July 2025: NamTip team presents key project findings at GlobalTip Final Conference

From July 1–2, 2025, the final conference of the GlobalTip research initiative was held in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), bringing together around 85 experts from science and practice to present strategies for identifying and preventing social-ecological tipping points. Launched by the German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), GlobalTip supports international research on how ecosystems respond to increasing human pressures and climate change. GlobalTip has supported six interdisciplinary projects investigating regions at risk of crossing critical ecological thresholds - known as tipping points - and developing strategies to prevent or adapt to such irreversible changes.

The NamTip project was represented at the event by all Principal Investigators from Germany and Namibia, who presented new evidence showing how prolonged drought and unsustainable land use are leading to significant changes in rangeland vegetation. Under experimental drought conditions, perennial grasses decline while forbs and shrubs increase - a shift the team interprets as a warning sign of impending ecosystem collapse. "Desertification does not follow a single, clearly defined threshold" explained Prof. Anja Linstädter, NamTip’s project lead. "Instead, it unfolds as a cascade of interconnected changes, making early detection and intervention all the more crucial". NamTip researchers emphasized that degraded soils are losing their ability to retain water and support germination, posing a direct threat to local food security. The team called for practical support for local farmers, including training in sustainable land use, to halt degradation and enable long-term rangeland recovery.

Other GlobalTip projects presented insights from similarly vulnerable regions - such as the Peruvian upwelling system (Humboldt-Tipping), the Amazon rainforest (PRODIGY), and the Mongolian steppe (MoreStep) - all of which face the risk of irreversible ecological shifts. Yet across projects, one message was clear: effective solutions must account for the tight interconnections between social, ecological, and climatic systems, and must involve those whose lives depend on them.

The GlobalTip initiative, funded with €13 million between 2023 and 2025, builds on the earlier BioTip phase and represents the world’s first major research program focused on social-ecological tipping points, aiming to deliver science-based, actionable recommendations for early detection, prevention, and management of critical system shifts in vulnerable ecosystems.