Africa's plants under threat

2003-09-25 13:15

Ethiopia - An ever-increasing demand for agricultural land and widespread deforestation threaten thousands of plant species in Africa, some of the worlds leading botanists warned on Tuesday.

As many as 4 500 of Africa's rare species of flowering plants - the continent has 45 000 documented plant species, one-fifth of the world's flora - are at risk, speakers at the 17th meeting of the Association for the Taxonomic Studies of the Flora of Tropical Africa (AETFAT) said.

Scientists presenting papers at the five-day gathering say some species may be lost even before they are discovered.

"There is no question about the threat," Professor Sebsebe Demisse, head of the Ethiopian Flora Project, said, adding that the principal threat to African plant life comes from both growing urbanisation and demand for agricultural land.

He appealed to African governments to take the threat to plant life seriously and encouraged the creation of more plant-breeding programmes, while he acknowledged difficulties caused by the lack of resources to carry out such projects.

"We have enough policies but need to put them into action," said Sebsebe, who is also the secretary-general of AETFAT.

Some 200 scientists from 35 countries are attending the five-day conference at the University of Ethiopia that ends on Friday.

Sebsebe said the twin spectres of war and famine often obscure the immense wealth of the plant life of Africa, which is home to 15 000 endemic species. But although one-third of the continent is forested, less than 10% of that area is protected.

In an opening address, Ethiopian President Girma Wolde Giorgis, who is also an environmental activist, said during his lifetime he has seen "the landscape of Ethiopia literally washed away before my eyes" as trees were cut down to make charcoal and land given over to the cultivation of subsistence crops.

Nearly all Ethiopia's first-growth forests have been wiped out in the last four decades. Experts warn that some of the worlds rare gum-and-resin-producing trees found in southeastern Ethiopia are threatened by charcoal burners.

In neighbouring central and northern Somalia, most of the forests have been cut down to make charcoal for export to countries of the Persian Gulf.

Sue Edwards, who runs the Ethiopian Institute for Sustainable Development, called for greater access for African countries to botanical information about the continent that is still being held by institutions in the former colonial powers.

She also called for more training for African botanists and repeated the need for African leaders to get involved in the fight to save the continents threatened plant species.

- AP