Executive summary This report was commissioned as a learning process for practitioners who are involved in the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR) and the Jobs for Carbon project (J4C). The report looks mainly at the carbon economy and how the J4C can further...

Abstract: Commonly cited requirements for bridging the “science-practice divide” between  practitioners and scientists include: political support, communication and experimentation.  The Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme was established in 2004 to...

Abstract  Ecosystem carbon storage in intact thicket in the Eastern Cape, South Africa exceeds 20 kg/m2, which is an unusually large amount for a semiarid ecosystem. Heavy brows ing by goats transforms the thicket into an open savanna and can result in carbon...

Abstract Intensive pastoralism with goats transforms semiarid thicket in the Eastern Cape, South Africa from a dense vegetation of tall shrubs to an open landscape dominated by ephemeral grasses and forbs. Approx. 800 000 ha of thicket (which prior to the introduction...

Abstract  An accepted criterion for measuring the success of ecosys tem restoration is the return of biodiversity relative to intact reference ecosystems. The emerging global carbon economy has made landscape-scale restoration of severely degraded Portulacaria afra...