Africa Remains Upbeat on Protection of the Environment
11/30/98
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Title: Africa Remains Upbeat on Protection of the Environment
Source: PANA via CNN
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 11/30/98
DAKAR, Senegal (PANA, 11/30/98) - Although Africa is host to 21 of the
world's 30 poorest nations, the continent has always maintained an "in-
built willingness" to conserve and protect its environment for sustainable
development, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says.
In a recent assessment of mechanisms set up to deal with environment
problems, the agency says the continent, more than any other, has always
been well placed to gain from the creation of the UNEP by the United
Nations General Assembly in 1972.
Thus, "the location of its headquarters in a developing nation like Kenya,
may not have been mere coincidence," UNEP says in the document.
African governments, it notes, have assumed their obligations under a
variety of international agreements, some global and others regional or
sub-regional. Sixteen of the 56 member-states that constitute UNEP's
Governing Council are African.
Even before the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development,
Africa had already expressed strong concern about the depletion of natural
resources, pollution and degradation of the continent's environment.
The First Regional Conference on Environment and Development held in
Kampala, Uganda, in 1989 declared that "our countries face many
environmental problems including pollution, depletion of natural resources
due to inappropriate national and international policies and
pressures."
According to the Kampala Declaration, "cumulative environmental
degradation combined with increasing debt, declining terms of trade and
adverse international economic conditions has already undermined our
capacity and potential to meet the needs of our people today and our
children tomorrow."
"This strong statement indicated the realization by Africans that the
future depended directly on sustainable utilization of the continent's
natural resources," UNEP stresses.
Africa's recognition of the need to protect and manage the environment for
sustainable development is reflected in other major socio-economic policy
documents.
The continent's 1987 development blueprint, the Abuja Declaration,
recommended that African nations "ensure consistency of the development
process and environmental sustainability."
However, UNEP says that despite being a signatory, "Africa must struggle
to go beyond the paper work and create national or regional infrastructure
for implementation of the agreements, protocols, conventions or treaties
dealing with various aspects of the environment."
Some of these agreements include the 1992 Rio Convention on Biological
Diversity, whose aim is to conserve biodiversity, sustainable utilization
of genetic resources, and the equitable sharing of benefits.
However, the continent's biodiversity is increasingly threatened by
various internal factors, particularly deforestation due to various
factors including wars, population pressure and economic activities,
including mining.
Closely linked to the Convention on Biological Diversity is the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which aims to basically
reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous oxide and others.
These gases are linked to global warming because they form a blanket
around the earth which prevents adequate radiation back into space.
The trapped heat may melt polar ice thereby increasing drought, rainfall
and lead to widespread flooding of land and coastal areas. The extreme
weather conditions that occurred at the beginning of 1998 included above
average rainfall and flooding in East Africa.
The third major agreement is the 1991 Bamako Convention on the Ban of the
Import into Africa and the Control of Trans-boundary Movement and
Management of Hazardous Wastes within the continent.
It was designed to cope with specific social, economic and political
conditions pertaining to Africa which had not been included in the related
1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
Africa, with little or no waste handling technologies needed the Bamako
Convention which bans the importation and movement of hazardous wastes
across national borders.
According to UNEP, and owing to poverty and political instability, certain
African governments or groups could have easily resorted to accepting
hazardous wastes in exchange for money, weapons or other needs."
"The likelihood that Africa would become a dumping ground by those with
+enough+ money was a worrying possibility," it adds.
The fourth agreement is the 1994 UN Convention to Combat Desertification
in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification,
particularly Africa.
Africa is the continent most affected by desert encroachment and drought,
and the Convention aims to attract technical and financial resources to
help Africa deal with the situation.
The fifth agreement is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea. This global agreement is designed to ensure equity and the orderly
access to marine resources.
Sub-Saharan Africa also has more agreements on the protection and
sustainable utilization of marine resources.
One such convention is the 1985 Convention for the Protection, Management
and Development of Marine and Coastal Environment of the East African
Region, and the 1981 Convention for Cooperation in the Protection and
Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the West and
Central African Region.
c 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.