The Partners

Centre for Arid Zone Studies, Wales (CAZS) was primarily established to promote integrated natural resource development in arid and semi-arid lands and to provide technological and scientific innovation to improve allocation and management of these resources. CAZS is a semi-autonomous department within the University of Wales, Bangor, which draws together the knowledge and experience accumulated over the years by University staff to work on finding solutions to some of these challenges. Since its inception, putting people first and placing them at the head of the priority list is a fundamental principle that permeates CAZS activities and thinking. As a result, participatory approaches can be identified in all its activities, ranging from livestock development to plant breeding.

IPE (Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, Spain)is a Spanish organisation belonging to the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and working on mountain ecology, mainly in the Pyrenees but also in other mountain ranges of the world, environmental impact assessment and erosion and desertification processes.

This institute has established an international reputation for work on stability of mountain ecosystems and the responce of these ecosystems to environmental perturbations, especially land use, in South America China and the U.S.A. as well as Europe through to the Urals.

NBI (National Botanical Institute, South Africa) is an autonomous, state-aided, statutory institution, formed by the amalgamation of the National Botanic Gardens and the Botanical Research Institute in 1989. Both these organisations were founded early this century to conserve and study the exceptionally rich southern African flora and both were world- renowned for their endeavours in this field. This rich legacy has now passed to the NBI. With its Head Office at Kirstenbosch in Cape Town, the Institute has gardens and research centres throughout South Africa.

The mission of the NBI is to promote the sustainable use, conservation, appreciation and enjoyment of the exceptionally rich plant life of South Africa for the benefit of all its people.

NINA (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway is part of a foundation established in 1988 as a national and international centre for applied ecological research. It has a staff of about 120 professionals conducting research and consultancy services for industry, governmental agencies and international institutions. NINA provides the ecological knoweledge-base for the sustainable harvesting of natural resources and the management of biological diversity.

NINA has extensive experience in conservation resource management and issues in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems. Main areas of research are conservation biology and bilogical diversity, vegetation ecology, wildlife ecology and management of game resources, freshwater ecology and fisheries management, coastal ecology, particularly seabirds and sea mammals, and environmenntal impact assessments. NINA performs a core of basic research as well as applied strategic research related to policy issues.

NINA has research and consultancy experience from developing countries and countries in Eastern Europe. As of 1994, NINA is part of the Foundation for Nature Research and Cultural Heritage Research (NINAšNIKU). NINA's main office is located in Trondheim in the central part of Norway.

NUL and UB
In 1945 a Catholic university college was established, called Pius XII, serving both Lesotho and other African countries. The introduction of apartheid laws and the subsequent exclusion of all black students from the 10 well-established university colleges of Fort Hare and Wentworth in December 1953 precipitated a need to strengthen the only university in the British High Commission territories. The move led to the establishment of the University of Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Swaziland. On independence, the colonial names of Basutoland and Bechuanaland were dropped in favour of African names and, subsequently, the university became the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. The process of strengthening this regional university included offering home-grown degrees focusing on the 3 countries of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

NUL (National University of Lesotho) was established in 1975 in a move that forced both Botswana and Swaziland to establish their own independent universities. Like its predecessors, NUL emphasises strong and sustainable undergraduate programmes. The number of departments and faculties has increased during the ensuing period, while isolated and sporadic honours and masters degrees have been the general norm. It remains largely and undergraduate university.

For the current research programme, an inter-disciplinary team of researchers from the Departments of Biology, Soils, Economics and Southern African Studies has been assembled. Plans are afoot to recruit a sociologist who would be in charge of studies of social change as well as PRA/RRA. Team composition is governed by the need to address comprehensively biophysical and socio-economic facets of rangelands as well as their link to global changes. The Lesotho team is complemented by inputs from European and southern African institutions. Local institutions such as the Range Management Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, the SADC Environment and Land Management Sector, and the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, responsible for the water project, will also provide inputs ranging from data collection to official moral support.

UB (University of Botswana) was established in 1971. The Department of Environmental Science is a multi-disciplinary department involved in undergraduate and graduate teaching and in-service training and research in the field of environmental science. Considerable expertise has been acquired, particularly in the field of semi-arid rangeland management, resource use and conservation. Staff are frequently involved in theoretical and applied research, including consultancies. The Department now has a complement of 27 academic and 12 technical staff with laboratories, computer facilities and a work station, and is therefore properly placed to coordinate the project's research activities in Botswana.