Eastern Cape Province in South Africa has experienced extreme drought events during the last decade. In South Africa, different land management systems exist belonging to two different land tenure classes: commercial large scale farming and communal small-scale subsistence farming. Communal lands are often reported to be affected by land degradation and drought events among others considered as trigger for this process. Against this background, we analyzed vegetation response to drought in different land management and land tenure systems through assessing vegetation productivity trends and monitoring the intensity, frequency and distribution of the drought hazard in grasslands and communal and commercial croplands during drought and non-drought conditions. For the observation period 2000–2016, we used time series of 250 m Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) based on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Climate Hazard Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) precipitation data with 5 km resolution. For the assessment of vegetation dynamics, we: (1) analyzed vegetation productivity in Eastern Cape over the last 16 years with EVI; (2) analyzed the impact of drought events on vegetation productivity in grasslands as well as commercial and communal croplands; and (3) compared precipitation-vegetation dynamics between the drought season 2015/2016 and the non-drought season 2011/2012. Change in total annual vegetation productivity could detect drought years while drought dynamics during the season could be rather monitored by the VCI. Correlation of vegetation condition and precipitation indicated areas experiencing significant vegetation productivity trends showing low and even negative correlation coefficients indicating other drivers for productivity change and drought impact besides rainfall.

The Maloti-Drakensberg (MD) is the largest and highest-elevation mountain system in southern Africa. Covering 40,000 km² and reaching 3500 m, the MD provides a range of ecosystem services (ES) to the entire southern African region—benefitting diverse users and extending well beyond the mountains. Rapid socioecological change threatens the provision of ES and presents multidimensional challenges to sustainable development. However, the continued land degradation and persisting socioeconomic problems indicate that development policy has not been effective in tackling these issues. In this paper, a multidisciplinary literature review forms the basis of a discussion which takes an ES framing to scrutinise the multidimensional social, political, economic and cultural issues in the study area. Three critical management systems are presented, and their associated ES are discussed, namely, water transfer, rangelands and conservation and tourism. In particular, the diversity of ES uses and values in the MD is considered. The results reveal the main drivers of continued unsustainable development and highlight important information gaps.

Mountain Research and Development publishes research on topics related to mountains, mountain people and communities, and sustainable development in mountains.

Population growth, climate change, and unsustainable natural resource management are putting pressure on mountain ecosystems and making mountain communities increasingly vulnerable to climate and disaster risks. The international academic community is committed to finding solutions to the challenges faced in mountain regions. Governments, too, have been developing adaptation plans and policies to improve living conditions and opportunities for mountain communities. However, ensuring that these efforts have a strong impact requires coordinated action between theory and practice. Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS) seeks to respond to this need with its mission to turn science into action.

Prof. Dr. Gunter Menz passed away on 9 August 2016 following a dramatic accident.

In our increasingly interconnected world, the compound, cascading, and systemic nature of risks takes on a new dimension and meaning. Africa is one of the continents predicted to be most adversely affected by climate change due to high levels of exposure to increasingly intense and frequent hazards and their interactions with intrinsic drivers of vulnerability, resulting in compounding and complex risk profiles. For instance, Africa is increasingly subject to droughts, floods, heatwaves, cyclones and other climate-related hazards. State-of-the-art people-centered, impact-based Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) and Anticipatory Action (AA) have to address this growing complexity. While these approaches are widely recognised, implementation of such systems at different scales, from local, national to regional levels, is still impeded by gaps in knowledge and capacities to act on such knowledge. This includes, for instance, how certain hazards can affect the people and property to be protected (impact-based forecasting), or how to generate and communicate user-focused risk-information and knowledge that enables equitable and gender-responsive risk reduction, and how to define triggers and coordination structures that enable early release of funds in anticipation of impact. This paper will introduce to the Network of Centres of Excellence (NoE) which was initiated by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in order to contribute to the African-Union led African Multi-Hazard Early Warning and Action System (AMHEWAS) initiative. The aim of the NoE is to enhance the general awareness regarding multi-hazard risks and to strengthen stakeholders’ capacity across national, regional, and continental scales to collect, exchange and analyse risk data and knowledge to adequately inform multi-hazard and impact-based early warning systems and early actions across Africa. The NoE also envisions an integrative, participatory Capacity Development Framework, that incorporates African Indigenous Knowledge Systems, serving towards a general capacity strengthening effort in the region and contributing to the growth of an African-based Community of Practice (CoP) for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Emergency Response Preparedness (ERP) coupled with an effective Science-Policy-Action feedback loop resulting in tangible interventions on the ground from an African perspective.