Climate change impacts on African forests and people

Tue, 08/24/2010 - 08:47
Description

African populations are widely expected to face particularly high impacts of climate change, as a result of three conflating factors: higher than the global average degree of change, particularly high levels of direct forest-dependency in African populations, and a low degree of adaptive capacity due to widespread poverty. These factors make it particularly important that forests in Africa are
managed carefuly, with appropriate consideration of the possible effects of climate change. 

The IPCC expects the increase in average temperatures in Africa to be substantially higher than the global average change, which may place severe pressures on the ability of forest ecosystems to continue to supply essential ecosystem services. Precipitation expectations are more uncertain and varied, with rises projected for some regions and falls for others. Accurate climate forecasting in Africa is severely hampered by a poor network of maintained climate monitoring stations, both historical and present. 

Forests in Africa have been used by humans for many thousands of years, and still supply much food, medicine and energy to local populations. In some areas forests once thought to be completely virgin have been found in fact to be in recovery from shifting agriculture from hundreds of years in the past. Although this shows that recovery is possible, it is also true that clearing for small-scale agriculture is the greatest cause of African deforestation. High levels of forest dependency among rural people make sustainable forest management a vital necessity for human wellbeing. Planning and implementation of forest policies are often restricted through incomplete or inaccurate forest statistics and an over reliance on secondary information sources. Forest governance must in many places be improved, with a recognition that forest policies must be broadly supported by local people if they are to be effective.

Africa has experienced much environmental change in the past, and many communities have developed indigenous coping strategies. These strategies may however be inadequate to deal with the speed and scale of projected climate change. Poverty adds to anthropogenic pressures on forests; this is particularly apparent in the need for fuelwood, charcoal and the expansion of
agricultural land. 

Based on this report and the expert opinion of the African contributors, the thematic policy workshop on 3–4 December 2009 in Vienna, Austria and subsequent discussions developed the following key messages:

1) Although climate-change projections for Africa are highly variable, the average increase in temperature on the continent is likely to be higher than the average increase globally. There is a significant risk that the adaptive capacity of many African forest ecosystems to provide vital goods and ecosystem services will be exceeded.


2) People in Africa are disproportionately dependent on forest goods and services and therefore are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Individuals, societies and institutions should be aware of the likely impacts of climate change on forests and forest-dependent people and put strategies in place to adapt to them.


3) Improving the adaptive capacity of forest-dependent communities is important in order to  reduce their vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Participatory approaches should be used to obtain a better understanding of local knowledge and perceptions of climatic change and
to raise awareness about vulnerabilities and related adaptation measures. Moreover, there is a need to develop and reorient educational systems and programmes.


4) Climate change is adding to a range of other pressures – such as agricultural expansion and the over-use of forests – on forest ecosystems in Africa, some of which are currently more pressing than climate change. Measures that reduce non-climatic pressures can help reduce the overall vulnerability of forest ecosystems. Such measures, including forest restoration and rehabilitation, can be implemented in an integrated manner as part of sustainable forest management.


5) The development and implementation of adaptation measures as part of sustainable forest management need to be underpinned by new modes of governance that are sensitive to context, take a broad view of community needs, and respond quickly to policy learning. Governance that enables effective stakeholder and community participation, transparent and accountable decision-making, secure land ownership and tenure, and the equitable sharing of benefits and responsibilities needs to be promoted.


6) Climate-change adaptation planning in Africa is hampered by a lack of information about current and future climate-related impacts and vulnerabilities. Reliable projections of regional and local impacts require investments in research and monitoring infrastructure and increased support for early-warning systems and preparedness measures.


7) Forests can play an important role in achieving broader climate-change adaptation goals but may be threatened by impacts from other sectors. Strategies for adapting forests to climate change should be coordinated with those of other sectors and integrated into national and regional development programmes and strategies.

Download full publication at

http://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/

Responsible party
International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)
Funding bodies
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, through GTZ Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, United States Forests Service