| dc.description.abstract | The productivity and sustainability of
Africa
’s
environment is heavily dependent on how this asset is
managed. This, in turn, can affect the availability, stocks
and functioning of the remaining assets, either
enhancing opportunities or putting livelihoods at risk.
The range of livelihoods, with its opportunities for
human development and alleviating extreme poverty
and hunger, extends from total dependence on natural
resource systems either for subsistence or as part of
business, to total dependence on wage earnings, from
trade or industry.
National and local aspirations for sustainable
development are linked to the integrity of natural
resources and the environment. It is, therefore, critical
to conserve and sustainably use the region’s
environmental assets, not only from an environmental
perspective but also as a sustainable resource to
support human well-being and development and as a
sink for wastes from production processes. Over 70 per
cent of Africa’s population is rural and depends directly
on the land and the natural environment for its
livelihoods and well-being (IFAD 2001). Thus, how
environmental goods-and-services are used will have
practical consequences for alleviating poverty,
improving human well-being, and ensuring sustained
economic development.
The environment and human development are the
principal focuses of sustainable development. The
challenges faced by African governments are many and
complex. Governments must reduce human
vulnerability to environmental change and hazards,
improve st
andards of living and generally enhance
human well-being. They have to provide social services
and security, ensure adequate functioning of
infrastructure, provide a climate conducive to
investment, economic growth and employment
generation, as well as pay their debts while at the same
time ensuring that the environment which supports
much of its economy and livelihoods is used
sustainably. The challenges of meeting the needs of the
present generation must be realized without
compromising those of future generations. Successfully
delivering on all these fronts requires not only good
national and regional policies but also supportive global
policies and practices. How Africa positions itself
globally is critical: it must capture the benefits
associated with globalization while at the same time
trying to minimize the negative impacts of inequitable
relations. Globalization is bringing with it both new
opportunities and risks. In the health sector, diseases,
such as SARS and avian flu, have the potential through
the increased movement of people and goods to impact
on already stretched health services. Africa will need to
increase its preparedness to respond to such risks. Thecomplex relationship between different sectors –
including health, transportation, human resources,
technology, water, forests – and their multiple
implications for poverty, well-being and development
will need to be faced head-on.
Over the past two decades, African countries have
sought to consolidate their efforts towards sustainable
development despite the economic difficulties the
region has experienced. Many countries have embraced
access to a clean and productive environment as a
fundamental human right for their citizens. At the
regional and sub-regional level, Africa has also adopted
forward-looking responses. A healthy environment is
seen as critical to the success of Africa’s development
agenda, and to achieving the various goals and targets of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and its
Environmental Action Plan (NEPAD-EAP). The MDG
targets are listed in Annex 1.
New efforts have been made to reconcile economic
development and environmental sustainability. The
Brundtland Commission in 1987 noted that, “The
downward spiral of poverty and environmental
degradation is a waste of opportunities and of
resources. What is needed is a new era of economic
growth – growth that is forceful and at the same time
socially and environmentally sustainable.” (WCED
1987). Five years later, the Earth Summit reinforced the
Brundtland Commission’s measure of the
interdependence of environment and development,
stating in Agenda 21: “Integration of environment and
development concerns and greater attention to them
will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs, imp
roved living
standards for all, better protected and managed
ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future.” (UN
1992). This message remains important and its
challenges are being confronted head-on by Africa.
Through the African Union (AU) and NEPAD – the
region’s response to tackle poverty and hunger,
underdevelopment, governance problems and
environmental degradation – African leaders have
recognized that a healthy and productive environment
is a prerequisite for the successful implementation of its
programmes. The environment is considered as one of
the central building blocks of the NEPAD agenda from
two important perspectives. First, African leaders
recognize that underdevelopment itself constitutes a
serious threat to the conservation of the environment.
Second, and perhaps more importantly in the context
of a development agenda, African leaders recognize the
inherent challenge to nurture environmental assets and
to use them for the development of the region while, at
the same time, preserving them for future generations.
The core objectives of the NEPAD-EAP are to combat
poverty and to contribute to socioeconomic
development. New developments in science and
technology, including in information and
communication technology (ICT), have been recognized
as potentially beneficial. The challenge lies in being able
to apply these new developments to Africa’s social and
economic reality, to avoid risks to the environment and
to seize the opportunities for human development.
Against the backdrop of today’s information-driven
and increasingly globalized economy, the contribution
of the environment to the realization of Africa’s
development goals, as reflected in initiatives such as
NEPAD, will not only be from the use of the resource
base but also from the ability to leverage the total value
of these environmental assets. The opportunities for
development presented by the different environmental
resources are considered in full in Chapters 2-7 of
Section 2:
Environmental State-and-Trends: 20-Year
Retrospective
. In natural resource valuation, value is not
necessarily derived only from the use of the resources
or commoditization, but also takes into accountintrinsic and non-use values. Figure 6 shows use and
non-use values. Non-use values include existence
values (the value derived from the knowledge of the
continued existence of the resource or service), bequest
values (the value of leaving use and non-use options
available for future generations) and option values (the
value derived from having available future direct and
indirect use values). Use values include consumptive
use as well as indirect use derived from the
environmental services, such as carbon sequestration | en_US |
