Environmental Issues in Africa

Environmental Issues in Africa

Step 3

Realizing the consequences of tree cutting and the use of charcoal in Africa, many African countries are coming together with the help of international bodies to deal with the problem. One of the solutions being offered is the use of bamboo charcoal as bioenergy.

The entire bamboo plant, including the stem, branch and its rhizome, can be used to produce charcoal, making it highly resource-efficient, with limited waste. Its high heating value also makes it an efficient fuel. The charcoal production is like any other--the controlled burning of bamboo in kilns, whether traditional, metal, or brick.

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on the planet and produces large amounts of biomass, making it an ideal energy source. Tropical bamboos can be harvested after three years, compared to the two to six decades needed to generate a timber forest.

In addition to charcoal, bamboo offers many new opportunities for income generation. It is being processed into a vast range of wood products, from floorboards to furniture and from charcoal to edible shoots.

In terms of health, the burning of fuel wood claims the lives of an estimated 2m people every year mostly women and children who inhale the smoke, according to data from the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR).

Apart from the deforestation that wood cutting causes, the burning of wood also releases the carbon stored inside. And deforestation, according to scientists, accounts for at least a fifth of all carbon emissions globally, which is a serious health hazard.

It is envisaged that Africa's leadership, policy makers, private sector, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, religious and traditional authorities as well as civil society organizations would lead the crusade towards saving the forests and the environment by helping to promote bamboo planting and its use for charcoal.

AMONG THE NUMEROUS HUMAN activities that cause climate change in Africa is the cutting of trees for charcoal. It is estimated that in sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of the people cook their meals over wood fires. Thus the very poorest cut down trees for cooking fuel while those slightly less poor buy charcoal made from wood in those same forests.

Drought

Deforestation

As recently as the 1960s, Lake Chad in central North Africa covered a surface area of more than 10,000 square miles, making it the fourth-largest lake in Africa and among the 12 largest in the world. As the only sizable body of water in the Sahel, it has historically been a crucial resource for fishing, irrigation, and drinking water for the four countries that share its shores: Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon. As shown in these Landsat images from 1973 (left), 1987 (middle), and 1997, Lake Chad has shrunk drastically. In these images, the deep blue represents the lake, shown progressively smaller in the images.

Sources

• http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=las86157&tabID=T003&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA331689695&&docId=GALE|A331689695&docType=GALE&role=BIC1
• http://history.salempress.com/doi/full/10.3331/GE20b_2556?prevSearch=desertification%2Bin%2Bafrica&searchHistoryKey=&queryHash=19a54b2e34e477e2765c0de2542c63a0
• http://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1759989?terms=Environmental+issues+in+africa
• http://history.salempress.com/doi/full/10.3331/GE20b_2641020422?prevSearch=deforestation%2Bin%2Bafrica&searchHistoryKey=&queryHash=5416e6e554dd0414c82b5931beb84082

Africa is losing its forests at an alarming rate mainly because 70% of the continent's population use wood as their principal source of energy for cooking. Attempts to stop this practice have failed as for most people, there has been no viable alternative to wood.

The process of desertification in North Africa, meaning the spread of the Sahara Desert southward, has been tied to global warming (though other human processes, such as soil depletion, may also be partly to blame.)