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The nearly 400-page long
publication was launched during the conference by President Thabo Mbeki of
the Republic of South Africa who is hosting the AMCEN meeting in
Johannesburg.
The 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:
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Disappearing glaciers in Uganda's
Rwenzori Mountains, which decreased by 50 per cent between 1987 and
2003.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. These include:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 1990 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.
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
For more
information on AMCEN, previous sessions held and other information,
readers are directed to:
AMCEN's page on UNEP's website
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