11
June 2008 - Media Alert - Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism - WEDNESDAY,
11 JUNE 2008: Desertification is a threat
to humanity. It reduces the ability of the
land to support life and thus affect wild
species, domestic animals, agricultural
crops and people. June 17, has been declared
the "World Day to Combat Desertification"
by the United Nations Assembly. The objective
is to promote awareness in the fight against
land degradation and implement the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
in countries experiencing serious drought
and or Desertification, particularly in
Africa.
This year's theme "Combating
Land Degradation for Sustainable Agriculture"
is pertinent in the light of spiraling food
prices and global food insecurity. It aims
to demonstrate the importance of sustainable
agriculture in preserving biodiversity as
well as enhancing the well being of our
people.
The commemoration of
this day will be observed from 17 - 19 June
where environmentalists and senior government
officials will deliberate on issues of land
degradation, desertification and sustainable
land and water use. The workshop happens
at a time when South Africa is in the process
of presenting the UNCCD country report.
The 2- day workshop
preceded by the gala dinner on 17 June 2008,
will be held at the Kempton Park Conference
Centre. It will be addressed by Deputy Minister
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Rejoice
Mabudafhasi.
Media wishing to attend the event can confirm
attendance with Lizzy Suping @083 758 0553/
012 310 3310 or Nthabiseng Mphela at 012
310 3203/082 823 3695.
Mava Scott (Acting Chief Director: Communications)
Glacial Retreat to Rapid Urbanization Chronicled
in Landmark Satellite Report to Africa’s
Environment Ministers
10 June 2008 - Media
Statement - Department of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism - TUESDAY, 10 JUNE 2008:
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.et/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.
For more information
on the 12th session of the African Ministerial
Conference on the Environment, visit http://www.unep.org/roa/Amcen/Amcen_Events/12th_Session_AMCEN/index.asp
Africa Atlas of our
Changing Environment
Before and after images
that should work for print, on-line and
TV media (a ** indicates really clear cut)
High resolution images
available under embargo (15.00 hours GMT
10 June) at http://na.unep.et/AfricaAtlas
Virunga National park,
DRC—1978 image shows agricultural development
around the park: 2005 image underlines the
sheer intensity of deforestation now ringing
the park.
Page 140-141
Beki Forest reserve,
Cote d’Ivoire—1986 shows the forest reserve
as a verdant green. The 2003 one shows the
decimation of the reserve for coffee and
cocoa plantations as a faded almost lost
green.
Page 144-145.
Damietta Promontory,
Egypt—1972 to 2005 images show the dramatic
loss of shoreline as a result of change
in erosion patterns as a result of dams
on the River Nile.
Page 154-155
**Loss of Lake Alemaya,
Ethiopia—1986 to 2005 underlines the loss
of the lake due to siltation; irrigation
demands and perhaps rising temps since the
mid-1980s.
Pages 170-171
Conakry, Guinea—the
1975 image contrasts with the one from 2007
to underline the huge growth of the city
northwards.
Page 190-191
**Drying up of Lake
Faguibine and other lakes, Mali—image from
1978 contrasts with 2006 to underline rapid
drying out of the lake now linked with climate
change.
Page 232-233
**Up to 20 fold increase
in trees in Tahoua Province, Niger—1975
images shows acute land degradation but
2005 one underlines conservation and rehabilitation
measures are working.
Page 266-277
Dramatic deforestation
in Gishwati Forest, Rwanda is shown as the
fading of deep green in the 1978 image to
the 2006 one.
Page 278-279.
Sugar cane expansion
in Lubombo Province, Swaziland—1979 to 2006
images underline rapid land use change for
sugar cane production.
Page 314 to 315
**50 per cent loss of
glaciers from Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda—seen
in images from 1987 and 2005 particularly
from Mount Baker.
Page 334 to 335
**Natural and Managed
Flooding of the Kafue River, Zambia—images
from 1973 to 2007 underline how intelligent
management of the Itezhi-tezhi dam that
now mimics natural flooding is transforming
the ecosystem.
Page 344 to 345
Nick Nuttall (UNEP Spokesperson, Office
of the Executive Director)
