ENVIRONMENT - The African Mirror

May

2024

Ghana’s forests are being wiped out: what’s behind this and why attempts to stop it aren’t working

GHANA has around 7.9 million hectares of forested land (35% of the total land area), according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Around 7.6 million hectares are primary or naturally regenerated forest, and around 297,000 hectares are planted forest. In 2022, Ghana lost 18,000 hectares of primary forest, a nearly 70% increase from 2021. It was the biggest increase in forest loss of any country in recent years. A new study by the International Union of Forest Research Organisations notes that deforestation rates have risen despite an abundance of sustainable cocoa standards, corporate pledges and carbon-offset projects. The Conversation Africa’s…

May

2024

By MARTIN H. TRAUTH; ASFAWOSSEN ASRAT and MARK MASLIN

Africa dramatically dried out 5,500 years ago – our new study may warn us of future climate tipping points

ENVIRONMENT

AROUND five and a half millennia ago, northern Africa went through a dramatic transformation. The Sahara desert expanded and grasslands, forests and lakes favoured by humans disappeared. Humans were forced to retreat to the mountains, the oases, and the Nile valley and delta. As a relatively large and dispersed population was squeezed into smaller and more fertile areas, it needed to innovate new ways to produce food and organise society. Soon after, one of the world’s first great civilisations emerged – ancient Egypt. This transition from the most recent “African humid period”, which lasted from 15,000 to 5,500 years ago,…

May

2024

By RICARDO AMANSURE

South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

ENVIRONMENT

THE South African government’s Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan was launched in November 2023. It is a roadmap guiding the country away from reliance on coal-fired power towards renewable energy alternatives by 2027. It aims to include all communities and workers who will be affected by the energy transition. The plan says everyone should have access to electricity through a mix which includes renewable energy. This energy transition must also create new employment opportunities, particularly in the burgeoning renewable energy sector, and contribute to economic development. At the same time, it must set up an energy future where power is…

May

2024

By EHIAZE EHIMEN and THOMAS ROBIN

Electricity from farm waste: how biogas could help Malawians with no power

ENVIRONMENT

IN sub-Saharan Africa, over 600 million people (more than 50% of the population) are without access to electricity. Malawi has one of the world’s lowest electricity access rates – just 14.1% of the total population have access to the main grid. In rural areas, the electrification access rate is even lower, estimated at 5.6% in 2021. Decentralised household and community-scale renewable energy systems like biogas plants may provide a solution. Ehiaze Ehimen and Thomas Robin study energy efficiency and energy poverty in marginalised communities. They unpack what they found in their research into the potential role of small biogas plants…

Apr

2024

By MEELAN THONDOO

Africa’s megacities threatened by heat, floods and disease – urgent action is needed to start greening and adapt to climate change

ENVIRONMENT

CITIES cover just 3% of the planet. But they emit 78% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, absorb 80% of final global energy (what consumers use) and consume 60% of clean drinking water. African megacities like Lagos, Nigeria (with 21 million residents) and Cairo, Egypt (with 10 million residents) are experiencing significant temperature increases due to the urban heat island effect and climate change. Meelan Thondoo is a medical anthropologist and environmental epidemiologist who researches the health impacts of climate change in cities of fast-developing countries. She explains what cities in Africa are doing to mitigate climate change, and what…

Apr

2024

By SUSANNE VETTER

Planting trees in grasslands won’t save the planet – rather protect and restore forests

ENVIRONMENT

TREE planting is one of the nature-based solutions being used to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Trees absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. Many of these tree-planting projects target Africa’s rangelands (open grasslands or shrublands used by livestock and wild animals). They include agroforestry initiatives such as the Great Green Wall in the Sahel, or commercial timber plantations that double as carbon offset projects. These target millions of hectares in countries like Mozambique, Madagascar and Rwanda., I am part of a team of ecologists and social scientists who are working to highlight the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026. Our goal…

Apr

2024

By BOUREIMA BALIMA and ABDEL-KADER MAZOU

Deadly heat in West Africa warns of climate change-driven scorchers to come

ENVIRONMENT

ON a hospital bed in Niger, a 96-year-old woman lay motionless attached to a drip - one of the thousands of possible victims of West Africa's worst heatwave in living memory, which a report said was linked to fossil fuel-driven climate change. In late March and early April, days and nights of extreme heat above 40° Celsius (104°F) gripped many West African countries. Temperatures soared so high in Mali and Burkina Faso that they equated to a once-in-200-year event, according to the report on the Sahel region by World Weather Attribution (WWA). The severity of the heatwave led WWA's team…

Apr

2024

By SANDISO MNGUNI

Fossil beetles found in a Botswana diamond mine help us to reconstruct the distant past

ENVIRONMENT

WHEN most people think of fossils they probably picture bones. But there’s much more to the global fossil record: plants, shells, minerals and insects. The study of fossil insects is called palaeoentomology. Palaeoentomologists like myself seek out and study fossil insects that were trapped in mud which later became rock sediments, and those found in amber (tree resin). Very few deposits containing either fossil plants or fossil insects, or both, have been found so far on the African continent, or in the southern hemisphere more broadly, particularly those dating back to the Cretaceous period, some 145 million to 66 million…

Apr

2024

By MELANIE MURCOTT and CLIVE VINTI

South Africa’s laws aren’t geared to protecting against climate change: judges are trying to fill the gap

ENVIRONMENT

SOUTH Africa has plenty of environmental laws but none that specifically oblige government officials to consider the risks and impacts of climate change when they approve new developments. In their research, environmental law experts Clive Vinti and Melanie Jean Murcott set out how judges are dealing with this gap in the law. What are the gaps in the law? The main gap is that no law specifically obliges companies establishing mines or building new developments like power stations to do a climate change assessment before they start construction. A climate change assessment would look at how a proposed development would…

Apr

2024

By NEIL D’CRUZE, ANGIE ELWIN and JENNAH GREEN

South Africa is to shut down captive lion farms. Experts warn the plan needs a deadline

ENVIRONMENT

THE South African government has officially confirmed that captive lion farms will be shut down. A new ministerial task team report just released has cemented the government’s intention, first made public in 2021, to put an end to African lions being legally sold and traded live, both internationally and domestically. It also heralds the end of “canned” trophy hunting, where lions are confined to an enclosed space and hunted down, with no chance of escape. We are wildlife researchers who have studied lion farming in South Africa. We believe that this latest development is a significant milestone in ending this…