Global environmental change : A research agenda for Africa

The Sub-Saharan and Sahelian drought of the 1970s and the Ethiopian famine of the 1980s tragically and dramatically focussed world attention on the gravity of the ecological crisis in Africa. The television brought home the images of an ecologically devastated continent to the people in the developed countries who responded generously through the donation of food, clothes, and money for the victims. Unfortunately, after the television cameras were turned off and attention focussed elsewhere, the problems have remained as intractable as ever. Indeed Africa's current economic crisis is seen by some largely as an environmental crisis1. Unfortunately, many people in Africa as in most parts of the developing world until recently regard the concern for environment as a luxury which may distract attention from the more urgent and serious problem of achieving a fast rate of economic growth. This attitude stems in part from the belief that environmental degradation is an inevitable price of development. Perhaps more importantly is the fact that many people in developing nations could not identify with the « green movement » in the more advanced countries whose initial impetus and orientation has been described as « anti-growth and anti-industrial development »2. However within the past few years, there has been a perceptible shift of attitudes as the realization that measures to solve or ameliorate ecological degradation deserve to be accorded a high priority. Yet in spite of this new awareness, Africa still lags behind especially in the current debate on the global environmental change.