A final note on Africa, water and trees

In this blog, we have explored many case studies and topics related to water, environmental change and trees. From a Netflix documentary, the impacts of deforestation on the African hydrological cycles, the Green Wall Initiative to the impacts of Agroforestry in the Sahel and South Africa and those of elephants in mitigating climate change, this blog has covered a range of topics. Trees play an important role in Africa in having a balanced hydrological cycle and mitigate the effects of climate change. As we explored in one of the first blog posts, deforestation in the Congo Basin (one of the great rainforests of our planet) has far reaching consequences on the monsoon patterns across the continent. Understanding the relationship between trees, water and environmental change in Africa would allow for better future planning and mitigation towards detrimental environmental change. 

Water tree. Source: freedigitalphoto

A recent study conducted in Malawi found that in the first decade of this century, Malawi lost 14% of their forest cover, showing one of the worst rate of deforestation in the continent. This has been correlated with a loss of drinking water equivalent to a drop in 9% of rainfall. Deforestation is known to increase surface water runoff, and while that may look like an increase in blue water resources, it does not mean it is safe for communities. Without forest cover to absorb the surface water, it picks up sediment that eventually ends up in treatment systems, making it unsafe for use. This is happening in many parts of Malawi and pared with the effects of global climate change on hydrology, is devastating for Malawi, a country where in 2010, 17% of the population was still using unsafe water resources. 


To summarise the focus of this blog, Freshman, 2008 said:

"Preserving Africa's surviving tropical forests and planting new trees to replace those lost to deforestation could help reduce the severity of climate change by absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere, and ease the local impacts of climate change by regulating local weather conditions."


Having grown up in the tropics, rainforests are very important to me and I am definitely worried for their long-term survival. I hope to do everything I can in my life to fight deforestation in rainforests and preserve these precious ecosystems for every human, plant and animal that depends on them. 

I hope you enjoyed my blog and Happy New Year!



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