation is improved since it is based on meaningful context-specific national baselines instead of the current use of estimates from global assessments. Beyond demonstrating the potential of RS for land degradation assessment, this is the first attempt at generating national level baselines for the three LDN sub-indicators (land cover change, land productivity dynamics, and soil organic carbon stocks) in Botswana, a middle-income country.
Dr. Felicia O. Akinyemi
Dr. Felicia O. Akinyemi is a Humboldt research fellow at the Centre for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces (ZFL), University of Bonn and an Associate Professor at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology. Her research is situated within the geospatial environmental change field and addresses land-use change processes and climate change as land degradation drivers in African drylands. Her current research contributes to the scientific basis for operationalising the land degradation neutrality (LDN) target at country level with the policy implications for food security and agricultural land-use planning.
She is a member of the Humboldt Life Network, a founding member of the African-German Network of Excellence in Science, serves as a thematic expert on numerous committees such as the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation International Climate Protection Fellowship, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Next Einstein Initiative grant for climate science, and European Union-African Union Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA) SADC thema project. She convenes training and scientific workshops on a regular basis numbering more than 20 till date; was keynote/invited speaker at nine local and international forums and a committee member for five international conferences. She is a reviewer for journals, e.g. Regional Environmental Change; funders, e.g. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; Global science organisation, e.g. International Science Council Data Committee (CODATA).