Today is World Environment Day and we are celebrating by research summary of a recent paper co-authored by our own Professor Heiko Baltzar. The study, published in Frontiers (Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 27 May 2025. Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security) last month, explored the role of grassland community types in sustainable land management and the maintenance of pastoralist livelihoods in Kenya. Semi-arid grassland ecosystems are crucial for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and animal fodder; but are increasingly placed under pressure by overgrazing and climate variability. The aim of the study was to map grassland communities and assess their palatability in semi-arid Kenya using Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) and sentinel-2 satellite imagery. They also imbedded species abundance with forage quality metrics. Their findings provide actionable insights for sustainable grazing management and land protection.
