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Africa urged to address deforestation and drought
May 09, 2008, 05:45
By Thami Dickson
Drought and deforestation are the greatest environmental challenges which pose a threat to poverty alleviation efforts in Africa and the rest of the developing world. Yet, they are neglected by many governments. This came out of a United Nations commission on sustainable development currently underway at the world body’s headquarters in New York. Representatives of governments, business and civil society are gathered to examine strategies to mitigate the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for most poor rural people. It is said that deforestation will affect them significantly because it causes land degradation and drought. This increases poverty and hunger which then forces poor people to migrate or starve.
People fight over scarce resources
These challenges also pose threats to global security as people fight over scarce resources. The UN conference seeks to persuade governments to adopt pro-active measures to avoid deforestation.
Echo-Agriculture’s Sara Scherr encourages Governments to work together to develop better land management systems, to control overgrazing and to predict the impact of rising temperatures. Programmes to restore the fertility of the land have also been suggested.
Bakary Kante of the Environmental Law Conventions, fears that climate change will make it more difficult for many developing countries to achieve the millennium development goals.
