By Dean Bhebhe and Amy Giliam of the African Climate Reality Project
The sharp decline of forests within the global environment has left many ecosystems vulnerable to the climate emergency. We need to urgently address deforestation in order to decelerate the destruction of livelihoods.
A battle to protect our forests has arrived at our doorsteps, and it is up to us to stand up for our ecosystems and establish innovative ways to work with the principles of mother nature.
The 2022 IPCC report outlines the rising global temperatures, warning that 183 million more people are likely to go hungry by 2050.
Meanwhile, 3.5 billion people are already vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The climate emergency is causing irreversible changes to the environment and the destruction of habitats and ecosystems, leaving humanity in an existential face-off with mother nature.
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For many, the loss of their land and water sources are just some of the many impacts of climate change.
The world that we know will soon cease to exist if we continue to ignore the signs and fail to take action today.
Through ecosystem restoration and sustainable forest management, we can improve the habitats of the world's degraded regions and provide resilient ecosystems for future generations.
International Day of Forests
As the world celebrates the International Day of Forests on 22 March, we are reminded of the important role forests play in stabilizing the planet’s climate.
Forests are the world’s second-largest carbon sinks, meaning that they absorb more carbon dioxide than they release. Forests absorb a net 7.6 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. That is over 30% of the world’s carbon emissions. For this reason, forests are regarded as the lungs of the global environment.
The ability of forests to absorb such a huge amount of carbon dioxide means they play an integral role in the carbon cycle by regulating the earth’s global temperatures.
Forests as carbon sinks provide significant adaptation and mitigation benefits. The adaptation benefits include providing a buffer for societies against climate change and impending climatic shocks.
Mitigation benefits include regulating the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere through land use.
Forests are among the world's last natural lines of defense against climate change, but they are in danger due to deforestation and degradation, presenting a major challenge to sustainable development.
Africa
Africa has contributed the least to the unfolding climate crisis. However, the continent is already experiencing widespread human and environmental devastation and losses. Africa is in a state of climate emergency, with most people largely dependent on rainfall to grow their food.
Between 2019 and 2021, swarms of locusts devoured crops in the Horn of Africa, and their extreme proliferation was traced back to climate change. Global heating has left Africa vulnerable to climate disasters.
The extreme heat has disrupted the water cycle, with Africa experiencing a wave of floods, leaving a large number of people displaced. Floods in 2020 alone displaced 100 000 families in Kenya, while 70 000 people lost their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and over 600 000 families were displaced in Sudan. The large-scale loss of forest area has left Africa susceptible to climatic shocks.
African forests cover a whopping 675 million hectares. Over the last thirty years, Africa has lost over 0.41 million square miles of forest area, accounting for 14% of lost forest area. And with the increase of destructive human activities on the environment such as mining, the release of industrial waste, charcoal and timber production, logging, and commercial agriculture, Africa may potentially lose another 1 million square miles of forest within the next decade.
According to the IPCC report, African biodiversity loss is estimated to increase with every 0.5°C temperature rise above present-day global warming. Between 2010 and 2020, Africa suffered the highest net loss of forest area, twice surpassing the global average. Already, the continent is experiencing the effects of losing a significant portion of forest lands.
The Turkana region in 2010, had “4.54 kilos hectares (Kha) of tree cover. However, in 2020, it lost 384 milli hectares (Mha) of tree cover, equivalent to 85.6t of CO₂ of emissions”. The loss in tree cover and forest area is one of the main reasons why the region has experienced severe drought with irregular and unpredicted rainfall.
Forests are the second most reliable source of precipitation after oceans. Central Africa houses the world's second-largest rainforest in the Congo Basin.
The Congo Basin alone accounts for 70% of Africa’s forest cover. Yet in 2018 the Congo basin lost over 481,248 hectares of forest area.
This has left Central Africa vulnerable as a global hub that provides a natural habitat for a diverse number of species. Furthermore, the Congo basin acts as a monitoring mechanism, performing a wide variety of functions that are necessary to regulate rainfall patterns across Africa.
The decline of the Congo Basin ecosystem also raises concerns for the future of Africa’s water sources and food systems. Many Indigenous communities across Africa such as those living in the Bimbia Bonadikombo Community Forest are dependent on forests for their livelihoods. In fact, the forest is surrounded by 11 communities and provides several income-generating activities such as farming, community tree nurseries, and bee-keeping.
Indigenous People and Knowledge Systems must be protected
Indigenous knowledge and peoples are increasingly recognised as vital in the fight against the climate crisis. Indigenous knowledge operates “at a much finer spatial and concise scale in comparison to science, and includes understandings of how to cope with and adapt to environmental variability and trends”.
The Paris Agreement recognizes Indigenous people and the preservation of their knowledge systems as a way to protect and enhance our relationship with nature. During COP26, the UNFCC recognised several Indigenous peoples and communities as a means to create a platform from which their knowledge, sustainable methods, and lived experiences are shared directly with governments and key stakeholders. It is reported that, “Indigenous peoples steward over 80% of the planet’s remaining biodiversity.”
This intrinsically places Indigenous people and their knowledge high on the climate agenda, as they possess practices that might help win the battle for Africa’s forests.
Call to Action
Our forests are in danger, which means we are too. Therefore, it is up to us to speak for Africa’s forests to ensure that sustainable environmental practices are at the heart of our common future and are firmly rooted in Indigenous African values. As we celebrate International Forests Day, we need to raise awareness, create, and catalyze a movement that will ensure a just, equitable, and people-centered approach to protecting Africa’s forests and Indigenous groups who depend upon them.
* About the African Climate Reality Project:
Under the leadership of Food & Trees for Africa, the African Climate Reality Project works with African Climate Reality Leaders, governments, NGOs, and scientists across the continent to create tools and resources to support a network of African leaders who mobilise communities from Algeria to Zimbabwe to find solutions to climate change and call on world leaders for more ambitious action. The African Climate Reality Project is the African branch of The Climate Reality Project, since the first African training by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore in South Africa in 2014.