Deforestation, Climate Change and Food Security Nexus in Sub-Sahara Africa: Content Analysis

Abstract

Like the rest of the globe, Forests in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) continue to play a vital role when it comes to food security from the perspective of forest function of climate regulation, water provision, and soil protection. Nevertheless, most of the recent deforestation practices in various countries indicate that the region could face severe food insecurity in the near future since there are already signs of shortage in food production. This study, therefore, examines deforestation, climate change, and food security nexus in SSA while exploring a wide range of examples of food insecurity in the region. Content analysis and a synthetic literature study were conducted using data from scientific data banks. The study links deforestation, climate change to food security while citing examples from various SSA countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya to mention but a few. More so, the study investigates how deforestation contributes to climate change, and how such change directly affects agricultural output and hence food security.Lastly, the study discusses the various implication of deforestation in relation to food security.Ghana's independent remnant forests by 2025, following impending pressures from deforestation [6]. However, this said, this study [14] deliberately stressed the value of forests as a reliable food insecurity source being the most productive yet easily accessible resources available to rural Cameroonians.Deforestation, which is coined by the destruction of forest cover to avail land purposely for nonforest use, primarily for agriculture is an immediate trend in SSA countries. More so, in most of SSA, the popularized practice deriving from deforestation is subsistence agriculture with an annual deforestation rate of 0.7% [30]. More studies [13][14] indicate that Africa Total natural forest cover in SSA declined by 9.5% between 2000 and 2010, of which over 75% was converted into agricultural farmland. A wide range of scholars [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] observed that nowhere is this nexus of land clearing and degradation with hunger more pronounced than in SSA regions.Similarly, according to this study [24], many deforestation hotspots are also common hunger zones, thus therefore glaringly implicating deforestation as an issue threatening food security.Entirely, this can be related to the fact that forests offer habitats to a variety of shrub, animal and fish species commonly consumed by forest communities. As revealed in this study [14], foods Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 18 February 2019 Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED |

Unlocking the potential for achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 – ‘Zero Hunger’ – in Africa: targets, strategies, synergies and challenges

“…SDG 8 ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’ is related to the ‘Zero Hunger’ target since countries with high rates of malnutrition and food insecurity may have a high loss of gross domestic product ( 26 ). SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’ is of major importance, especially to some of Africa’s most vulnerable societies, since climate change increases droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, with detrimental effects on food production ( 27 ). SDG 14 ‘Life Below Water’ and SDG 15 ‘Life on Land’ relate to loss of biodiversity, acidification of the oceans, and soil degradation, which threaten the ability to produce food ( 22 ).…”

“…Annually, about 13 million hectares of forests are lost due to deforestation, partly by agriculture, logging, mining, and infrastructure development. Deforestation is a significant factor in promoting climate change through increased emission of greenhouse gases, thus altering temperature and weather patterns globally ( 27 , 39 ).…”

Deforestation and Biomass Production in Miombo Forest in Huambo (Angola): A Balance between Local and Global Needs

“…Studies carried out in sub-Saharan Africa have concluded that the subsistence agriculture is the main driver in the poorest rural populations, often associated with deforestation for charcoal production and/or forest fires [15,16]. Thus, some authors link deforestation to food security, with the most frequent causes being agriculture [17] and exploitation of biomass as fuel [18]. In Angola, the main proximate drivers are the overextraction of timber resources, clearing for agricultural purposes, unregulated burning, and overgrazing [19].…”

“…Charcoal production in rural areas causes large environmental impact, especially in comparison with that generated by fuelwood, mainly in periurban areas [7]. This activity, which is continuously growing in Africa, is one of the main causes of deforestation and forest degradation both in Africa and Angola [18,20]. One of the main problems related to charcoal production in the Angolan Miombo is the lack of data about the potential productive capacity of this ecosystem.…”

Decision support system for selecting sectoral data-bases in studies of the water–energy–agricultural–environmental nexus

“…The nexus concept refers to the interconnected and interdependent management between the water, energy, agricultural, and environmental sectors. It is based on the good governance of each of these sectors, and provides for the design and implementation of more efficient and sustainable policies and actions (Hoff, 2011;WEF, 2011;Bamwesigye et al, 2019).…”