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| Humans are deeply implicated in deforestation in Africa (source) |
There is a long history of human interactions with the forests of Africa and despite a reliance on wood for fuel there are generally low rates of deforestation. Two articles by Malhi et al. (2013) and Rudel (2013) act as the basis for this blog post. Both academic papers document deforestation in Africa extensively and thoroughly whilst also successfully comparing it to other deforestation prone areas of the world such as Latin America and Borneo.
Malhi et al. talk about how 1900 years BP there as a population collapse following centuries of deforestation and burning (similar to what happened to the Maya?). As a result the forest regrew and recovered in a matter of centuries. This is incredibly interesting because we do not see this kind of recovery in other parts of the world (as noted by the authors). This pattern of deforestation and regrowth occurs throughout different periods of of Africa's history and reflects how humans and nature are entwined.
A more modern history of deforestation has been documented in Rudel's study which examined rates of deforestation between 2000 and 2005 (a quite short period). However, the author notes that studies into deforestation prior to 2000 are unreliable because measures of forest losses were different between countries.
Is urbanization the hero of deforestation in Africa?
One would not think of the unstoppable force of urbanization as a hero for environmentalists but in Africa it seems to be the case. Rates of deforestation in sub-Saharan African are lower than anywhere else in the tropics and it is because deforestation is caused by expanding rural populations. However, when work and a better quality of life pull people to the city, rural communities are declining rather than expanding and thus rates of deforestation are decreasing.
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| Projections of Africa's Urban Population (World Bank) |
Deforestation is concentrated to peri-urban areas, transportation axes and rivers. In the poorest sub-Saharan African countries an absence of state led infrastructure compared to other countries might explain the persistently lower rates of deforestation. Although there is no data to support this conclusion.
In countries such as Nigeria "dutch disease" occurs where a booming commodity such as oil pushes farmers out of business due to reduced market share and high wages. As a result farmers move from agricultural livelihoods to the city or into the oil sector and with less agriculture comes less deforestation. A booming extraction sector would discourage expansion into forests.
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| From agriculture to oil - there is more money in working for the oil companies (source) |
These two articles offer interesting and complementary pieces of research into deforestation in Africa. Both provide succinct summaries of deforestation in Africa (mostly focusing on sub-Saharan Africa) with several potential reasons to explain lower rates of deforestation.
This post also follows on nicely from last weeks post about a decline in deforestation worldwide and the articles offer some interesting statistics:
- Rates of deforestation in Africa = 0.049%
- Rates of deforestation in Latin America = 0.25%
Great article! In your opinion, do you think encouraging rural-to-urban migration is a suitable way of combating deforestation? And how do you think this encouragement could be achieved?
ReplyDeleteI don't think encouraging rural-urban migration is the way forward because it has the opposite effect in Latin America and SE Asia. Rather, we should strike a balance between controlling rural and urban population growth as clearly urbanization has negative environmental effects (water pollution, air pollution, soil degradation etc.). However, it is clear that a greater understanding of population and environmental issues does not always reduce deforestation (as is the case with the Amazon). It is a difficult question to answer - often to stop one environmental issue you must sacrifice another.
DeleteThanks for the insightful answer :)
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