- Facts about deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa:
- during the decade from 1980 to 1990, the world's tropical forests were reduced by an average of 15.4 million hectares per year.
- While deforestation in other parts of the world is mainly caused by commercial logging or cattle ranching the leading causes in Africa are associated with human activity.
- In Africa, the statistics are striking: an estimated 90 percent of the entire continent's population uses fuel wood for cooking.
- An estimated 20 to 25 percent of annual deforestation is thought to be due to commercial logging. The remaining 15 to 20 percent is attributed to other activities such as cattle ranching, cash crop plantations, and the construction of dams, roads, and mines.
Map about deforestation in Africa:
Africa is losing more than four million hectares of forest every year - twice the world's average deforestation rate, the atlas shows.
Of the 10 countries in the world with the largest annual net loss of forested area, six are in Africa. Africa loses an average of 40,000 km square, or 0.6 percent, of its forests annually, with the greatest losses occurring in heavily forested countries. Logging, land conversion to agriculture and settlements, wildfires, cutting for free redwood and charcoal, and civil unrest are the primary causes of deforestation in Africa; many of these pressures are driven by population growth.Meanwhile, some areas across the continent are said to be losing over 50 metric tonnes of soil per hectare per year.
Of the 10 countries in the world with the largest annual net loss of forested area, six are in Africa. Africa loses an average of 40,000 km square, or 0.6 percent, of its forests annually, with the greatest losses occurring in heavily forested countries. Logging, land conversion to agriculture and settlements, wildfires, cutting for free redwood and charcoal, and civil unrest are the primary causes of deforestation in Africa; many of these pressures are driven by population growth.Meanwhile, some areas across the continent are said to be losing over 50 metric tonnes of soil per hectare per year.