Namibia's landmark trees dying from climate change

Brigitte Weidlich in Agence France-Presse: An old man gently touches the trunk of the huge quiver tree with a worried look on his wrinkled face, as he points at several dead branches lying on Namibia's rugged terrain. "When I was a boy, my grandfather made my first quiver from a branch of this old tree about seventy years ago, but I fear the tree is dying -- too many dead branches. Things changed over the past few years, and these trees just die," he tells AFP.

…They grow in arid regions of Namibia and South Africa and are well adapted to their environment through water-storing succulent leaves and shallow root systems. The Bushman or San people used to make quivers for their bows from the trees' dead branches.

But over the past few years Kairabeb, who grew up in the area, noticed that large quiver trees -- protected in Namibia and by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) -- were drying out and toppling over. Scientists found this is most likely caused by drought, with weather data showing that average temperatures have increased over past decades across the tree's range.

The quiver tree is now red-listed in a report released by the Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) during last month's climate summit in Copenhagen. … "The quiver tree is noted for its drought tolerance and longevity, but it may be operating at the edge of its physiological tolerance," said report co-author Wendy Foden of IUCN. Die-offs have been reported since 2001 in Namibia and South Africa….

Quiver trees in Skeleton Coast Park, Namibia, shot by Alastair Rae, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License