1. Developing Environmental Indicators in the Kalahari Mark Reed

2. Learning Outcome: Understand how to develop and test environ- mental indicators with communities, and use them to monitor degradation/sustainability

3. Environmental Indicators What are they? Signs and symptoms “A physical, chemical, biological or socio- economic measurement, statistic or value that can be used to assess natural resources and environmental quality” Rapid, cheap and easy to use Can point to potential solutions Put a jacket on/ land management Guess the story behind these 3 photos…

4. Yr 1

5. Yr 10

6. Yr 20

7. 11020 yrs What information did you use to tell this story?

10. How do you identify and evaluate indicators of degradation/sustainability that can effectively detect change and point to solutions? Participatory indicator development

11. Semi- structured Interview Focus Groups Multi- Criteria Evaluation Focus Groups Oral Histories Above plus: Participatory Mapping Ecological sampling Decision Support System

12. Vast quantity of indicators: including socio- economic & livestock indicators, less on soil Generation of indicators not found in the literature Rejection or adaptation of indicators not relevant to local conditions or that require specialist training and equipment Benefits of Participatory Indicator Devpt Easily used by land managers themselves No need for trade-off between meaningful participation and scientific rigour: empirical basis for most indicators

13. Significant overlap between indicators elicited from communities and literature Majority of indicators tested were validated

14. Facilitating more sustainable land management through SIs Integrate indicators with management options Decision support system: ID problems & potential solutions Different options for different land users Kalahari: photographic manuals in local languages Distribute, evaluate and optimise in January

15. Dissemination Farmers can monitor and record rangeland degradation indicators qualitatively using “wheel charts” And respond appropriately…

16. Summary You should now: Understand how to develop and test environ- mental indicators with communities, and use them to monitor degradation/sustainability

17. Reading Reed MS (2003) Call of the Kalahari: Finding a future for a fragile landscape, Explorers Journal, Fall 2003: 30-33 http://www.env.leeds.ac.uk/~mreed/explorers.html