African Congo Basin: destruction of rainforest slows, but serious concerns remain The Parliamentary Information Office of the Parliamentary Yearbook examines recent research which evaluates the state of the African Congo rainforest. Findings reveal that deforestation has slowed over the last decade but that deep concern remains regarding the future of the rainforest. The African Congo Basin rainforest is the second largest rainforest in the world, after the Amazon. Covering nearly 2 million square km (800,000 miles), approximately two thirds of the forest is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but it also covers large areas of Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo. Rainforest contains immense biodiversity and in the Congo Basin we find the greatest number of mammals, primates, birds, amphibians, fish and swallowtail butterflies in Africa. It accounts for 89% of Africa’s tropical rainforest cover. The Royal Society’s biological journal, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, has recently dedicated a special issue containing 18 papers on a range of issues affecting the rainforests of the Congo Basin. The issue is based on a conference held in Oxford in 2012, under the title ‘Climate Change, Deforestation and the Future of African Rainforests’. It was compiled and edited by Yadvinder Malhi of the Oxford Centre for Tropical Rainforests, Stephen Adu-Bredu of the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Rebecca Asare of the Forest Trends Association, Simon Lewis of the University of Leeds and Philippe Mayaux of the European Commission’s Joint Research Council The issue starts with several papers which characterise the African rainforest habitat, and patterns of recent change. It includes a paper by Philippe Mayaux et al. which presents a map of the current habitat, and discusses patterns and drivers of change in the region between 1990 and 2010. This paper reveals that the rate of deforestion in the Congo Basin has fallen by over a third (36%) since 2000; from 2854 square kilometres per year in the 1990s down to 1815 square kilometres per year in the 2000s. The current annual rate of forest loss stands at 0.3%. The researchers believe that the most likely cause for this welcome decline is slow economic growth in Africa with foreign investment concentrating on mining and oil, rather than commercial agriculture. Co-editor Dr Simon Lewis noted his surprise at the results in an interview with BBC News. “They are very dependent on oil sales and also minerals from mining, and they are investing in that and not investing so much in agricultural expansion,” he told BBC News. However, the authors caution that these gains may be short-lived given rising interest in industrial agriculture, in particular, oil palm plantations. They fear that the growing demand for food and improved living standards will drive demand for commodities from agricultural land, leading to critical increase in deforestation. A news article by Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, quotes Professor Mahli, who warns that: “Over the 21st century, the African rainforest realm has the potential to witness massive change, both through an expansion of deforestation, hunting and logging, and through the effects of global climate change.” parliamentaryyearbook.co.uk Email: [email protected]
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 12:17:05 +0000
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