Glacial
Retreat to Rapid Urbanization Chronicled
in Landmark Satellite Report to Africa's
Environment Ministers
Johannesburg/Nairobi/London, 10 June 2008-Africa's
rapidly changing environmental landscape,
from the disappearance of glaciers in Uganda's
Rwenzori Mountains to the loss of Cape Town's
unique "fynbos" vegetation, is
presented today to the African Ministerial
Conference on the Environment(AMCEN).
The Atlas, compiled on behalf of the ministers
by the UN Environment Programme(UNEP), underlines
how development choices, population growth,
climate change and, in some cases, conflicts
are shaping and impacting the natural and
nature-based assets of the region.
The nearly 400-page
long publication was launched today by President
Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa
who is hosting the AMCEN meeting in Johannesburg.
Africa: Atlas of Our
Changing Environment features over 300 satellite
images taken in every country in Africa
in over 100 locations. The 'before' and
'after' photographs, some of which span
a 35-year period, offer striking snapshots
of local environmental transformation across
the continent.
In addition to well-publicized
changes, such as Mount Kilimanjaro's shrinking
glaciers, the drying up of Lake Chad and
falling water levels in Lake Victoria, the
Atlas presents, for the first time, satellite
images of new or lesser known environmental
changes and challenges including:
-Disappearing glaciers
in Uganda's Rwenzori Mountains, which decreased
by 50 per cent between 1987 and 2003.
-The widening corridors
of deforestation that have accompanied expanding
roads in the northern Democratic Republic
of the Congo since 1975. New roads threaten
to bring even greater traffic to this biologically
rich rainforest and further fuel the bushmeat
trade.
-The disappearance of
a large portion of Madagascar's South Malagasy
spiny forest between 1973 and 2003 as a
result of farming and fuelwood gathering.
-The northern edge of
Cape Town, which has seen much of its native
'fynbos' vegetation replaced with farms
and suburban development since 1978. 'Fynbos'
make up 80 per cent of the plant varieties
in the Cape Floristic Region, an area with
over 6,000 plant species which are found
nowhere else in the world and are an economic
asset for tourism.
-The loss of trees and
shrubs in the fragile environment of the
Jebel Marra foothills in western Sudan as
a result of population growth due in part
to an influx of refugees fleeing drought
and conflict in neighbouring Northern Darfur.
-The dramatic expansion
of Senegalese capital Dakar over the past
half century from a small urban centre at
the tip of the Cap Vert Peninsula to a metropolitan
area with 2.5 million people spread over
the entire peninsula.
The Atlas, compiled
in cooperation with researchers and organizations
in Africa and elsewhere, offers a sobering
assessment of thirty-six years of environmental
change, including:"The swell of grey-coloured
cities over a once-green countryside; protected
areas shrinking as farms encroach upon their
boundaries; the tracks of road networks
through forests; pollutants that drift over
borders of neighboring countries; the erosion
of deltas; refugee settlements scattered
across the continent causing further pressure
on the environment; and shrinking mountain
glaciers".
The satellite images
also highlight positive signs of management
that is protecting against and even reversing
environmental degradation, say the authors.
-Action on overgrazing
in the Sidi Toui National Park, southeastern
Tunisia has produced a dramatic rebound
in the natural ecosystem. The park has seen
the reintroduction of the Scimitar-horned
oryx (Oryx dammah) which is currently on
the verge of extinction.
-A new management plan
for the Itezhi-tezhi dam in Zambia has helped
to restore the natural seasonal flooding
of the Kafue flats, as shown in the 2007
satellite image.
-The expansion of wetlands
resulting from a restoration project in
and around Diawling National Park is helping
to control flooding and improve livelihoods
in Mauritania.
-New policies and improved
enforcement have significantly reduced unsustainable
exploitation of the forests of Mount Kenya,
which is a crucial area for water catchment
and hydro-power generation.
-Farmer initiatives
focusing on the planting and protection
of trees have led to significant land revitalization
in Tahoua Province, Niger. A recent study
revealed that there are now 10 to 20 times
more trees across three of Niger's southern
provinces than there were in the 1970s.
-A review of forest
concessions in Liberia has helped protect
the forest in Sapo National Park from logging
as well as illegal mining and poaching.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director, said: "As
shown throughout the Atlas, there are many
places across Africa where people have taken
action- where there are more trees than
thirty years ago, where wetlands have sprung
back, and where land degradation has been
countered. These are the beacons we need
to follow to ensure the survival of Africa's
people and their economically important
nature-based assets."
"The Atlas also
however clearly demonstrates the vulnerability
of people in the region to forces often
outside their control, including the shrinking
of glaciers in Uganda and Tanzania and impacts
on water supplies linked with climate change.
These underline the urgent need for the
international community to deliver a new
climate agreement by the climate change
convention meeting in Copenhagen in 2009?one
that not only delivers deep emission reductions
but also accelerates the flow of funds for
adaptation and the climate proofing of economies,"
he added.
Main Findings and Key
Concerns
Between 11000 and 2004,
many African countries achieved some small
but promising environmental improvements,
mainly in the field of water and sanitation,
according to the Atlas. A few countries
have expanded protected areas?currently
numbering over 3,000 across the continent.
However, loss of forest
is a major concern in 35 countries, including
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi,
Nigeria and Rwanda, among others. This is
closely followed by biodiversity loss?which
is occurring in 34 countries such as Angola,
Ethiopia, Gabon and Mali.
Land degradation, similarly,
is a major worry for 32 countries in Africa
including Cameroon, Eritrea and Ghana. Other
problems include desertification?in Burkina
Faso, Chad, Kenya and Niger among others?as
well as water stress, rising pollution and
coping with rapid urbanization.
Africa is losing more
than four million hectares of forest every
year?twice the world's average deforestation
rate, says the Atlas. Meanwhile, some areas
across the continent are said to be losing
over 50 metric tonnes of soil per hectare
per year.
The Atlas also shows
that erosion and chemical and physical damage
have degraded about 65 per cent of the continent's
farmlands. In addition, slash and burn agriculture,
coupled with the high occurrence of lightning
across Africa, is thought to be responsible
for wild fires.
Over 300 million people
on the continent already face water scarcity,
and areas experiencing water shortages in
Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to increase
by almost a third by 2050.
Climate change is emerging
as a driving force behind many of these
problems and is likely to intensify the
already dramatic transformations taking
place across the continent.
Although Africa produces
only four per cent of the world's total
carbon dioxide emissions, its inhabitants
are poised to suffer disproportionately
from the consequences of global climate
change.
Africa's capacity to
adapt to climate change is relatively low,
with projected costs estimated to reach
at least 5-10 per cent of GDP.
Finally, transboundary
issues are a key feature of Africa's environment,
from international river basins to cross-border
air pollution.
Refugee migrations are
also causing further pressure on the environment,
with major population movements due to conflict
but also increasingly as a result of food
and water shortages. Cooperative approaches
involving several bordering countries are
becoming essential for the conserving and
enhancing of shared ecosystems if they are
to remain productive into the 21st century.
Taking advantage of
the latest space technology and Earth observation
science, including the 36-year legacy of
the US Landsat satellite programme, the
Atlas serves to demonstrate the potential
of satellite imagery data in monitoring
ecosystems and natural resources dynamics.
This in turn can provide the kind of hard,
evidence-based data to support political
decisions aimed at improving management
of Africa's natural resources.
Notes to Editors
Africa: Atlas of Our
Changing Environment contains 316 satellite
images taken in 104 locations in every country
in Africa, along with 151 maps and 319 ground
photographs and a series of graphs illustrating
the environmental challenges faced by the
continent.
All the materials in
the Atlas are non-copyrighted and available
for free use.
Individual satellite images, maps, graphs
and photographs, can be downloaded from
http://na.unep.net/AfricaAtlas
or www.unep.org/dewa/africa/AfricaAtlas
The Atlas can also be
purchased at www.earthprint.com
The digital version
of the Atlas will also be released on Google
Earth and other websites.
The book is the fruit
of collaborative work between UNEP and partners
including the African Ministerial Conference
on the Environment (AMCEN), the US Geological
Survey, Global Earth Observations (GEO)
Secretariat, United States Agency for the
International Development (USAID), the World
Resources Institute (WRI), Belgian Development
Cooperation, the University of Maryland,
South Dakota State University, the Southern
African Development Community, the African
Association for Remote Sensing of the Environment(AARSE),
Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources
for Development(RCMRD), EIS-AFRICA, Environmental
Systems Research Institute(ESRI), DigitalGlobe
and GeoEye.
Nick Nuttall, UNEP
