Africa's Ecological Footprint:
Human Well-Being and Biological Capital

Why does ecological capacity matter to human development in Africa?

As the ongoing world food crises makes clear, human welfare is critically linked to mankind’s use and stewardship of biological resources. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa – a region with tremendous natural wealth, yet which often suffers first and most tragically when humanity’s demand on nature exceeds what nature can provide.

There are many issues facing the African continent that are linked to ecological assets, including population growth, food security, political instability, and inequitable access to resources. Despite these challenges there are many opportunities for nations to improve their quality of life while maintaining their ecological assets. As individuals, organizations, countries and regions work on advancing human development, decision-makers will need solid information and metrics in order to set goals and track progress towards sustainable development. Measures such as the Ecological Footprint are critical to setting targets and managing performance-based development projects.

Global Footprint Network’s Africa Project

To explore how ecological limits apply and relate to human development, Global Footprint Network and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation have joined forces on a multi-phase initiative focused on Africa.

On June 9, 2008 at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in Johannesburg, Global Footprint Network in conjunction with SDC and WWF International, released the first-ever detailed look at the Ecological Footprints of African nations and the trends at play over the last few decades.

Africa: Ecological Footprint and Human Well-Being offers an in-depth look at Africa’s ecological resources and the role those resources can play in advancing the region’s human development goals – or, if mismanaged, in thwarting them.

“There is a strong international commitment to improving human wellbeing in Africa and advancing the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty, hunger and disease,” said Global Footprint Network Executive Director, Mathis Wackernagel. “Yet, to advance these critical goals and produce lasting success, we need to work with, rather than against, ecological budget constraints. If development ignores the limits of our natural resources, the gains that are made cannot persist, and the most vulnerable people such as the rural poor will be the first to suffer the horrendous consequences of our resource blunder.”

Africa: Ecological Footprint and Human Well-Being helps chart a course for progress by analyzing the region’s ecological assets and pressures. It does this in part by examining the continent’s as well as individual countries’ Ecological Footprint -- the amount of productive land and sea it takes to produce what a population consumes and absorb its waste. “There are huge opportunities to improve well-being in lasting ways while staying within our ecological constraints,” Wackernagel continued. Among these are giving women access to health choices, education and economic opportunities; designing infrastructure that will make cities more resilient to resource scarcities; and leapfrogging directly to the most resource-efficient technologies.

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Africa: Ecological Footprint and Human Well-Being (1.73 mb download)

Our Africa report is the result of a multi-year project focused on learning from our partners about the factors at play in human development As a precursor to the report, we published our findings in a fact book, Africa's Ecological Footprint: Human Well-Being and Biological Capital Factbook Additionally, we engaged with our African partners in workshops held in Pretoria, Nairobi, Dakar, and Algiers who have first hand experience with the on-the-ground needs in Africa.

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Africa's Ecological Footprint: Human Well-Being and Biological Capital Factbook (3.7 mb download)

An updated edition of the fact book, the first version of an Africa Footprint Atlas, will be developed in 2008. The Africa Footprint Atlas will build on the original fact book by including additional data analysis and integrating comments and suggestions provided by African Partners during the outreach and workshops of Phase I. For more information about this project, please contact Shiva Niazi.