SKEPPIES Publications

By Amanda Bourne, Reginald Christiaan, and Nicholas Sigamu

By Amanda Bourne

In May 2010, CAP and CSA started monitoring local weather patterns with 11 SKEPPIES projects across the Succulent Karoo Biodiversity Hotspot. Monitoring involved recording minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall, and weather observations on a daily basis, comparing these to a TV or radio weather forecast, and applying this information to climate resilient planning in each of the projects.

By Amanda Bourne

This report provides an overview of the climate diary process to date and demonstrates where climate monitoring fits into and supports the broader aims of the SKEPPIES-CitiGroup Building Resilience to Climate Change Programme. The lessons learned by both the SKEPPIES project implementers and the CAP and CSA programme implementation team are summarised here and a couple of case studies on the impact of climate monitoring on business planning are included.

By Amanda Bourne

Climate scientists predict that Namaqualand will be one of the areas in South Africa hardest hit by climate change. The semi-desert region is expected to experience higher coastal and inland temperatures, resulting in undesirably higher levels of evaporation, and changes in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as droughts and storms. The Succulent Karoo veld is already resource scarce in terms of water availability, soil fertility, and agricultural productivity and under immense pressure from human activities.