A long-term platform for a changing mountain system
Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research platforms are place-based research infrastructures that connect sustained environmental observation with the people, institutions and livelihoods that shape a landscape. They create a shared framework for knowledge exchange, collaboration and practical responses to sustainability challenges.
MaS-LTSER is coordinated by the Afromontane Research Unit of the University of the Free State. The platform is centred on the northern Maloti-Drakensberg, where the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho meet. It provides a common research area in which ecological and social change can be observed over decades rather than through isolated, short-term studies.
The platform supports coordinated monitoring, shared research infrastructure, comparative studies, data registration and collaboration among researchers, local communities, traditional authorities, protected-area managers, government institutions and other interested partners.
Our vision
To build and sustain the research infrastructure, partnerships and knowledge required to understand, protect and responsibly manage the northern Maloti-Drakensberg as an interconnected socio-ecological system.
What MaS-LTSER seeks to achieve
- Establish reliable long-term environmental and socio-ecological records for the region.
- Understand how climate, water, soils, biodiversity, land use and livelihoods interact.
- Identify environmental change early and distinguish short-term variability from long-term trends.
- Support evidence-based conservation, restoration, policy and land-management decisions.
- Strengthen transboundary and transdisciplinary collaboration across South Africa and Lesotho.
- Make information, research opportunities and appropriate datasets easier to discover and use.