Drylands: Africa
Dry bushland in NW Kenya. Photo: H. Beentje.
According to the United Nations, drylands cover approximately 41% of the Earth’s land surface, including many of the world’s poorest countries, and support more than two billion people. Land degradation affects one third of the Earth’s land surface and threatens the health and livelihoods of more than 1 billion people. Two international conventions, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) are particularly relevant to the drylands of Africa. Members of the Drylands Africa Group have had input to the UNCCD/CBD Joint Work Programme on the Biological Diversity of Dry and Sub-Humid Lands and RBG Kew’s definition of drylands follows that of the UNCCD/CBD Joint Work Programme, therefore incorporating not just hyper-arid to semi-arid biomes but also Mediterranean-type, savanna and grassland ecosystems, all of which are characterised by water stress at some time of the year. Two thirds of Africa’s land surface area is desert and dryland, and 73% of its agricultural drylands are already severely or moderately degraded.
The objective of the Drylands Africa team is to continue improving the quality of RBG Kew collections; to improve our African partners’ access to information on their own plant biodiversity; and to improve the understanding of this plant biodiversity through collaborative projects, leading to sustainable use and effective conservation.
Our vision is to see a wide range of species and vegetation types conserved and sustainably used within Africa, through the use of the best available information by our African partners and others. Our strategy, therefore, is to make Kew's botanical information (both collections and expertise) much more widely available to a broad range of potential users, and to build on Kew's institutional strengths and expertise. This, of course, requires close collaboration with our African partners, particularly in areas of high diversity that are being threatened by agricultural conversion, over-use of natural vegetation and other man-made threats.