This report presents the findings of a situation analysis, covering the arid and semi-arid lands of southern Africa, presenting evidence of the links between ecosystem services and human well-being, and especially the opportunities for poverty alleviation through the provision and management of ecosystem services. It was conducted between late September 2007 and January 2008. The specific requirements were to: provide evidence of the importance of ecosystem services for human well-being, especially in terms of poverty alleviation, and beyond just provisioning services; explore the linkages between ecosystem services and poverty (including  vulnerability) and the factors that influence these linkages (such as drivers of ecosystem change and trade-offs); identify knowledge gaps that would need to be filled through a longer term research and advocacy programme, so that appropriate policy and management interventions could be implemented to prevent and reverse poverty through sound ecosystem manage-ment; and identify strengths and weaknesses in management capacity in the region for ecosystems and their services.