Major Environmental Concerns

Africa is a large continent with many different dynamics. Since the 1960s, it has experienced persistent and severe economic and environmental problems, as well as political and social turmoil in some countries. Its population growth rate-the world's highest - has placed additional strains on all systems. Poverty has perpetuated underdevelopment and mismanagement of resources in the region. Furthermore, deterioration in the terms of trade and lack of financial resources for investment have made it difficult for several countries to develop patterns of livelihood that would reduce pressure on the natural resource base.

However, this is only a part of African reality. Other significant changes have also occurred, including the dramatic demise of apartheid in South Africa, the end of civil wars and the subsequent accession of elected Governments to power in Angola and Mozambique, implementation of structural adjustment programmes in 35 countries that have successfully put in place economic reform measures, a surge towards political liberalization, and emergence of an increasingly strengthened civil society (UNDP, 1996). These are examples of social and political transitions towards peace and economic progress, although their impacts on the environment are yet to be assessed. Africa is at a critical turning point.

Amid these changes, environmental degradation continues. One of the major problems common to the countries of Africa relates to the great imbalance in the use of its natural resources: those such as soil and vegetation are overexploited, while water, energy, minerals, and organic resources are underused or exported raw. Striking a balance between economic development and sustainability for the growing number of people remains the major environment and development challenge. The two are interlinked, requiring a coherent and integrated regional approach for their solution. The difficulty of finding the right path is compounded by the region's great variance in cultural heritage and natural resource endowments.

Various regional fora of African Government leaders have consistently mentioned the following priority environmental concerns (UNECA, 1992, 1993a, 1993c; OAU, 1995; UNEP, 1996a):

1. land degradation and desertification problems, particularly in relation to the need for food security and self-sufficiency;
2. effective management and protection of biodiversity;
3. water resources issues, including the problem of water scarcity and efficient water management;
4. pollution problems, particularly those affecting freshwater resources as well as urban, coastal, and marine areas;
5. climatic problems, including drought and climate change; and
6. demographic change and population pressures on natural resources and in urban areas.

Causes

[ Social | Economic | Institutional | Environmental ]

Environmental deterioration in Africa is intricately linked to poor economic performance and poverty. The chain of dependencies is all too familiar: rapid population growth and poverty accelerate deforestation and the expansion of agriculture into marginal areas, leading in turn to land degradation, which exacerbates food insecurity, loss of biodiversity, decline in water quality, and decrease in health status (UNEP, 1995).

Taken in isolation, any one link in the chain is neither entirely irrational nor perverse. Large families, for example, ensure an adequate labour force to cope with increasing time costs for gathering fuel and water, clearing of new land, or moving herds farther afield in the dry season (World Bank, 1995). Clearing a patch of forest and selling the timber to buy improved agricultural technology may be the most sustainable form of conversion in that situation.

The largest unknowns in the equations of environmental degradation are not the states and magnitudes but the relative importance of the driving forces and what actually drives what. Such knowledge would allow progress beyond the usual truisms and tautologies-for example, that economic development is a key to protecting and improving the environment and that growth must be environmentally sustainable to achieve the necessary economic development.