Africa’s wildlife conservation record is impressive despite the continent’s challenges arising from extreme poverty, water stress and scarcity and land degradation.

The recently launched Global Environment Outlook Yearbook 2003 (GEO Year Book 2003), says the continent has excelled in wildlife conservation with an increased number of protected areas established both at national and regional levels. The continent has also demonstrated commitment to several international agreements.

Africa has been identified as one of the regions making serious efforts to address environmental degradation. Some of the major challenges noted during 2003 include poverty, armed conflict, water issues and famine.

“These negative changes, however, have been tempered by Africa’s impressive wildlife conservation record, including a well-established network of protected areas and the region’s commitment to multilateral environmental agreements,” says the Geo Year Book 2003.

The GEO Year Book 2003 is the first in the annual series of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports. A decision to have annual GEO reports was taken at the 22nd session of the UN Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum early last year.

“Africa’s commitment to biodiversity conservation was further reinforced by the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Ministerial Declaration of October 2003, which recognizes that the biodiversity of Africa’s forest ecosystems is essential for the livelihoods of the African people,” the yearbook says.

Africa has in the past come under the spotlight for alleged wildlife abuse. In 1989, the international community, through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned the sale of ivory due to increased concern for the elephant population.

During the year under review, the yearbook notes, water issues were a priority in Africa. Governments in the region and their partners, participated in various water-related events, including the Pan-African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water, convened in December 2003 in Addis Ababa. One of its objectives was to explore ways of reaching the internationally agreed water and sanitation targets.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) stipulate that the world should halve the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation by the year 2015. For Africa to meet this target, it means ensuring improved access to safe water for 405 million people and improved sanitation for 247 million.

Compiled with the assistance of collaborating centres from various parts of the world, the report contains four sections. The first section provides an overview of major global and regional environmental issues and developments that shaped policy decisions and actions during the course of the year.

This is followed by a feature focus on freshwater and its critical role in realizing various internationally agreed development goals and targets. The report notes that water is key to poverty alleviation, consumption, production, sanitation, human settlements and biodiversity. It also points out the importance of transboundary water in terms of governance and sustainability.

Southern Africa has 15 shared river basins and this makes the issue of freshwater resource sharing even more crucial to ensure inclusive resource management.

The third section highlights emerging challenges - new findings presenting scientific progress made in 2003 that may assist society in recognizing and better understanding emerging environmental issues to help decision makers in designing adequate responses. Two main new findings have been highlighted, the nitrogen cycle and marine over-fishing.

Scientific research in 2003 has found that human activity “is radically altering the world’s nitrogen cycle through food and energy production.” Without being too specific on regions, the report notes that some areas are negatively affected while the impact in other parts of the world is positive.

“Problems related to nitrogen exist all over the world but the nature of the problem varies. There is too much nitrogen in some areas, while others have too little to meet human needs,” the year book notes.

On overfishing, the report says three-quarters of the world’s fish stocks are being overexploited, jeopardising the resources available for future generations.

The last section provides GEO indicators highlighting some of the key global and regional environmental issues and trends that have been identified in GEO reports.

The Musokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa (IMERCSA) of the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) was the collaborating partner in compiling the Africa component of the GEO Year Book 2003.

An outstanding challenge is dissemination of the report especially in Africa. This would assist with publicising the findings and also providing best practices for stakeholders in the region.