CLIMATE CHANGE AND AFRICAN FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES

Download – CLIMATE CHANGE AND AFRICAN FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES

Title:  CLIMATE CHANGE AND AFRICAN FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES

Climate and ecosystems are mutually impacting on each other and this has been recognized in various African eco-zones. And more recently climate change has become the topical issue in forestry and other circles. Climate change and forests are related in functional and structural ways. Carbon sequestration increases in growing forests, a process that positively influences the level of green house gases in the atmosphere, which, in turn, may reduce global warming. In other words, the forests, by regulating the carbon cycle, play vital roles in climatic change and variability. Climate, on the other hand, affects the function and structure of forests. Understanding this vital relation is critical in developing appropriate policies and technology options that can contain the adverse effects of climate change and variability.

In Africa, much as the forestry sector joined the debate on climate change fairly late, significant achievements for the sector have been made. These debates have succeeded in profiling the sector at all levels and also in mobilizing attention and resources for the sector to address the climate change important issues, and more specifically those related to reducing deforestation and degradation, enhancing carbon stocks, improving the protection of forests, and enhancing sustainable management of forest resources. This book is therefore timely in that it highlights to all stakeholders, and in a systematic manner, the climate change issues relevant to the African forestry and wildlife sectors, with the view of increasing these sectors’ contribution, at various levels and fora, to addressing the vagaries of climate change. The book also outlines the opportunities that climate change brings to the sectors.

Category: Water and Climate change