Environmental issues in Africa

African environmental issues are caused by anthropogenic effects on the African natural environment and have major impacts on humans and nearly all forms of endemic life. Issues include desertification, problems with access to safe water supply, population explosion and fauna depletion. These issues are ultimately linked to over-population in Africa, as well as on a global scale. Nearly all of Africa's environmental problems are geographically variable and human induced, though not necessarily by Africans.[1]

Deforestation

The large scale felling of trees and the resulting decreases in forest areas are the main environmental issues of the African Continent. Rampant clearing of forests and land conversion goes on for agriculture, settlement and fuel needs. Ninety percent of Africa's population requires wood to use as fuel for heating and cooking. As a result, forested areas are decreasing daily, as for example, in the region of equatorial evergreen forests. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, Africa's desertification rate is twice that of the world's.[2]

The rate of illegal logging, which is another main cause of deforestation, varies from country to country, such as 50% in Cameroon and 80% in Liberia. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, deforestation is primarily caused by the needs of the poor citizens, along with unsupervised logging and mining. In Ethiopia, the main cause is the country's growing population, which induces an increase in agriculture, livestock production, and fuel wood. Low education and little government intervention also contributes to deforestation. Madagascar's forest loss is partially caused by citizens using slash-and-burn techniques after independence from the French. Nigeria has the highest rate of deforestation of primary forests, according to the gfy. Deforestation in Nigeria is caused by logging, subsistence agriculture, and the collection of wood for fuel. According to the gfy, deforestation has wiped out nearly 90% of Africa's forest. West Africa only has 22.8% of its moist forests left, and 81% of Nigeria's old-growth forests disappeared within 15 years. Deforestation also lowers the chance of rainfall; Ethiopia has experienced famine and droughts because of this. 98% of Ethiopia's forests have disappeared over the last 50 years. Within 43 years, Kenya's forest coverage decreased from about 10% to 1.7%. Deforestation in Madagascar has also led to desertification, soil loss, and water source degradation, resulting in the country's inability to provide necessary resources for its growing population. In the last five years, Nigeria lost nearly half of its primary forests.

Ethiopia's government, along with organizations like Farm Africa, is starting to take steps to stop excessive deforestation.

Deforestation is an issue, and forests are important in Africa, as populations have relied heavily on them to provide basic needs. Woods are used for shelter, clothing, agricultural elements, and much more. Woodland supplies are also used to create medicines and a wide variety of food. Some of these foods include fruits, nuts, honey, and much more. Wood is crucial for economic gain in Africa, especially in developing countries. Forests also help the environment. It is estimated that the green belt of Africa contains over 1.5 million species. Without the forest habitat to protect the species, the populations are at risk. The livelihoods of millions of people and species are at risk with deforestation. The act is a domino effect that affects multiple aspects of a community, ecosystem, and economy.[3]

Many African nations have begun to implement restoration projects in order to reverse the effects of deforestation. These projects have been shown to improve the environment in many ways and the livelihood of the people living near them. For example "Reforestation and agroforestry schemes can help, for instance, to sequester carbon, prevent flooding, enhance biodiversity, rehabilitate degraded lands, provide a local energy supply for the rural poor and improve land use and watershed management."[4]

Soil degradation

The erosion caused by rains, rivers and winds as well as over-utilization of soils for agriculture and low use of manures have resulted in turning the soils infertile, as for example, in the plains of the Nile and the Orange River. A main cause of soil degradation is lack of manufactured fertilizers being used, since African soil lacks organic sources of nutrients. The increase in population has also contributed when people need to crop, as a source of income, but do not take measures to protect the soil,[5] due to low income.[6] The current methods create too much pressure on other environmental aspects, such as forests, and are not sustainable.[7] There are also ecological causes of the poor soil quality. Much of the soil has rocks or clay from volcanic activity. Other causes include erosion, desertification, and deforestation.

Degradation of African soil causes decreased food production, damaging ecological effects, and an overall decrease in the quality of living in Africa.[6] This issue would lessen if fertilizers and other cropping supplies were more affordable and thus used more.[7] The United Nations has commissioned a Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation (GLASOD) to further investigate the causes and state of the soil. Access to information collected is freely available, and it is hoped that awareness will be raised among politicians in threatened areas.[8]

Air pollution

The air in Africa is greatly polluted due to multiple reasons stated below. The primitive method of farming that takes place in most areas in Africa is certainly a causal factor. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 11.3 million hectares of land are being lost annually to agriculture, grazing, uncontrolled burning and fuelwood consumption.[9] Combustion of wood and charcoal are used for cooking[10] and this results to a release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is a toxic pollutant in the atmosphere.[11] Also, due to the poor supply of power, most homes have to rely on fuel and diesel in generators to keep their electricity running.[12] Air pollution in Africa is coming to the forefront and must not be ignored. For example, in South Africa the mercury levels are severe due to coal combustion and gold mining. Mercury is absorbed from the air into the soil and water. The soil allows the crops to absorb the mercury, which humans ingest. Animals eat the grass which has absorbed the mercury and again humans may ingest these animals. Fish absorb the mercury from the water, humans also ingest the fish and drink the water that have absorbed the mercury. This increases the mercury levels in humans. This can cause serious health risks.[13][14]

It is expected that Africa could represent the half of the world's pollution emissions by 2030, warns Cathy Liousse director of research of atmospheric sounding of the CNRS, along with many other researchers. According to the report, sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a fast increasing pollution, derived from many causes, such as burning wood for cooking, open burning of waste, traffic, agri-food and chemical industries, the dust from the Sahara carried by the winds through the Sahel area, all this reinforced by a greater population growth and urbanisation.[15]

The World Health Organization reports of the need to intervene when more than one third of the total Disability Adjusted Life Years[16] was lost as a result of exposure to indoor air pollution in Africa.[12] Fuel is needed to power lights at night. The fuel being burned causes great emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Because of the increased Urbanization in Africa, people are burning more and more fuel and using more vehicles for transportation. The rise in vehicle emissions and the trend towards greater industrialization means the urban air quality in the continent is worsening. In many countries, the use of leaded gasoline is still widespread, and vehicle emission controls are nonexistent. Indoor air pollution is widespread, mostly from the burning of coal in the kitchen for cooking.[17] Compounds released from fuel stations and nitrogen and hydrocarbon released from airports cause air pollution. Carbon dioxide other greenhouse gases in the air causes an increase of people with respiratory issues.[18]

There is a common relationship between air pollution and population. Africa widely diverse between areas that are overpopulated versus areas that are scarcely populated. In regions where there is little industrial development and few people, air quality is high. Vice versa, in densely populated and industrialized regions the air quality is low. Addressing the air pollution in big cities is often a big priority, even though the continent as a whole produces little air pollutants by international standards. Even so, air pollutants are causing a variety of health and environmental problems. These pollutants are a threat to the population of Africa and the environment they try so hard to sustain.[19]

Climate change
This section is an excerpt from Climate change in Africa[edit]
Africa map of Köppen climate classification.

Anthropogenic climate change is already a reality in Africa, as it is elsewhere in the world. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Africa is among the most vulnerable continents to climate change.[20][21] The vulnerability of Africa to climate change is driven by a range of factors that includes weak adaptive capacity, high dependence on ecosystem goods for livelihoods, and less developed agricultural production systems.[22] The risks of climate change on agricultural production, food security, water resources and ecosystem services will likely have increasingly severe consequences on lives and sustainable development prospects in Africa.[23] Managing this risk requires integration of mitigation and adaptation strategies in the management of ecosystem goods and services, and the agriculture production systems in Africa.[24]

Over the coming decades, warming from climate change is expected across almost all the earth's surface, and global mean rainfall will increase.[25] Regional effects on rainfall in the tropics are expected to be much more spatially variable and the sign of change at any one location is often less certain, although changes are expected. Consistent with this, observed surface temperatures have generally increased over Africa since the late 19th century to the early 21st century by about  1 °C, but locally as much as 3 °C for minimum temperature in the Sahel at the end of the dry season.[26] Observed precipitation trends indicate spatial and temporal discrepancies as expected.[27][21] The observed changes in temperature and precipitation vary regionally.[28][27]

In terms of adaptation efforts, regional-level actors are making some progress. This includes the development and adoption of several regional climate change adaptation strategies[29] e.g. SADC Policy Paper Climate Change,[30] and the adaptation strategy for the water sector.[31] In addition, there has been other efforts to enhance climate change adaptation, such as the tripatite Programme on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA-EAC-SADC).[32]

As a supranational organisation of 55 member states, the African Union has put forward 47 goals and corresponding actions in a 2014 draft report[33] to combat and mitigate climate change on the continent. The Secretary General of the United Nations has also declared a need for close cooperation with the African Union in order to tackle climate change, in accordance with the UN's sustainable development goals.
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See also

References
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  • Hillstrom, Kevin, and Laurie Collier Hillstrom. The Worlds environments. a continental overview of environmental issues. Santa Barbara, CA, ABC-CLIO, 2003.
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