The future of sub-Saharan Africa’s biodiversity in the face of climate and societal change

Abstract

Many of the world’s most biodiverse regions are found in the poorest and second most populous continent of Africa; a continent facing exceptional challenges. Africa is projected to quadruple its population by 2100 and experience increasingly severe climate change and environmental conflict—all of which will ravage biodiversity. Here we assess conservation threats facing Africa and consider how these threats will be affected by human population growth, economic expansion, and climate change. We then evaluate the current capacity and infrastructure available to conserve the continent’s biodiversity. We consider four key questions essential for the future of African conservation: (1) how to build societal support for conservation efforts within Africa; (2) how to build Africa’s education, research, and management capacity; (3) how to finance conservation efforts; and (4) is conservation through development the appropriate approach for Africa? While the challenges are great, ways forward are clear, and we present ideas on how progress can be made. Given Africa’s current modest capacity to address its biodiversity crisis, additional international funding is required, but estimates of the cost of conserving Africa’s biodiversity are within reach. The will to act must build on the sympathy for conservation that is evident in Africa, but this will require building the education capacity within the continent. Considering Africa’s rapidly growing population and the associated huge economic needs, options other than conservation through development need to be more effectively explored. Despite the gravity of the situation, we believe that concerted effort in the coming decades can successfully curb the loss of biodiversity in Africa.

Lepidoptera as a tool for the assessment of human disturbance impacting ecological and taxonomic diversity in the Choke Mountains, Ethiopia

“…These impacts affect not only rare and specialized organisms but often widely distributed species as well (Gaston and Fuller 2007). Chapman et al (2022) assessed the conservation challenges facing the biodiversity of sub-Saharan Africa, examining the current threats and their changes under drivers such as human population growth and movement, economic expansion and climate change.…”

Monitoring biodiversity loss in rapidly changing Afrotropical ecosystems: an emerging imperative for governance and research

“…The region also harbours the African Great Lakes that hold over 25% of the world's unfrozen freshwater [35,36] and more than 90% of Africa's total freshwater [37]. Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Africa also support numerous habitats with exclusive reservoirs of the world's biodiversity, including eight of the world's 36 recognized biodiversity hot spots [38]; they host approximately one-quarter of the world's mammals and birds [39] and have the second largest tropical rainforest with unmatched endemic species globally [40], in addition to aquatic inland and marine amphibians, reptiles and fish [41]. Moreover, Key Biodiversity Areas are continuously being identified and mapped in the region for monitoring and conservation [42,43].…”

Reimagining protected and conserved areas in Africa: Perspectives from the first Africa Protected Areas Congress

“…Integration is also key to ensuring that the management of PCAs will increasingly address the projected trends in climate change impacts on wildlife and biodiversity (Chapman et al., 2022). The management of PCAs in the face of climate change must consider the options for the persistence and resistance of biodiversity as well as the adaptation of biodiversity to projected changes (Brito & Naia, 2020).…”