Welcome to the Afromontane Research Unit:
A continental leader in African mountain research ...
Southern African mountains are among the least understood socio-ecological systems on earth, yet provide ecosystem services that are essential for economic, social, and political stability in the region. In a wide variety of domestic and international partnerships, the ARU undertakes single-disciplinary research projects through to transdisciplinary research programmes that speak to this agenda. The ARU thus actively engages in and promotes research on Southern African mountains in order to encourage a stronger science-policy-practice interface. The ARU currently has active collaborations across Southern Africa, which includes Angola, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
In particular, the ARU is channeling concentrated effort on two ‘wicked problems’:
- Rangeland degradation in the Maloti-Drakensberg (including the poorly understood alpine zone), and
- The sustainable development of Phuthaditjhaba as an African mountain city.