Marked fence-line contrasts are visible outcomes of the effects of different natural resource
managements in the dryland rangeland of southern Namibia. Within the framework of the
interdisciplinary BIOTA Southern Africa project, comparative investigations were carried out on a
pair of permanently marked Biodiversity Observatories (i.e. standardised research sites) at the Gellap
Ost Research Station and the neighbouring Nuwefontein and Nabaos Communal Land. Results show
that on the historically more intensively used communal farms, there is an overall decline in perennial
vegetation, especially within low-growing life-forms. Short-term annual growth in the rainy season is
followed by extensively barren surfaces during the dry season. In direct vicinity, the site on the
governmental research station looks intact. The access of livestock to the camp is timely restricted and
indicator plants are regularly monitored in order to prevent overgrazing. Overall stocking rates are low
also because of missing economic incentives for profit maximisation, due to fixed budgeting. These
circumstances ensure a dense grass-cover throughout the year. The state of the natural resources on
both sites is strongly influenced by present and past motives, actions and constrains of land users,
population pressure and the change in incentives set by institutions, such as the (re-)distribution of
property rights, especially use rights. In particular, the shift of rights and governance away from local
users to government authorities as an outcome of apartheid-related policies and incomplete reforms
after Independence, has led to a situation where practised communal resource management is unable to
rehabilitate degraded rangeland and to maintain biodiversity. Apart from the human impact on
changing biodiversity, the effects of degradation on the area’s rural households’ livelihoods have been
investigated. The general decline in self-generating natural capital and the increase in the seasonal
fluctuation in available biomass increases the risk for farming, thereby making additional sources of
income indispensable. Based on a participatory approach, and firmly embedded in local realities,
interdisciplinary investigations into the processes of socio-economic change and ecological effects of
various land use systems, will form the basis for proposing biodiversity maintenance strategies.