Internationally, evidence-based assessments of the sustainability of cultivation in seasonal wetlands are lacking despite such areas, including dambos in southern Africa, providing key areas for cultivation. The Striking a Balance project, which supported multiple use, including cultivation, of dambos, was undertaken in Zambia and Malawi between 2006 and 2008. Using the baseline WET-SustainableUse assessments made in 2008 in four of these dambos, the procedures were repeated in 2019 to explore the ecological sustainability of current use based on the concept of Thresholds of Potential Concern (TPC). This concept was applied to the five components of ecological health, namely hydrology, geomorphology, soil organic matter, nutrient retention and vegetation composition. In all four dambos, despite ten years of multiple use including cultivation, the change in ecological health between 2008 and 2019 was generally small, and overall, the ecological health of the four dambos has largely been maintained. However, there are some concerns, particularly with respect to vegetation composition, which had fallen below the TPC for two of the dambos. The methods used and the findings appear to have wider application in Africa for long-term monitoring the ecological health of seasonal wetlands and determining the ecological bounds for wetland cultivation.

在国际上，尽管有这样的地区，包括南部非洲的dambos，这些地区提供了重要的耕作面积，但缺乏对季节性湿地耕作可持续性的循证评估。2006年至2008年间，在赞比亚和马拉维进行了“支持平衡”的dambos多用途项目，该项目得到了支持。利用2008年对其中4个dambos进行的WET-SustainableUse基准评估，在2019年重复了该程序。基于潜在关注阈值（TPC）的概念，探索当前使用的生态可持续性。这一概念被应用于生态健康的五个组成部分，即水文，地貌，土壤有机质，养分保留和植被组成。在所有四个dambo中，尽管经过十年的多次使用，包括耕种，2008年至2019年之间的生态健康变化总体较小，总体而言，四个dambos的生态健康状况基本得以维持。但是，有一些问题，特别是关于植被组成的问题，其中有两个已经低于TPC。所使用的方法和发现似乎在非洲具有更广泛的应用，可长期监测季节性湿地的生态健康并确定湿地耕作的生态范围。