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More About the state of African Environment
Broad improvements in human welfare will not occur unless poor people receive wider access to affordable, better quality services in health, education, water, sanitation, and electricity. Without such improvements in services, freedom from illness and freedom from illiteracy - two of the most important ways poor people can escape poverty - will remain elusive to many.
Sub-Saharan Africa
In Africa, perhaps more than in any other region, the World Bank's mission of fighting poverty with lasting results is inescapably linked to environmental protection and improved management of renewable natural resources. African livelihoods and national economies rely mainly on agriculture and on extraction of mineral and biological resources, and there are few alternatives or options to compensate when these are lost.
In both rural and urban settings, it is the poor who are most affected by the loss of natural resources and the deterioration of environmental services and who are most at risk from natural disasters that can be aggravated by environmental degradation. Yet the natural resource base is steadily deteriorating, with some of the world's highest rates of soil degradation and with loss of forests, rangelands, wetlands, and fish and wildlife populations.
Millions of rural Africans are dependent on natural resources for food security and meager incomes. An important challenge is the building of capacity in Africa for environmental management. Much of the work done so far has been at the public level, but more effort is needed to involve the private sector and to alert Africans to ways in which successful management of the environment can enhance development progress.
The key challenge is to reduce poverty. New approaches that put the poor at the top of the environment and development agenda could tap and release the latent energy and talents of Africans to bring about development that is economically, socially, environmentally and politically sustainable.'
Africa is the only continent on which poverty is expected to rise during the next century.
An estimated 500 million hectares of land have been affected by soil degradation since about 1950, including as much as 65 per cent of agricultural land.
As a result of declining food security, the number of undernourished people in Africa nearly doubled from 100 million in the late 1960s to nearly 200 million in 1995. Africa lost 39 million hectares of tropical forest during the 1980s, and another 10 million hectares by 1995.
Fourteen African countries are subject to water stress or water scarcity, and a further 11 will join them by 2025.
Africa emits only 3.5 per cent of the world's total carbon dioxide now and this is expected to increase to only 3.8 per cent by the year 2010.
Poverty is a major cause and consequence of the environmental degradation and resource depletion that threaten the region. Major environmental challenges include deforestation, soil degradation and desertification, declining biodiversity and marine resources, water scarcity, and deteriorating water and air quality. Urbanization is an emerging issue, bringing with it the range of human health and environmental problems well known in urban areas throughout the world. Growing 'environmental debts' in many countries are a major concern because the cost of remedial action will be far greater than preventive action. Although many African countries are implementing new national and multilateral environmental policies, their effectiveness is often low due to lack of adequate staff, expertise, funds and equipment for implementation and enforcement. Current environmental policies are mainly based on regulatory instruments but some countries have begun to consider a broader range, including economic incentives implemented through different tax systems. Although cleaner production centres have been created in a few countries, most industries have made little effort to adopt cleaner production approaches. However, some companies and even local enterprises have recently voluntarily adopted precautionary environmental standards.
Poverty is a complex multidimensional problem. In Africa, poverty is one of the drivers of environmental degradation, largely because the poor have limited choices and depend heavily on the natural resource base. There is no uniform solution to the problem of poverty. Country-specific programmes to tackle poverty, and sub-regional, regional and international efforts supporting national efforts, are needed. At national level, a specific anti-poverty strategy is, therefore, one of the basic conditions for ensuring sustainable development. Many African countries have prepared and are implementing poverty reduction strategies and plans.
http://econ.worldbank.org/wdr/wdr2004/
Environment in the Regions of Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa Environment Strategy (in pdf)
Desertification has its greatest impact in Africa. Two thirds of the continent is desert or drylands. There are extensive agricultural drylands, almost three quarters of which are already degraded to some degree. The region is afflicted by frequent and severe droughts. Many African countries are landlocked, have widespread poverty, need external assistance, and depend heavily on natural resources for subsistence. They have difficult socio-economic conditions, insufficient institutional and legal frameworks, incomplete infrastructure, and weak scientific, technical, and educational capacities. These difficult circumstances explain why African countries have put so much effort into convincing the international community of the need for a "Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa".
Africa's desertification is strongly linked to poverty, migration, and food security. In many African countries, combating desertification and promoting development are virtually one and the same due to the social and economic importance of natural resources and agriculture. When people live in poverty, they have little choice but to overexploit the land. When the land eventually becomes uneconomic to farm, these people are often forced into internal and cross-border migrations, which in turn can further strain the environment and cause social and political tensions and conflicts. (The link with migration was important to the international community's recognition of desertification as a truly global problem, like climate change or biodiversity loss.) Food security can ultimately be put at risk when people already living on the edge face severe droughts and other calamities.
http://www.unccd.entico.com/english/basicfacts11.htm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/desertification/
Africa is endowed with a highly diverse species of fauna and flora. Savannahs, which are the richest grasslands in the world, are the most extensive ecosystem in Africa. They support many indigenous plants and animals as well as the world's largest concentration of large mammals such as elephants, buffalo, rhinoceros, giraffes, lions, leopards, cheetah, zebras, hippopotami, kudus, waterbucks and Oryx.
Africa has a large and diverse heritage of flora and fauna, including major domesticated agricultural crops such as sorghum and millet. The continent is home to more than 50 000 known plant species, 1 000 mammal species, and 1 500 bird species.
Eastern Africa has the highest numbers of endemic species of mammals (55 per cent), birds (63 per cent), reptiles (49 per cent) and amphibians (40 per cent), whereas species endemism is relatively low in Northern Africa.
Madagascar is the most endemic-rich country in Africa, and the sixth in the world for higher vertebrates (mammals, birds and amphibians), with more than 300 endemic species, and the third-most plant-rich country in Africa after the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania (WCMC 1992). One of the six most significant concentrations of plants in the world is the Cape Floral Kingdom (WWF 1996).
Traditional knowledge can make a significant contribution to sustainable development. Most indigenous and local communities are situated in areas where the vast majority of the world's plant genetic resources are found. Many of them have cultivated and used biological diversity in a sustainable way for thousands of years. However, the contribution of indigenous and local communities to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity goes far beyond their role as natural resource managers. Their skills and techniques provide valuable information to the global community and a useful model for biodiversity policies. Furthermore, as on-site communities with extensive knowledge of local environments, indigenous and local communities are most directly involved with conservation and sustainable use.
http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/socio-eco/traditional/default.asp
http://www.biodiv.org/convention/articles.asp
Over the last decade, the Sahelian and Sub-Sudanese zones have experienced increasing difficulties to produce sufficient and adequate food for their populations. The major constraints are declining overall precipitation, degradation and depletion of natural resources due to over cultivation, extensive fuel-wood gathering, ill-suited land management at African's population, more than any other continent, is highly depend on land. Practices as well as unfavorable economic and agricultural policies. In many areas desertification has led to significant losses of biomass and soil fertility, thereby jeopardizing agricultural production and sustainable yields.
Ending endemic hunger is the most pressing challenges faced by African communities, their governments, and the international community. Many countries in Africa face exceptional food shortages, and millions of people still face the threat of famine and starvation. Even without famine and starvation, malnutrition is widespread. About half of the region's population suffers from some level of food deprivation, with serious consequences for health and productivity. Ending this food and agriculture crisis depends critically on peace, increased agriculture productivity, especially in African Low Income and Food Deficit Countries (LIFDC), self-reliance in food, and redistribute policies aimed at improving the living conditions of the rural poor.
Land degradation is a serious problem throughout Africa, threatening economic and physical survival. Key issues include escalating soil erosion, declining fertility, salinization, soil compaction, agrochemical pollution and desertification. An estimated 500 million hectares of land have been affected by soil degradation since about 1950 (UNEP/ISRIC 1991), including as much as 65 per cent of agricultural land (Oldeman 1994). Soil losses in South Africa alone are estimated to be as high as 400 million tonnes annually (SARDC, IUCN and SADC 1994). Soil erosion affects other economic sectors such as energy and water supply. In a continent where too many people are already malnourished, crop yields could be cut by half within 40 years if the degradation of cultivated lands were to continue at present rates (Scotney and Dijkhuis 1989).
The vulnerability of human populations and natural systems to climate change differs substantially across regions and across populations within regions. Regional differences in baseline climate and expected climate change give rise to different exposures to climate stimuli across regions. The natural and social systems of different regions have varied characteristics, resources, and institutions and are subject to varied pressures that give rise to differences in sensitivity and adaptive capacity. From these differences emerge different key concerns for each of the major regions of the world. Even within regions, however, impacts, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability will vary.
Source: Climate Change 2001.
Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change. Impacts of particular concern to Africa are related to:
- water resources,
- food production,
- human health,
- desertification, and
- coastal zones, especially in relation to extreme events.
http://www.ipcc.ch/
http://unfccc.int/
http://africa.unep.net/Biodiversity_Degrad/index.asp
African forests are shrinking as a result of deforestation. Unless energy alternatives to firewood, and other sources of income for people whose lives depend on forests, can be found, deforestation will continue. The continued depletion of African biodiversity requires greater protection and a sustainable use that will ensure the income of those who depend on it.
FAO calls for enhanced role of forests in Africa
"In the absence of fundamental changes, the forestry situation in Africa will be marked by continued high losses of forest cover, deterioration in the state of the environment, and depletion of non-wood forest products in general and medicinal plants in particular," according to a new FAO report released today.
According to FAO, the situation in Africa in 2020, when the population will have increased from 798 million to 1,186 million - half of it living in urban areas - is likely to have the following characteristics:
- loss in forest cover will continue, while progress in achieving sustainable forest management will be slow;
- illegal logging will remain a major problem and Africa will not be in a position to produce wood competitively;
- wood will continue to be the main source of energy, with food fuel consumption expected to increase to about 850 million m³ in 2020 (as compared to 635 million m³ in 2000), while increased urban demand for charcoal will result in further degradation of forests;
- effective resolution of land use conflicts will be critical in taking full advantage of the potentials of wildlife;
- loss of biodiversity, land degradation and deterioration of watersheds will remain critical problems.
http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/15160-en.html
http://www.fao.org/sd/
"Agriculture plays a crucial role in addressing the needs of a growing global population, and is inextricably linked to poverty eradication, especially in developing countries. Enhancing the role of women at all levels and in all aspects of rural development, agriculture, nutrition and food security is imperative. Sustainable agriculture and rural development are essential to the implementation of an integrated approach to increasing food production and enhancing food security and food safety in an environmentally sustainable way." (WSSD Plan of Implementation, para. 40)
Chapter 14 of Agenda 21, on sustainable agriculture and rural development, notes that, by the year 2025, 83 per cent of the expected global population of 8.5 billion will be living in developing countries. Yet the capacity of available resources and technologies to satisfy the demands of this growing population for food and other agricultural commodities remains uncertain. Agriculture has to meet this challenge, mainly by increasing production on land already in use and by avoiding further encroachment on land that is only marginally suitable for cultivation.
Water Resources
Rising demand for increasingly scarce water resources is leading to growing concerns about future access to water, particularly where two or more countries share water resources, which is the case of almost all the 50 rivers basin in Africa.
Africa has abundant freshwater resources in large rivers and lakes such as the Congo, Nile and Zambezi rivers, and Lake Victoria, which the second largest freshwater lake in the world.
The Congo River watershed contains 10 per cent of Africa's population but accounts for about 30 per cent of the continent's annual run-off (Johns Hopkins 1998). Other contributing factors are the inadequate assessment and underdevelopment of water resources, the lack of technical and institutional infrastructure as well as the lack of investment in water resource development. [More...]
By the year 2025, 25 African countries will be subject to water scarcity or water stress.
There is growing recognition that national environmental policies are more likely to be effectively implemented if they are supported by an informed and involved public. Environmental awareness and education programmes are expanding almost everywhere, while indigenous knowledge receives greater recognition and is increasingly used. Environmental information systems are still weak.
There is fairly high interest in many of the global MEAs, and several regional MEAs have been developed to support the global ones. The compliance and implementation rate is, however, quite low, mainly due to lack of funds.
http://www.unep.org/aeo/006.htm or http://www.grida.no/aeo/
Freshwater availability is one of the most critical factors in development, particularly in Africa. Problems with freshwater availability in Africa are further complicated by highly variable levels of rainfall. As a result, large numbers of people are dependent on groundwater as their primary source of freshwater. Average water availability per person in Africa is 5 720 m3/capita/year compared to a global average of 7 600 m3/capita/year, but there are large disparities between sub-regions. Water is often key in terms of poverty alleviation, consumption, production, sanitation, human settlements and biodiversity. (UNEP)
Water is a precious resource. In Africa, it can be a matter of life and death. It can also be a matter of economic survival.Yet it can be both an instrument and a limiting factor in poverty alleviation and economic recovery, lifting people out of the degradation of having to live without access to safe water and sanitation, while at the same time bringing prosperity to all on the continent. A radical change in approach is required if water is not to become a constraint, but an instrument, to socioeconomic development in Africa.
- About 90 percent of the annual global rate of deaths from malaria occur in Africa south of the Sahara.
- Malaria causes at least 300 million cases of acute illness each year.
- The disease costs Africa more than US$12 million annually and slows economic growth in African countries by 1.3 percent a year.
- Access to piped water through household connections - Africa: 24%
- Access to sanitation linked to a sewage system - Africa: 13%
http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/facts_figures/basic_needs.shtml