Why do ecosystems and biodiversity matter in Africa?
Terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and their biodiversity underpin sustainable development and human wellbeing in Africa. Moreover, Africa hosts some of the most unique ecosystems in the world. For example, the Congo Basin Forest is one of the world’s most valuable ecosystems as it stores more than 60 billion metric tons of carbon. This is more than all the tropical forests in the Amazon and in Asia, combined. However, many ecosystems in the region are facing severe degradation leading to the loss of biodiversity and the impairment or disruption of ecosystem functions and services.
Agenda 2063 within “The Africa We Want”, places “Environmentally sustainable climate and resilient economies and communities” at the heart of its aspiration to build a prosperous Africa. The global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underline that a healthy natural world is fundamental to a world free of poverty, hunger, war and inequality. This also applies to Africa.
With many ecosystems still intact, Africa has the potential to get it right, but proper policies and measures are needed. The core occupation of the UNEP’s Healthy and Productive Ecosystems Sub Programme in Africa is to support African countries to protect, conserve and restore Africa’s nature. The tools that we use are as diverse as the wide range of ecosystems we support. Read more about our key focus areas below.
Key focus areas
Freshwater
Africa is home to some of the most unique freshwater ecosystems in the world. For instance, Lake Turkana is the world’s largest desert lake; while Lake Malawi hosts the richest freshwater fish fauna in the world, with 14 percent of the world’s freshwater fish species, 99 percent of which are found only in this lake. However, Africa’s freshwater ecosystems are under pressure from over extraction, pollution, land degradation, biodiversity loss and floods and droughts. These issues are common to many regions in the continent. Climate change poses a new threat to the freshwater ecosystems in Africa, changing rainfall patterns and water quality.
Freshwater is key to the economic development and public health in Africa. Sustainable water management is also an essential part of the solution to both mitigating and adapting to climate change. It is in fact, a lifeline for flora and fauna. The UNEP Africa Office supports countries in managing their freshwater resources and studies the quality and availability of water resources and help to find solutions to reduce pressures on water resources, such as those brought on by floods and droughts. When freshwater is shared, cooperation between countries to promote the keeping of freshwater resources healthy, arise. In UNEP interventions, UNEP is always looking for nature-based solutions. For example, restoring a wetland that has benefits for flood protection, income generation and increased biodiversity.
Biodiversity
Africa has extraordinarily rich biodiversity and ecosystems as well as a wealth of indigenous and local knowledge. It is the last place on earth with a significant variety of large, land-based mammals. Unfortunately, Africa’s biodiversity is threatened by several factors including climate change, invasive alien species, and the illegal trade in wildlife.
Agenda 2063 “The Africa We Want” recognises natural resources as a key pillar in the quest to transform the continent towards sustainable development. Africa has opportunities to fully realize the benefits of having such rich biodiversity and to explore ways of using it in a sustainable way as to contribute to its economic and technological development. Yet, the true value of nature’s contributions to human well-being is still underappreciated in the decision-making process.
The decline and loss of biodiversity is reducing nature’s contributions enjoyed by the people of Africa, affecting daily lives and hampering the sustainable social and economic development targeted by African countries. Africa’s current population of 1.25 billion is likely to double by 2050, putting severe pressure on the continent’s biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, unless appropriate policies and strategies are adopted and effectively implemented.
UNEP supports measures taken by African governments to protect biodiversity, such as expansion of protected areas, control of invasive alien species and the restoration of ecosystems. These have shown to contribute to the recovery of some threatened species, while averting pressures on many others. UNEP also supports the African Group of Negotiators on Biodiversity.
Wildlife
Africa is famous for its iconic wild animals, known as the Big Five i.e., Elephants, Lions, Rhinos, Leopards, and the Buffalo, which serve to promote tourism as a source of livelihood and foreign income on the continent. Over the years, the illegal trade in plant and animal species has driven some species towards extinction. The situation is exacerbated by other drivers such as climate change, introduction of non-native plant and animal species that dominate local habitats (Invasive Alien Species), infrastructural development such as roads, seaports, and spreading urban centres. The COVID-19 pandemic has also affected wildlife conservation.
UNEP’s work focuses on understanding issues related to sustainable wildlife management in Africa, building the capacity of countries to address illegal trade in wildlife, the establishment and effective management of protected areas as well as enhancing the connectivity between ecosystems, especially those that facilitate seasonal migration of wild animals, promoting community participation in wildlife management, and expanding the natural capital aspects of wildlife management. This is facilitated by assisting countries to domesticate and implement the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.
UNEP supported the African Union Commission (AUC) to develop the African Strategy for Combatting Illicit Exploitation and Illegal Trade in Wild fauna and Flora and continues to support AUC to implement the strategy. Countries are being supported to implement the strategy at the national and sub-national levels and to address poaching, building the capacity of law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges on illegal trade in wildlife, and by enhancing effective management protected areas and other effective conservation measures by communities, private sectors, etc.
Land
Land is an important resource for Africa’s sustainable development. Desertification and land degradation pose a major challenge to African countries. Desertification affects around 45 percent of Africa’s land area, with 55 percent of this area at high or very high risk of further degradation. Some 20 percent of Africa’s land surface (6.6 million km2) is estimated to be degraded because of soil erosion, salinization, pollution and loss of vegetation or soil fertility.
UNEP’s approach to sustainable land management adopts the hierarchy of land degradation neutrality which seeks to 1) Avoid many forms of land degradations through proactive measures, 2) Reduce land degradation through measures aimed at addressing drivers of degradation, and 3) Reverse, where feasible, some of the productive potential and ecological services through restoration efforts.
Preventing land degradation is far cheaper than not taking action at all. The benefits of taking no action on Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in Africa are almost seven times the cost of action. In other words, Africa could generate about 2.83 trillion PPP USD (or about 71.8 billion USD/year) if all countries took action against soil erosion (which is causing nutrient losses from the arable land areas used for cereals production), through investment in sustainable land management interventions. Restoring land also creates economic opportunities. The World Economic Forum has estimated that business opportunities across nature could create 191 million jobs by 2030. Africa’s Great Green Wall alone has created 335,000 jobs.
Marine Ecosystems
Biodiversity and ecosystems in marine and coastal areas are diverse and provide significant economic, social and cultural contributions to the people of Africa. In some regions marine and coastal biodiversity and ecosystems contribute more than 35 percent of GDP.
However, marine and coastal environments, despite being of significant ecological and socioeconomic importance to the African continent, face immense threat from human activities. These include climate change, infrastructural development (e.g., ports), urbanization, tourism, mining and overharvesting of marine and coastal resources leading to the loss of biodiversity and extensive damage to key ecosystems including coral reefs, estuaries and mangroves. Pollution from land-based sources continue to impact upon marine and coastal biodiversity and ecosystems. Plastics pollution has increased in oceans over the years.
Over the last decade, UNEP has continued to promote ecosystem-based approaches to management of marine and coastal environment through spatial planning, establishment and effective management of marine protected areas, promotion of sustainable blue economy, and supporting African countries in oceans governance, through the addressing of plastics pollution, etc.
Health and the environment
Human health, animal health and nature are interdependent, the nexus of which is also known as “One Health”. Snake bites, which kill tens of thousands of Africans a year, was recently declared as a neglected tropical disease. Moreover, zoonoses – diseases transmitted from animals to humans – such as Ebola and COVID-19 - have affected Africa and indeed, the world. Human illnesses and deaths due to antibiotic- and antimicrobial-resistant infections are increasing rapidly and are projected to become a major cause of death worldwide by 2050. The excreted antimicrobials from human and animal faeces and urine can be found in plants, soils and water. Antibiotics reach the aquatic environment from a wide range of sources, including treated and untreated human waste, agriculture, animal husbandry and aquaculture. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are now found in both source water and treated drinking water worldwide.
It is estimated that up to 75 percent of antibiotics used in aquaculture end up in the environment. We do not have a complete understanding of the presence of antimicrobials in Africa’s ecosystems as the appearance of antimicrobials in the African environment has not been researched and monitored at large. Available data suggests that the African Region shares the worldwide trend of increasing drug resistance. We also know that Africa is projected to be most impacted by climate change. The increase in temperatures because of climate change is projected to cause changes in pathogen growth, survival and virulence. This could lead to an increased number of more resistant microbials.
Together, with partners across Africa (including Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Organisation for Animal Health, World Health Organization, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources) UNEP will mobilise stakeholders to strengthen their commitment and advocacy efforts to antimicrobial risk mitigation and try to further understand the role of environmental pollution in the development of antimicrobial resistance. UNEP encourages the use of nature-based solutions to avert zoonoses.
3. The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration in Africa
The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration is a global movement to accelerate ecosystem restoration. This movement helps us to deliver better on the Sustainable Development Goals, as all 17 SDGs rely on healthy ecosystems. Ecosystems in Africa regions are declining rapidly. Species and habitats, such as land, forests, mangroves, wetlands and oceans, are being lost every year. Healthy African ecosystems are crucial for food, water, energy, health and livelihoods. More than 62 percent of the population in Africa’s rural areas depend on services provided by ecosystems. Natural resources also contribute to economic development.
Tackling ecosystem restoration is a complicated challenge. Africa relies on utilising its natural endowments for economic development and the continent’s growing population will make the demand on natural resources to support livelihoods even greater. Africa is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and climatic changes already place negative impacts on ecosystems in Africa in the form of altered rainfall patterns and temperature changes.
As a result, Africa is making serious effort to restore its ecosystems. Africa was the first continent to have an action agenda for ecosystem restoration in place with the Pan-African Action Agenda on Ecosystem Restoration for Increased Resilience. The Pan-African Action Agenda aims to catalyse, promote and implement ambitious integrated ecosystem restoration initiatives across the region, positioning Africa as a world leader in ecosystem restoration. UNEP is a long-standing partner of the Pan-African Action Agenda and supports it by promoting, implementing, and communicating ecosystem restoration activities across the continent. We are involved in The Restoration Initiative, the Great Green Wall Initiative and we are one of the founding partners of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).
The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration runs from 2021 to 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals. Do you want to get involved? Click here to join the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration movement
