NatuRA - Sustainable use of Natural Resources in Alpine and mountain grassland ecosystems under global change

Mountain grassland ecosystems are vital for a variety of essential functions and services. They provide grazing land for wildlife and livestock, clean water, carbon storage, and support traditional ways of life. Globally, mountains have historically been managed under similar environmental constraints, often as communal rangelands. These regions, inhabited by indigenous and local communities, have relied on sustainable land-use practices such as pastoralism to maintain their balance with nature. However, alpine ecosystems and their dependent communities face increasing threats from global environmental and social changes. The traditional management of these ecosystems, which emphasizes sustainable grazing and water use, shows remarkable similarities across different mountain regions. This shared foundation creates a unique opportunity to compare strategies and develop solutions to mitigate the impacts of global change. The NatuRA project seeks to understand the traditional and contemporary management of mountain grasslands, assess the effects of climate and land-use changes, and collaborate with local communities to create nature-based solutions for sustainable resource management. The goal is to ensure that these ecosystems and the livelihoods they support remain resilient in the face of global challenges. The project is an international collaboration funded by the Research Council of Norway and South Africa’s National Research Foundation. Led by the University of Bergen in Norway and the Universities of the Free State and Venda in South Africa, it involves partnerships with institutions such as the University of Pretoria, Meat Naturally, Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge, Bakoena Royal Council in South Africa, and Norway's Heathland Center and Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule. These diverse partnerships aim to integrate scientific research with local expertise, creating innovative solutions tailored to the needs of each community.

Mountain grassland ecosystems support a wide range of ecosystem functions and services, including grazing pastures for wild and domesticated herbivores, clean water and carbon sequestration, and traditional livelihoods. World-wide, alpine ecosystems have traditionally been managed under similar sets of environmental constraints, as communal rangelands inhabited by indigenous people and local communities who depend on sustainable management of their natural resources, for example through pastoralism. Alpine ecosystems and the people living in them and depending on them are now threatened by multiple global change drivers. These traditional alpine land-use systems share broad similarities (e.g., sustainably managing extensive grazing and water resources), offering opportunities for comparative approaches across mountain regions globally to assess how to mitigate global change impacts on mountain grasslands and sustainably manage these resources in the future. The overarching objective of the NatuRA project is to generate new knowledge on how mountain grassland ecosystems and their natural resources have been traditionally and are currently managed, how they are now affected by global changes and changes in management practices, and then use this knowledge to co-develop nature-based solutions with local stakeholders to sustainably safeguard these social-ecological systems and livelihoods under global change. This is a collaborative project with joint funding from the Research Council of Norway and the National Research Foundation, South Africa. The project is jointly led by the University of Bergen in Norway and the University of the Free State and Venda in South Africa. The project also includes collaboration with research partners from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and partners from Meat Naturally, Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge, and Bakoena Royal Council in South Africa and Heathland Center, and Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule (Agricultural College) in Norway.