Africa - Environmental Challenges

This brief summary is written with reference to Wikipedia’s detail on Environmental Issues in Africa, the World Wildlife Fund page on deforestation in Africa, and the UN World Population Prospects 2019 report. Africa’s main cause of environmental issues stems from a rising population that is in danger of being more than what the natural environment can sustain. Some 90% of Africans rely on forests for firewood, heating, cooking and the land for agriculture, see here for more information. Forests are under pressure from industrial mining, rising population in urban areas and illegal logging.

Rainforest

Africa’s tropical rainforests span the continent south of the Sahara, with the largest amount in the Congo Basin which includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Central African Republic. This is the world’s second largest rainforest after the Amazon. This forest is home to elephants, gorillas, buffalo, over 400 other mammals and 1000 species of birds. WWF states that up to 30% of the forest will disappear by 2030. This is not helped by a rising demand for timber from China. As with all deforestation, some initial logging or mining opens up new areas of forest by building new roads, which then leads to more logging, and the clearance of much wider areas once the road is built.

In East Africa forest loss is greatest in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, where only 10% of coastal forests are left. The greatest threats here are from over harvesting of wood to supply Europe, Asia and China as well as the local population.

Population Increase

Much of Africa has fertility rates of up to 6 - 7 children per woman in many countries that lie south of the Sahara Desert and in East Africa. Our World in Data projects that Africa’s population will be 1.35 billion in 2020, rising to 2.53 billion by 2050 and 4.47 billion by 2100. This could drive the total world population from its current level of 7.8 billion potentially to up to 11.18 billion by 2100, with most of this growth from within Africa and Asia.

It is clear that any additional person in a population has to have food, clothes, somewhere to live, and will need basic and luxury goods. As the world population increases by billions, then this clearly places more pressure on natural resources for all of the above needs.

Forests and coastal mangroves are able to soak up carbon from the atmosphere and help to keep global CO2 levels down. However, if this huge increase in population does happen, then the forests in Africa will be under intense pressure to be exploited for the resources that they offer.

Is there a way that a population explosion in Africa can be averted? Do the scientists know what to do, and if so can they persuade the UN and other African countries to act on it now? A smaller increase in population will result in a smaller increase in the pressure on its natural resources.

There is evidence that education of women can lead to lower family size, as large numbers of children are often a sort of ‘social security’ for poorer populations. In addition, better medical care can ensure that more children survive into adulthood; current mortality rates for children can be another reason behind high birth rates. For details of the complexities behind a high birth rate this article in the Guardian from March 15 2017 is illuminating.