Vera De Cauwer

• PhD Bioscience Engineering
• Associate Professor at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)

Tropical savannas have a patchy vegetation structure and heterogeneous composition that complicates their mapping and management. Land managers need detailed vegetation information, especially as tropical savannas often support extensive ranching systems or wildlife-based tourism and face specific challenges such as bush thickening, drought, bushfi...

Objectives: Climate change is expected to have major impacts on plant species distribution worldwide. These changes can affect plant species in three ways: the timing of seasonal activities (phenology), physiology and distribution. This study aims to predict the effect of shifting climatic conditions on the major vegetation units along an aridity g...

Giraffe (Giraffa spp.) population numbers and distribution have shown dramatic declines across their global range (>30%) over the past 35 years. A century ago, the population size in the wild was estimated at >1 million. At present, there are~117 000 individuals remaining, of which 50% are in southern Africa. With substantial giraffe populations in...

Indigenous tree species are important to rural communities in developing countries, as they provide woody and non-timber forest resources such as vegetables, fruits and traditional medicines. Pterocarpus angolensis DC. and Strychnos cocculoides Baker are such tree species found in Namibian woodlands. The first species is valued for its wood product...

The Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism is a hotspot of biodiversity and endemism, largely underexplored while new species are continually described. A reconnaissance survey of flora and vegetation was undertaken on three remote mountain tops of the western Great Escarpment: Cafema and Tchamalindi in Angola’s Iona National Park, and Middelberg in the Otji...

An overview of Namibia's forests and the current status of sustainable forest management and research, concluded with a SWOT analysis.

In April 2021, the Namibia University of Science and Technology organised a biodiversity survey of three of the highest mountains in the transboundary Kaokoveld: Middelberg in Namibia and Serra Tchamalindi and Serra Cafema in Iona National Park, Angola. The Cape Eagle Owl and Layard’s Warbler (formerly Layard’s Tit-Babbler), which have not previous...

Senecio namibensis is described as a new species known only from the northern part of the Namib Desert in northwestern Namibia. It is a range-restricted species near-endemic to the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism. These dwarf shrubs grow on rocky outcrops under harsh desert conditions. Diagnostic characters for Senecio namibensis include the annual or...

The presence in Namibia along the Kunene River and border of Angola of the beattyi subspecies of Ploceus intermedius (Lesser Masked Weaver) is reported for the first time. Observations suggested that beattyi probably grades into birds of the cabanisii subspecies from Epupa Falls and further upstream along the Kunene River, while typical cabanisii o...

Wildlife introductions are often preceded by habitat suitability studies, although to date the possible impact of human communities' attitudes towards reintroductions of species have seldom been assessed in any detail. Iona National Park (NP) in Angola is inhabited by people, predominantly on the eastern fringes, and as such any reintroduction woul...

This baseline study on sustainable forest management in Namibia was published as part of the ‘Promoting Sustainable Forest Management in the Kavango-Zamebzi Region in Namibia’ project, an initiative implemented by the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) Namibia together with the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN). The report is also available o...

This report is an output of the SCIONA project "Co-designing conservation technologies for Skeleton Coast-Iona Transfrontier Conservation Area (Angola – Namibia)". The SCIONA project’s overarching aim was to strengthen cross-border ecosystem management and wildlife protection in the newly established Iona – Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Park through...

https://conservationnamibia.com/articles/cn2021-helicopter-science.php There are few places left on earth that scientists haven't visited to collect and study fauna and flora. Unexplored places invoke images of the deep ocean, inaccessible parts of Antarctica, or the highest mountains on Earth. It may come as a surprise that there are a few almost...

Syzygium kuneneense, here described as a new species, is known only from the northern part of the Namib Desert in the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism, southwestern Angola and adjacent northwestern Namibia. These rheophytic shrubs or small trees grow among rocks on the floodplain and banks of the lower Kunene River on the international boundary between...

Osteospermum namibense, here described as a new species, is known only from the northern part of the Namib Desert in the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism, northwestern Namibia. Within a broad generic concept for Osteospermum (tribe Calenduleae), the new species is a member of subgen. Tripteris. These dwarf shrubs grow on rocky outcrops under harsh dese...

The development of site-specific allometric models for tree species of natural tropical forests is hampered by limited resources while there is little quality control of the models developed. This study compares site- and species-specific models with generic and regional or pantropical models for Pterocarpus angolensis, the most widely exploited ti...

Popular article on the increased timber harvest in 2018 in Namibia.

Land cover change is a global issue but its effects can be particularly severe in developing countries such as Namibia, by affecting the ecological functions of ecosystems and hence sustainable development. Namibia’s arid conditions, due to low rainfall and high evapo-transpiration rates, coupled with annual savannah fires, have resulted in a heter...

In the search for ways to address sustainability challenges, there is growing interest in nature-based solutions. Among these are calls to plant a trillion trees globally, which have been met with mixed responses. In this Voices, we ask researchers about the potential role of trees in mitigating and adapting to global change, as well as doing so in...

This is the first description of the complete genome sequence of a new monopartite begomovirus isolated from tomato with symptoms of tomato (yellow) leaf curl disease collected in northwestern Namibia, which we provisionally name “tomato leaf curl Kunene virus”. The DNA-A-like nucleotide sequence shares the highest nucleotide sequence identity (82....

Crassothonna agaatbergensis, here described as a new species, is known only from the northern part of the Skeleton Coast (part of the Namib Desert) in the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism, northwestern Namibia. These perennial shrublets grow on basalt of the Agaatberg Mountain under harsh desert conditions. Diagnostic characters for C. agaatbergensis i...

Euphorbia rimireptans, here described as a new species, is known only from the northern part of the Skeleton Coast (part of the Namib Desert) in the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism, northwestern Namibia. These perennial shrublets grow on rocky outcrops of latite under harsh desert conditions. Diagnostic characters for E. rimireptans include the procum...

Report of the scoping trip of the SCIONA project in Angola. The SCIONA project aims to co-design conservation technologies for the new Iona - Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Park. The report gives an overview of this multi-disciplinary and exploratory research trip with an accent on the kick-off workshop in Moçâmedes and on the biophysica...

Report of the biodiversity scoping trip of the SCIONA project in Namibia. The SCIONA project aims to co-design conservation technologies for the new Iona - Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Park. The report gives an overview of this multi-disciplinary exploratory research trip with an accent on biophysics and biodiversity.

Several socio-economically important indigenous tree species of southern Africa show limited natural regeneration while also being threatened by land conversion and overharvesting. Assisted tree regeneration both artificial regeneration in nurseries and assisted natural regeneration in forests is needed to allow the sustainable use of forest resour...

The countries of southern Africa have an average forest cover of 32% with most forest situated in the tropics. These dry to moist forests are deciduous with a few evergreen species. The open canopy allows enough light to reach the ground to allow the development of a rich grass layer. Generally, these forests are referred to as woodlands. The artic...

Several socio-economically important indigenous tree species of southern Africa show limited natural regeneration while also being threatened by land conversion and overharvesting. Assisted tree regeneration — both artificial regeneration in nurseries and assisted natural regeneration in forests — is needed to allow the sustainable use of forest re...

In this paper we present an estimate of above-ground biomass (AGB) in the dry tropical forests and woodlands of southern Angola, western Zambia, northern Namibia and northern Botswana. Furthermore, we investigated the environmental variables influencing the spatial distribution of AGB. We compiled data from 498 vegetation plots and forest inventori...

Pterocarpus angolensis is an important timber tree of the miombo woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa. The species only grows in natural mixed forests and little is known about is productivity potential. This study aimed at investigating productivity of P. angolensis on a local scale in Namibia and Angola and on a regional scale in southern Africa. The...

TFO researchers presented their respective results concerning the targets to raise the awareness of people of the values of biodiversity (A1), to reduce the rate of loss of all natural habitats (B5), to enhance the area under conservation (C11), to enhance the contribution of biodiversity to carbon storage (D15) and to enhance the level of particip...

Background: Tropical dry forests cover less than 13 % of the world's tropical forests and their area and biodiversity are declining. In southern Africa, the major threat is increasing population pressure, while drought caused by climate change is a potential threat in the drier transition zones to shrub land. Monitoring climate change impacts in th...

The open woodlands in the northeast of Namibia are at the southern edge of the Miombo ecoregion. They are characterised by a few canopy species of which Pterocarpus angolensis is considered the most valuable timber wood in the country. Despite its economic importance, there are no estimations for the growing stock of the species on a national level...

Assisted regeneration allows for selecting desired tree qualities, such as drought resistance and good timber or fruit quality. It is also a valuable forest management tool for species with slow growth - such as most canopy tree species of northern Namibia - and limited natural regeneration, such as Pterocarpus angolensis and Guibourtia coleosperma...

Durante um período de cinco anos (setembro de 2010 a agosto de 2015), 140 pesquisadores de oito países, 23 universidades e instituições de pesquisa adicionais, principalmente de Angola, Botsuana, Namíbia e Alemanha, realizaram o projeto de pesquisa transdisciplinar ‚The Future Okavango‘ (TFO) dentro de toda a Bacia do Okavango-Cubango. Este livro é...

Durante um período de cinco anos (setembro de 2010 a agosto de 2015), 140 pesquisadores de oito países, 23 universidades e instituições de pesquisa adicionais, principalmente de Angola, Botsuana, Namíbia e Alemanha, realizaram o projeto de pesquisa transdisciplinar ‚The Future Okavango‘ (TFO) dentro de toda a Bacia do Okavango-Cubango. Este livro é...

We modelled species distributions of tree species in southeast Angola using solely remotely sensed predictors.

The Future Okavango project analysed ecosystem functions and services within the transboundary Okavango basin. This article describes the vegetation at the Mashare study site, south of the Okavango river, east of Rundu in Namibia. Quantitative data was collected in nested forest inventory plots. Tree communities were determined with PCOrd.

Project in collaboration with the Benguela Environment Fisheries Interaction & Training Programme (BENEFIT) for the Benguela current Large MArine Ecosystem (BCLME) Programme.

Theory and seaborne measurements are presented for the near infrared (NIR: 700–900 nm) water-leaving reflectance in turbid waters. According to theory, the shape of the NIR spectrum is determined largely by pure water absorption and is thus almost invariant. A ‘‘similarity’’ NIR reflectance spectrum is defined by normalization at 780 nm. This spect...

Satellite products provide a useful management tool for Namibia, a country with a long and sparsely populated coastline and for which marine resources provide a major source of income. Their main use is to support the small research team at the Ministry of Marine Fisheries and Resources (MFMR) by providing information to estimate the Total Allowabl...

The shape of water-leaving reflectance spectra in the near infrared range 700-900nm is almost invariant for turbid waters and has been analysed and tabulated as a similarity spectrum by normalisation at 780nm. This similarity spectrum is used here for the quality control of seaborne reflectance measurements and for the improvement of sky glint corr...

This paper describes the validation of MERIS products for Belgian coastal waters for the period 2002-2003. The MERIS Level 2 water products are compared with sea-borne measurements if match-up conditions are satisfied. A qualitative assessment of MERIS imagery was made to provide recommendations to improve image quality as in our previous report. T...

European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (3rd : 2004) Spring mean and maximum chlorophyll a (chl a) concentrations are main factors to determine the eutrophication status of the Belgian waters as agreed within OSPAR in 2002. Other important assessment parameters to measure the degree of nutrient enrichment - the amounts of inorganic phos...

A hydro-optical algorithm based on reflectance at 555nm has been used in the past for suspended particulate matter concentrations (SPM) retrieval from SeaWiFS over the Belgian coastal (case II) waters in Southern North Sea. The extra spectral resolution of MERIS offers the possibility of improvements, though necessitates algorithm recalibration. Th...

This paper describes the methods used to acquire sea-level data for validation of MERIS water products in Belgian coastal waters and comparison of such measurements with MERIS level 2 data as available in November 2002. Results are presented for two Reduced Resolution level 2 images for which sea-level match-up data exists. One image was acquired d...

The possibility to use ERS-SAR.PRI data for the discrimination of different types of tropical woody vegetation - shrub savannah, degraded forest and primary forest - was evaluated for study areas in Central Africa (Congo and Cameroon). The performance of mono- respectively multitemporal ERS.SAR data were evaluated, as well as the synergy between mi...

English summary of a MSc thesis written in Dutch for WWF International that includes a vegetation classification with Landsat TM data for Nam Bai Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam, and that demonstrates the use of a GIS to manage the park.