Drought Hazard and Land Management in the Drylands of Southern Africa

Significant climatic variability is a common phenomenon in southern Africa. Frequent and persistent dry periods, unpredictable and variable rainfall and temperatures are considered normal climatic conditions. Additionally predictions of long-term climate changes for the sub-region suggest that by 2050 temperatures will be significantly higher and rainfall greatly reduced over extensive areas of southern Africa. Innovative drought hazard and land management responses are being implemented in the southern Africa sub-region. Best practices and clear shortcomings that have been identified and lessons learnt can feed into future response development. The adaptive response capacities of farmers, pastoralists and natural resource managers for example have to be strengthened in anticipation of worsening climatic conditions for crops and livestock productivity, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and land management, as a matter of priority. Concurrently capacities at the regional and national decision-making levels need also to be addressed.