A landmark GIS-based landscape-level biodiversity, vulnerability, and landuse assessment (LLA) was undertaken for the Uranium Provinces of Namibia. It investigates ecological values, connectivity, vulnerability and irreplaceability against a number of land alteration scenarios resulting from uranium mining. The study takes into consideration individual and cumulative impacts of multiple stakeholders and the potential within the landscape to compensate for impacts to ecosystems.
Namibia, Uganda, Liberia, Mongolia and proposed in other landscapes.
The key to this approach is to use an ecosystem scale assessment that understands the patterns and processes underpinning the ecological function of the landscape that, in turn, underpins the productivity of the landscape for various uses. In landscapes with competing land uses, this is fundamental to the sustainable use and the maintenance of ecosystem services and biodiversity.
Pippa Howard, Director, Business & Biodiversity - Fauna & Flora International
Development Practitioners, Researchers
