Mombassa | Thursday
AFRICA is losing two million hectares of forest every five years, making the continent move closer to becoming one huge desert, conservation experts warned here on Wednesday.
“This translates to 22% of the nine million hectares lost globally in a single year, with a third of the remaining forest area under threat from climatic change,” said Patrick Milimo, conservation program director for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) for eastern Africa.
The warning came at the end of a three-day meeting of regional experts and government representatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to try to identify common factors that are leading to forest degradation within the four countries.
“Ways to mitigate against this scary trend of forest loss must be found fast to avoid a catastrophe,” Milimo said.
During the meeting, participants pressed for the integration of an approach by governments to stop further forest depletion.
“After this meeting, we hope each country will have agreed on the way forward and came up with a framework within six months,” Milimo said.
The experts noted that at immediate risk of permanent loss within the region are mountainous and coastal forests and scrublands.
The meeting concluded that inappropriate and lacking government policies were to blame for the deteriorating biodiversity.
“Addressing root causes of forest loss and degradation in order to reverse trends need changing of policies related to land use,” the meeting said. – AFP