Environment


“You have to seize opportunity. Thanks to Africare for giving me one!”

Fiston Mukendi,
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic Of Congo

Africa is rich in resources but the least developed region economically. It suffers from many environmental challenges including deforestation, degradation and fragmentation, desertification, the loss of soil fertility, a dramatic decline and loss of biodiversity, air pollution and water pollution. These undermine the very resources on which rural Africans who make up the majority of the continent’s population, depend for their very survival and hinder Africa from making economic development progress.

The wealth of Africa depends on her ability to conserve and manage her land resources. Just think:

  • Africa has the fastest rate of deforestation anywhere in the world. Thirty seven million hectares of forest and woodlands in Africa are said to be disappearing each year.

  • Over 45% of Africa is affected by desertification, 55% of which is at high or very high risk. The desert in Africa is said to be moving at an annual rate of 5 kilometers in the semi arid areas of West Africa.

  • An estimated 500 million hectares of land have been affected by soil degradation since the 1950’s, including 65% of agricultural land.

  • Africa contains the largest proportion of dry lands of any continent and is the most vulnerable to ecological threat.

  • Throughout the continent, regardless of the climatic zone, unpredictability of rains is a common feature. In the Sahel variations in total rainfall can be up to 30 or 40 %. Even the humid and sub-humid zones are subject to rainfall fluctuations of 15 to 20 percent. In most cases, the rainfall is rarely gentle and even. It usually comes in torrential downpours, which are destructive to soils and harmful plants.

  • Africa contributes less than 3.5% of global emissions of carbon dioxide, the principle gas linked with global warming, and although Africa is the continent least responsible for climate change; it is particularly vulnerable to the effects.

For a food-short, energy-short Africa, whose population and hence environmental demands are burgeoning, those trends eventually could spell disaster.

Africare's work to conserve the environment takes as its premise that ― with innovation, organization and infrastructural development ― Africans can reach, not just a truce, but a mutually sustainable relationship with their natural surroundings. Most of Africare's work in areas such as food security, water and microenterprise include some form of natural resource management. Africare also supports focused environmental work, such as:

  • Reforestation

  • Woodlot and tree nursery establishment

  • Agroforestry

  • Prevention of soil erosion

  • Enhancement of soil fertility

  • Crop rotation

  • Management of livestock grazing

  • Provision of environmentally friendly technologies: for example fuel-efficient wood stoves

  • Use of alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power

  • Water resource development

  • Efficient capture and use of limited water supplies

  • Protection and improvement of the water catchment function of forest watersheds

  • Protection and improvement of flora and fauna biodiversity

 

(Updated June 2010)

Sheila McKinnon photo