FOREWORD
T
he Footprint Factbook, Africa 2009 contains vital and up-to-date information on Africa’s Ecological Footprint, accompanied by valuable guest perspectives from African environmental and development experts..
Mr. Walter Erdelen
At a time of global ecological crises, when humankind’s Ecological Footprint has exceeded natural capacity by almost a third, it is imperative that reliable accounting tools be available to support effective management of natural resources, as well as consumption of and demand upon those resources.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
T
he publication of the Africa Ecological Footprint Factbook 2009 comes at the most opportune possible moment. In the middle of an economic and financial crisis – added to the plethora of problems which people in developing countries have to face – the nations of the entire world are poised to make a decision in Copenhagen about the attitude to adopt towards climate change and the financing of mitigation and adaptation measures starting in 2012. Only a courageous and responsible agreement at Copenhagen will allow our policies to be judged with leniency by future generations. Such an agreement must acknowledge that world poverty and climate change are the most important challenges we face today – and that they are intrinsically linked. Although responsibility for these challenges is shared, it is essential that industrialised countries accept that theirs will be the lion’s share. By committing to a sustainable and substantial increase in official development assistance (ODA), we can begin to fight the effects of climate change in the places where it
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Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences
H.E. Ms Marie-Josée Jacobs Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Luxembourg
will have some of the most drastic impacts. ODA is not the only instrument to finance sustainable development in developing countries, but the financial crisis has shown that it is the most reliable and predictable one.
This factbook represents just such a tool, and I welcome its publication, along with the continued efforts of the Global Footprint Network to advance our understanding of the relationship between human beings and the biosphere. UNESCO and the Global Footprint Network stand together in supporting the application of science to the construction of sustainable futures built on green economies, in Africa and beyond.
From this perspective, providing official development assistance on the level of 0.7 percent of gross national income is no longer simply a matter of respecting a global collective commitment towards human development. When faced with the enormous consequences of climate change, sustainable development investments are in the best interest of the developing and the industrialised world, and all future generations. This will require a creative and sustained joint effort by governments, civil society and the private sector. The Ecological Footprint Factbook for Africa serves as a reference framework for all partners in the common fight against poverty and climate change. By comparing environmental capacities and limits – the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity – and by exploring their link with human development, this report allows us to perceive a model of sustainable development that is based on working with, rather than against our “ecological budget”.