Focus On Planet Earth - AFRICA ECONOMIC CAUSES.

AFRICA ECONOMIC CAUSES

The long-term environmental challenges of the region are to a large extent the delayed consequence of the fast economic growth, industrialization, urbanization, agricultural modernization and expansion, and heavy public investments in transportation and energy infrastructure that took place between 1950 and 1982. After the oil crisis of 1973, private foreign financing contributed to the continuation of these trends, adding to a strong consumption boom. This lead to the debt crisis and the consequent adjustment and restructuring process, which included reduction of Government spending, privatization of State companies and services, and liberalization of national and international markets of goods, services, and factors of production. These later developments brought about a decline of internal demand, a fall in the production of non-tradeable goods and services, and an increase in underemployment and unemployment, poverty, and inequality (UNEP, 1996). They also stimulated the expansion of natural-resource-based exports to earn foreign currency leading to deforestation and land degradation (UNEP, 1996).

The economic situation improved during the early 1990s, with most economies reversing the trends of negative growth seen in the 1980s. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.8 per cent in 1991, 3 per cent in 1992, and 3.2 per cent in 1993, while per capita GDP was up by 1.8 per cent, 1.1 per cent, and 1.3 per cent in those same years (ECLAC, 1996). At present, however, the situation is unclear, as most countries have encountered financial difficulties during 1995 and 1996, which have enhanced the spiral of inequity, unemployment, and poverty.

All these developments have had complex and sometimes contradictory consequences for the environment. On the one hand, the economic changes have brought additional international pressure to implement environmental policies, while increased competition and technological modernization may have stimulated a more efficient use of resources and lower emissions. On the other hand, the liberalization of the economies brought less Government investments in infrastructure and reduced spending to prevent or mitigate environmental damage. The reduction of public spending, and the transference of public services to the private sector, in many cases put the preservation of the environment as a second-order priority.

Because the region is almost exclusively a producer of raw materials, the new market-economy model and the globalization of trade have accelerated the tapping of the region's natural resources. Coupled with a generalized deterioration of the relative price of these commodities, this phenomenon has meant an additional pressure on the environment and natural resources of the region.

The rising foreign debt, which led to a net transfer of capital from the region of $200 billion between 1982 and 1989 (LAC CDE, 1992), encouraged overexploitation of natural resources to increase exports and meet pressing short-term needs.

In the Caribbean, where economic health is often determined by the volatile tourism industry, rapid economic cycles and the prolonged recessions in Europe have led to resort failures (sometimes with abandonment of important infrastructure, such as water, sewer, and transport systems). This has weakened both local planning and management capabilities of Government and its willingness to implement control and disaster mitigation actions for developments in critical habitat areas, such as coasts and barrier islands.

The austerity policies of the 1980s and 1990s helped initiate a recovery of many of the region's economies, but they have also contributed to an increase in poverty. The economic restructuring programmes led to cuts in public spending, thereby increasing unemployment. Between 1980 and 1985, real per capita income dropped 14 per cent, pushing a high proportion of the population below the poverty line (Winograd, 1995). Eighteen per cent of the urban population and 49 per cent of the rural population of the region fell below the absolute poverty level between 1980-89 (UNICEF, 1994). And in 1990, 40 per cent of the households did not get the minimum of calories needed for an adequate diet, unemployment and underemployment affected 44 per cent of the labour force, and 68 per cent of the housing could be considered inadequate (LAC CDE, 1992).

The aggravation of poverty in the region had serious implications for the environmental base; extreme poverty compelled people to exploit vulnerable ecosystems through short-term survival strategies or to migrate to the cities to inhabit marginal shelters. The concentration of poverty belts around the large cities of the region, coupled with the current reduction in Government spending, has increased the vulnerability of the population to environmental problems in general, and to hazards of epidemics and health in particular. Forests in particular and natural resources in general bore the brunt of growing social and ecological impoverishment and of reduced investment funds for development in the region.

A complex loop of interactions therefore exists in the region among poverty, population, and environment. The inequity in the distribution of wealth and resources, more than the problem of population growth, is putting strong pressures on the sustainability of the natural resources. The regressive distribution of resources has also meant a concentration in the ownership of land, resulting in more environmental pressure being put on the remaining small properties.

United Nations Environment Programme