This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Robert Nasi, Director General, Centre for International Forestry Research We should better protect and manage these ecosystems as we depend on them for our survival. Our choices are subjective and we could have presented other forest wonders but we hope this will be enough to convince you of the importance of these ecosystems and of their threatened status because of us, humans. We have reached the end of our trip over Africa. Unfortunately like the other unique forest wonders of Africa, the Spiny Forest is threatened by over-exploitation for charcoal production as local farmers have been put out of business by the more and more unpredictable climate and have few other opportunities in the impoverished and dry Madagascar south-west. The Spiny Forest is inhabited by even weirder animals, ghostly white lemurs impervious to thorns, birds that sing communally and a chameleon that spends most of its life as an egg. It’s a place like nowhere else on Earth, where endemic oddities like the octopus tree ( Didierea madagascariensis) and other strange members of the Didieraceae family grow mixed with swollen baobabs ( Adansonia rubrostipa) and other bottle trees ( Pachypodium geayi). On the south-west of the “Grande Ile” grows the Spiny Forest. Unfortunately, decline in mopane tree density, lower-than-normal precipitation, and higher-than-normal temperatures have significantly affected mopane worm availability and outbreak events, threatening the already precarious livelihoods of local populations.Ĭrossing the Mozambique channel, we arrive in Madagascar. Gonimbrasia belina, by its Latin name, is a very important seasonal source of protein for the populations living near mopane woodlands. The forest is also the only source of a less emblematic but very important animal: the mopane worm. They are an important ecosystem for large mammal diversity and biomass in southern Africa, including some of the most significant remaining populations of black rhinoceros, elephant, white rhinoceros, hippopotamus, buffalo, giraffe and greater kudu. One tree species only makes the canopy, Colophospermum mopane. Over 65 million people rely on these ecosystems for their livelihoods, making use of resources such as fuelwood, timber, charcoal production, fruits, honey, mushrooms, medicinal plants, and fodder for livestock. They span an estimated total area of around 2.7 million km² from Angola in the west to Tanzania in the east, and down to the northern edge of South Africa. This has resulted in over 450 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere.Ĭontinuing our journey down south, we soon reach the immense area of Miombo woodlands. This is mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia. Sadly, in the past 20 years, 0.8 million hectares of mountain forests have been lost to agriculture. These Afromontane forests store more carbon per hectare than the Amazon rainforest. They also act as water towers, regulating and providing water for the lowlands and their inhabitants. These forests harbour a high level of endemism – meaning many of the trees can only be found here – and biodiversity. It is the only member of the large Sapotaceae family growing in the northern hemisphere, the only species of its genus and endemic to an area of about 800,000 hectares. Not far from Agadir, on the Moroccan Atlantic coast, grows the argan tree ( Argania spinosa). I hope this trip across Africa will help raise interest and trigger the urge to better conserve and manage these unique ecosystems. Many will likely disappear or be degraded to such an extent as to pass tipping points and become something else, something less. But for how long?Īfrican forests, like many others, are threatened by over-exploitation, conversion to other land uses and climate change. This is a totally personal choice others would have chosen other unique African forests, so large is the choice. Starting in the north-west and ending in the south-east, I’d like to share the ones that are special to me. Some of them are most likely unknown to the public at large, yet so fascinating and important to face our world’s current biodiversity and climate challenges. As someone who has spent decades studying the ecology and management of tropical forests, I’m constantly amazed by the unique forest ecosystems on the continent. Discovering the forest wonders of Africa – and the threats they face By Robert Nasi, Director General, Centre for International Forestry Research | March 21, 2022Īfrica’s forests are some of the natural wonders of the world.
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