RENEWABLE RESOURCE HARVESTING AND USE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Journal Title: Africa International Journal of Management Education and Governance - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 4
Abstract
Renewable resources are natural resources that are capable of regenerating after harvesting and use and have the potential for use into posterity. Most of these resources are biological (wild animals hunted for food, wild plants gathered for food and medicine, forest biomass harvested for timber, fibre and fuel and soils from which we obtain crop yields), although some are non-biological(such as groundwater and surface water resources replenished by the hydrological cycle etc.). The objective of this paper is a reflection on Africa’s exploitation of renewable resources within the perspective of global development trends in the midst of rapid population growth. Based on document analysis, it examines whether Africa’s renewable resources are being depleted, and if so, then resource use sustainability must be pursued. But can sustainable resource use in Africa be achieved? Research indicates that world population growth is estimated to reach 9 billion people by 2050 and the hourly destruction of about 240 acres of natural habitat is directly linked to human population growth. Furthermore, 80% of the decline in bio-diversity (land and soils, forests, fisheries, wildlife and surface and groundwater resources) is caused by habitat destruction. This paper therefore concludes that Africa’s renewable resources are being overexploited or misused due to an ever urbanizing society and the ever rising demands on societal livelihoods. This paper thus recommends that management policies and strategies at national, regional and continental levels have to be adopted against potential depletion of these resources and the associated environmental damage arising from their unregulated exploitation. Sustainability through resource management and conservation is a pre-condition that should be realized. Renewable resource use in Africa should, thus, be at rates that are equal to or smaller than the rates of regeneration.
Authors and Affiliations
Silvester MAKHULO
Keywords
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