Combineren van aardobservatie, sociaal-economisch onderzoek en ruimtelijke modellering om ecosysteemdienstenbundels te evalueren in geselecteerde landschappen van de noordoostelijke bergen, Tanzania

Community' livelihood relies on the ecological services provided by nearby ecosystems such as forests, agroforests, wetlands and water bodies. Ecosystems provide multiple services, which can be broadly categorized as economic, ecological, and social. Globally, ecosystems host a wealth of uses, cultural expressions, spatial threats arrangement and opportunities for sustainable development and biodiversity in particular. The second way of categorization of these services is dividing them into supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Mountainous environments are particularly relevant, as mountainous ecosystems are important not only for the provisions of desired services (food, timber, fibre, water) on-site, but can also improve communities by connecting neighbors (upstream and downstream smallholder farmers) to improve off-site effects and benefits and can provide attractive alternative property values (recreational sites). However, the complexity of ecosystem functions and their relationship to human activities where land-use systems are highly dynamic and dominated by smallholder farming has not been explored adequately for many regions in the tropics, despite their widespread occurrence. In other way, a lack of quantitative data is a main barrier to the modelling of ecosystem services. So far, there is paucity of data and information for better understanding of such land 3 use/cover systems with their associated spatial patterns of ES bundles, and their interaction in the tropics. Earth observation (EO) can provide essential data for quantifying ecosystems service supply, demand and benefit from different land use/cover types in data-scarce areas. This study therefore aims to assess the influence of the environmental context and land management options (including traditional conservation and agroforestry practices) for forest and agricultural landscapes on ES bundles, in 4 tropical mountainous environments in Northern Tanzania, i.e., the East Usambara mountains, the West Usambara mountains, the Pare Mountains and Mt. Kilimanjaro. In the end this research is envisaged to establish a framework for understanding the importance of different land use/cover types for multiple ecosystem services, focusing on four contrasting tropical mountainous environments with different settings in terms of soils, climate, land degradation and people's livelihood under conditions of smallholder farming. It will further be used by institutions and regional decision makers as a guideline for development planning and for future scientific research projects in analysing trade-offs and synergies of ES bundles