According
to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, indicators of overall
sustainability—encompassing economic, environmental and institutional
dimensions—show that African economies are less sustainable today than they
were 25 years ago.[i]
At the end of 2000, more than half the population of the 38 countries assessed lived
in economies with low overall sustainability. Some of the reasons for this low
level of sustainability for Africa are as follows: extreme poverty, rapid
population growth, deforestation, the environmental impact of extractive
industries, rapid urbanization, climatic variability, and natural environment
hazards.
Extreme poverty: Poverty
remains the foremost development challenge confronting Africa. Poverty in
Africa is linked to the environment in complex ways, particularly in natural
resource-based African economies. Approximately two-thirds of the populations
in African countries live in rural areas, deriving their main income from
agriculture.
Rapid population growth: The
sub-Saharan population is growing at the rate of 2.5 percent per year as
compared to 1.2 percent in Latin America and Asia (World Bank Report). At that
rate, Africa's population will double in 30 years. Rapid population growth has
put a lot of stress on Africa’s ecosystems. Problems such as food insecurity,
land tenure, environmental degradation, and the lack of water supply are often
related to high rates of population growth in the African continent.
Deforestation:
According to the African Forest Forum (AFF), Africa has about 650 million
hectares of forests and woodlands, covering 28 percent of its total land area
(FAO 2001). The Congo Basin, which covers 45 percent of Central Africa, is the
world’s largest area of contiguous forest. Sadly, the legacy of vast forest
resources that could have been passed to future generations is being rapidly
lost through deforestation and degradation. Between 1990 and 2000 Africa lost
about 53 million hectares of its forests, which is about 56 percent of the
global forest loss in that period. This is estimated to a 0.8 percent annual
loss of forest cover -- the highest in the world! Another negative consequence
of the disappearance of the forest is that the protection it normally provides
to soils, nutrient recycling, and the regulation of the quality and flow of
water is lost as well.
Environmental impact of extractive
industries: For a continent that is dependent on its
natural resources to achieve growth, the challenge of ecologically-friendly
sustainable development is daunting. Current patterns of extraction of
non-renewable resources such as gold, diamonds and crude oil have had an untold
impact on the environment. In Nigeria, oil spills and gas flares have polluted
the environment significantly for more than 50 years. In Southern Africa, abandoned
mine sites constitute an environmental menace. The loss of productive land,
surface and groundwater pollution, and soil contamination are part of the legacies
of oil and mineral exploitation. Africa cannot afford the current approach to
resource extraction. If the trend of unsustainable oil and mineral extraction
is allowed to continue, environmentally sustainable development in Africa will
continue to be a great challenge.
Climatic variability and natural
environmental hazards: Studies made by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) suggest Africa will suffer greater effects of climate change than
any other region of the world.
Projections include the decrease in rainfall in the already arid areas
of Eastern and Southern Africa, and increasing drought and desertification in
the north of Central Africa. In West Africa, the countries of Benin, Burkina
Faso, Ghana, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria all face water scarcity by 2025. Africa needs to step up its anti-climate
change actions, as a legacy to future generations.
Rapid urbanization: The
majority of Africa’s population growth is expected to take place in urban
areas, largely due to rural-urban migration. Rapid urbanization in Africa has
been accompanied by new and challenging environmental problems. A sizeable
proportion of urban dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa live in slum conditions,
without durable housing or legal rights to their land. At least one-quarter of
African city dwellers do not have access to electricity. A 2000 World Health
Organization report estimated that only 43 percent of urban dwellers had access
to piped water.
It is clear that Africa’s current urbanization patterns are not
consistent with the desire and need to have ecologically friendly sustainable
development in Africa.
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