LADA Loss of Cover

During the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) project, the South African National Assessment of Land Degradation and Conservation was done between 2008 and 2011. 728 Contributing specialists throughout the country contribute their knowledge and experience on land degradation and sustainable land management during a series of 34 Participatory Expert Assessment Workshops. It is important to notice that the results of these national assessments are qualitative in nature and based on the perceptions of contributing specialists based on the assumption that they all know their respective assessment areas well enough to report on land degradation and conservation attributes. One of the land degradation types considered during the LADA National Assessment was the reduction in vegetation cover and the increase in bare and unprotected soil. Since a positive correlation exist between Soil Organic Carbon Stocks (SOCS) and vegetation cover, areas where loss of cover has been identified by contributing specialists as one of the main degradation types, could have a negative impact on the available SOCS.