The Great Green Wall offers hope in West and Central Africa

Congo Basin concerns

Home to more than 75 million people, the Congo Basin holds roughly 10,000 species of plants, 30% of which are unique to the region, and rare, endangered wildlife. The rainforest is known as the ‘second lungs of the world’.

But mining resources such as diamonds, gold, coltan and oil causes deforestation, pollution and human exploitation. Logging operations work across an increasing area of the forest, while poaching – mostly for bushmeat – is a risk to wildlife in addition to habitat destruction.

Well-managed, protected areas are key to conserving the Congo Basin. Virunga National Park is in eastern DRC, an area that’s suffered decades of conflict and poverty. The rangers face extreme danger from armed rebel groups on a daily basis, many losing their lives in protecting the park, which is home to endangered mountain gorillas and forest elephants. Despite the tough conditions, the park’s conservation operations have been remarkably resilient.

The multi-stakeholder Virunga Alliance aims to show how a protected park can work for the people who live there. These include an eco-tourism industry for employment and related income opportunities, linking communities to hydroelectricity stations, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Their projects include a chocolate factory for international exports and Virunga Enzymes, which produces enzymes for the pharmaceutical industry from papaya.

Population growth

West Africa is experiencing a huge population boom – the number of people living in the region has quintupled since 1950. This has contributed to deforestation, urbanisation and agricultural expansion.

Writing in Nature, scientists called for wildlife corridors to be identified and protected to build biodiversity conservation into future development, and for agroforestry to be promoted to incorporate forested areas into agricultural land.

The boom has also led to a young demographic. Some view this as negative, because there are too few jobs for young people, but others are more positive, as the continent has a fresh-thinking workforce to tackle sustainable development. For example, the African Leadership University designs courses to promote entrepreneurialism amongst young people, equipping them to proactively solve the big problems facing the continent.

Waste and pollution

Many countries in the west and central regions have problems with waste, including plastic pollution. Countries including Benin, Nigeria and the Gambia have banned non-biodegradable plastic bags, but this hasn’t had a great deal of success in cleaning up the ocean, rivers and streets due to lack of implementation and stakeholder engagement and the amount of other single-use plastics such as water sachets. 

To get rid of single-use plastics, there’s a bigger picture to consider. Bottled water is necessary in many places without access to clean running water (less than 50% of schools in the region have access to running water).

The region’s coast has also been polluted by oil slicks, many of which have gone unreported. Nigeria’s Niger Delta is particularly heavily polluted, having suffered thousands of oil spills.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) development centre, air pollution causes more deaths in Africa than malnutrition or unsafe water. Nigeria has the worst record on the continent; it’s ranked fourth worst in the world. Exhaust emissions from old cars, fossil fuel-powered generators, kerosene stoves and waste burning all contribute. 

To mitigate waste burning – and help reduce plastic pollution – more recycling facilities are required. Some Nigerians have taken matters into their own hands, using plastics, metals and other waste materials to create art, clothing, fabrics and playground toys for schools – making money and drawing awareness to the issues of waste and pollution.

But the only way to really clear up pollution is through well enforced, data-backed policies. Some international funds have been established to start this process. For example, the Megacities Partnership between Accra in Ghana and the US Environmental Protection Agency has produced an air quality management plan and deployed a low-cost sensor network and data management system which can be used as a model for similar cities, such as Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.