Land degradation has put the world's rangelands under intense pressure and reduced their capacity to provide vital services to those who solely depend on them for survival. With the current pressures on rangelands, worldwide, there is an urgent need to survey the present condition of rangelands. Such detailed surveys can identify where improvement programmes can be emphasised; whether it be reseeding, stock control, sociological restraints or other actions. To combat rangeland degradation, management systems are more effective when they account for community perceptions and practices. This study aims to assess the current status of woody plants in different categories of degradation as perceived by herders in Kunene, Namibia. Furthermore, we wished to compare the perception of degradation by herders with the measured ecological condition. With the help of herders, sites representing different categories of degradation (low, moderate, high and protected) were identified and 10 plots of 400m² each were established in each category. Species diversity, density, basal area and regeneration of woody plants increased sequentially along the degradation gradient (high to low). Vegetation attributes such as species diversity, seedling density and standing basal area increased with increasing distances from the villages. Although the herders' perception of degradation, for high and moderate degradation, matches the ecological results, the low degradation sites show signs of bush encroachment, a type of degradation that the herders did not perceive as degradation. Colophospermum mopane, a known encroacher species across Namibia, was the dominant species in the moderate and low degradation sites. Pechuel‐loeschea leubnitziae, which is also known to be an indicator of degradation, was the dominant species in the high degradation sites. The findings highlight the present and future threats the study area is facing and form the basis for current restoration research.

中文翻译：

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纳米比亚库内内地区半干旱牧场中社区衍生土地退化类别中木本物种的当前植被结构和组成

土地退化使世界范围的牧场承受了巨大的压力，并降低了它们向仅依靠其生存的人们提供重要服务的能力。鉴于当前全球牧场的压力，迫切需要调查牧场的现状。这种详细的调查可以确定可以在哪些方面强调改进计划；无论是播种，库存控制，社会学限制还是其他行动。为了应对牧场退化，管理系统考虑到社区的看法和做法时会更加有效。这项研究旨在评估纳米比亚库内内牧民所感知的不同退化程度木本植物的现状。此外，我们希望将牧民对退化的看法与测得的生态状况进行比较。每个类别中分别建立^2个。木本植物的物种多样性，密度，基础面积和再生沿着降解梯度（从高到低）依次增加。植被属性（例如物种多样性，幼苗密度和基础面积）随与村庄之间距离的增加而增加。尽管牧民对退化的感知在高和中度退化方面与生态结果相符，但低退化位点却显示出灌木丛被入侵的迹象，这是牧民并不认为退化的一种退化。纳米比亚已知的蚕食物种Colophospermum mopane是中度和低度降解点的优势种。白头高降解位点中的优势菌种也是众所周知的降解指标。这些发现凸显了该研究领域目前和未来面临的威胁，并为当前的修复研究奠定了基础。