Ecological influence of African cities

Cities in Africa are growing faster than anywhere in the world. This is having a great impact but very few ecologists have studied the urban environment and their impact on rural areas. Currently one of the most important changes in African history is being clarified.

Joy Clancy from the University of Twente is reviewing a new issue published in the African Journal of Ecology. She said, "One hundred years ago, 95 percent of Africa's population was farming, and today 38 percent live in cities and about half of the population wants to be urban by 2010." This rapidly growing development stems from a major change in the use of natural resources, but its effects are still controversial.

Scene of a typical neighborhood in the town of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.(Photo: iStockphoto / Peter Miller)

Joy said: 'Some environmental researchers say that the demand for firewood and coal for cities is causing forest destruction, but in fact the main reason is change in land use. The most dramatic change takes place around cities - semi-urban areas - where forest land is cut down to get agricultural land to supplement food for these population areas. Then, when the demand for water and the status of garbage affects the aquatic ecosystem, African cities may have an ecosystem that is much larger than its actual state. '

But there are very few studies on the ecosystems of these cities. 'Africa is famous for its wild world and its rich and diverse ecosystem such as the Serengeti is very similar to the people on the whole. But it is very strange that very few ecologists have studied the urban environment here. ' - Jon Lovett, co-editor of the African Biology Journal, offers his views. 'Although we know a lot about the famous lion and cow species in Africa, the main ecological changes take place in cities and this is accidentally ignored. We need to have a collective transfer to address these most pressing environmental issues. '