Rate of forest loss in Africa creates worries

While forests are key in taming climate change given their role in absorbing greenhouse gases, regulating water flow and protecting coastal communities from extreme events and sea level rises, scientists have expressed concerns about the rate of forest loss in the African continent.

Scientists who spoke at an event convened by the African Forest Forum in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa called on African countries to sustainably manage the continent's vast tropical forests to reverse the current trend.

Marie Avana, the senior program officer at the African Forest Forum, said the continent is leading globally in loss of forest cover.

Avana said eastern and southern Africa are the most affected regions with 0.62 percent forest loss every year, followed by western and central Africa with 0.59 percent forest loss.

She said the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Tanzania and Mozambique are among the top 10 countries losing forests globally.

Avana said the DR Congo is losing more than 1 million hectares of forest per year, while Angola and Tanzania are losing nearly 500,000 and 400,000 hectares per year respectively.

"Though there have been efforts to conserve and re-generate these forests, the effort is not compensating for what is being lost," she said.

Avana said Africa also has the lowest share of planted forests, representing 2 percent of the global figure.

However, she noted Egypt and Libya have 100 percent of their forest cover being planted, while Rwanda has 54 percent planted forest cover.

Godwin Kowero, executive secretary of African Forest Forum, said between 2010 and 2020 Africa lost about 3.9 million hectares of forest cover per year, followed by South America with 2.6 million hectares.

Within the same period, he said eastern Africa lost 1.9 million hectares, northern Africa 168,000 hectares while west and central Africa lost 1.1 million hectares.

"We need to pull our socks and correct this trend," Kowero said.

He attributed a large percentage of forest cover loss in Africa to agricultural activities, warning the trend may continue unless there is serious improvement in agricultural productivity.

Kowero said many governments across the continent are yet to honor the Maputo declaration states African countries should increase funding on agricultural productivity by 10 percent.

"The African Union Commission has a directive that came from the heads of state in 2020-the African Union sustainable forest management framework. This gives us a framework from which we can manage forests sustainably," he said.

Labode Popoola, a professor of forest economics, said African countries should quickly and aggressively establish plantations to grow forest cover.

This is in addition to reducing deforestation and diversifying the livelihood of people who live around the forest areas to reduce pressure on forests.

Popoola said there is also need for forest assessment to know what countries have and then plan how to manage them.