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Forests currently cover around 45% of the country’s total land area, but deforestation is an increasingly pressing issue, resulting in forests disappearing quickly. The rate of deforestation in the country accelerated to 327,000 ha per year (1.9%) during the years 2000 and 2010 and is also currently the highest in Southern Africa. [2]
The direct causes of deforestation within the DRC are well understood and have been identified consistently by many sources. [2] [3] [9] The direct causes are as follows: 1) road infrastructure development, 2) slashing and burning the forests to transform forest land into agricultural land, 3) the collection of fuelwood and charcoal, and lastly 4) unregulated artisanal and small-scale logging.
Apart from Northern Africa, East African countries show the second highest decline rates of conservation forests in the continent. In a forest resource assessment of Ethiopia, Reusing found that within 17 years (1973–1990) high-forest cover decreased from 54,410 to 45,055 km² or from 4.72 to 3.96% of the land area. [5]
By 2008, deforestation in Africa was estimated to be occurring at twice the world average rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). [5] [6] [7] Some sources claim that deforestation has already wiped out roughly 90% of West Africa's original forests. [8] [9] Today, deforestation is accelerating in Central Africa. [10]
During the last two decades of the 21st century, Kenya's rate of deforestation has remained consistent. The first decade of the century experienced 2,914.55 hectares in a primary forest lost and 19,401 hectares lost in tree cover while the second decade of the century has experienced a total of 2,099.74 hectares lost in primary forest and 17,167 hectares lost in tree cover.
Major environmental issues in DRC include deforestation, poaching, which threatens wildlife populations, water pollution and mining. A dense tropical rainforest in the DRC's central river basin and eastern highlands is bordered on the east by the Albertine Rift (the western branch of Africa's Great Rift System). It includes several of Africa's ...
The large scale felling of trees and the resulting decreases in forest areas are the main environmental issues of the African Continent. Rampant clearing of forests and land conversion goes on for agriculture, settlement and fuel needs. [3] Ninety percent of Africa's population requires wood to use as fuel for heating and cooking.
Slash-and-burn agriculture is one of the human activities eroding Liberia's natural forests. [5] A 2004 UN report estimated that between 1990 and 2004, forest cover in Liberia had fallen by around seven percent to just over 31 per cent of Liberia's total area. [5] Illegal logging has increased in Liberia since the end of the Second Civil War in ...