The conservation organization WWF warns that many African countries are rapidly running down their natural resources as growing populations push the continent towards its ecological limits.
The warning was contained in the group’s first-ever detailed report on Africa’s ecological footprint–an estimate of the area of a country’s land and sea surface used annually in meeting the individual consumption demands of its people.
”A growing number of African countries are depleting their natural resources–or will shortly be doing so–faster than they can be replaced,” said WWF president Chief Emeka Anyaoku who presented the findings to a Johannesburg conference. The report put Egypt, Libya and Algeria at the head of a list of nations of the continent living beyond their ecological means followed by Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The Swiss-based WWF, previously known as the World Wide Fund for Nature issued the report, Africa-Ecological Footprint and Human Wellbeing, together with the U.S.-based Global Footprint Network. (NNPA)
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