LADA Land Conservation Activities Index

Conservation activities are usually a response to land degradation problems and associated with the implementation of a single or combination of conservation measures. The purpose of conservation measures are either to prevent degradation before it occur, as a mitigation measure when full rehabilitation is still possible or for rehabilitation purposes in cases of serious land degradation. 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. During the Participatory Expert Assessment Workshops, contributing specialists identified for each mapping unit the main conservation groups and measures currently implemented by land users to address or respond to land degradation problems. As for the degradation assessment, variables describing these conservation measures were also combined to develop a unique Conservation Index (CI). Variables used were the extend of conservation measures implemented, the level of effective implementation of these measures, the effectiveness trend of these measures over time (last 10 years) and the level of impact of these conservation measures on ecosystem services. The CI values range from 0 to 100, for each mapping unit as defined by the LADA Land Use Map for South Africa. The higher the CI value, the more conservation measures are in place, the more effective they are, and the better the situation.