Department of Environmental Sciences

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Browsing Department of Environmental Sciences by Advisor "Kwembeya, Ezekeil Gwinyai"

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    Identification, mapping and ranking of important plant areas in Oshana, Oshikoto, Omusati and Ohangwena regions in Namibia
    (University of Namibia, 2024) Andreas, Emilia Ndapandula; Kwembeya, Ezekeil Gwinyai
    The identification of IPAs (Important Plant Areas) has been at the forefront of conservation research in recent years however, there is no recent information on the IPAs in Namibia. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify, map, and rank the IPAs in the study regions using the IPA criteria established by Darbyshire (2017) and validate those demarcated based on expert knowledge (hereafter referred to as preliminary IPAs). New IPAs were identified using the global IPA criteria following Blasi et al. (2011) and Darbyshire et al. (2017). Similarly, preliminary IPAs were validated using the global IPA criteria. IPAs were ranked in terms of their conservation importance using a grid-based ranking system. QGIS software was used to produce maps for new IPAs. In addition, current protected areas and non-protected areas do not differ significantly in terms of species richness based on this standard scoring method. Consequently, Cluster analysis produced four clusters with 10% similarity in species composition, indicating huge differences in species composition between protected and non-protected areas that satisfy the IPAs criteria. QDS with high conservation scores were identified as the new IPAs instead of the previously demarcated IPAs. This study recommends stakeholders, practitioners, and policymakers to prioritize IPAs that are not in protected areas for conservation. Additionally, this study revealed the effectiveness of identifying and recognizing IPAs using globally standardized IPA criteria and expert-opinion-based selection alone