Chapter 1: Law, environment, Africa: introducing the imperatives, parameters and trends

Abstract

Fundamentally we all depend on nature: the ecological infrastructure of the planet that provides the flow of goods and services upon which our livelihoods and economies are built. Yet Africa’s ecosystems are changing faster than ever before through the combined impact of global and local pressures. Loss of ecosystem services is compromising future security, health and well-being and effects are being borne disproportionately by the poor.1 This telling reality highlighted in the Africa Ecological Footprint Report (2012)2 is mimicked in several more recent regional reports comprehensively canvassing both the state of the environment in Africa and the range of factors leading to its deterioration. These reports include the African Environment Outlook 3 (2013),3 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (2014)4 and most recently the Global Environmental Outlook GEO-6 – Regional Assessment for Africa (2016).5 Repeating the numerous statistics exhaustively outlined in these reports serves no purpose here as several realities are clearly indicated. The deficit between what the continent’s ecological infrastructure can sustain and is being expected to sustain is growing rapidly. The range of factors contributing to the growing deficit is diverse. The current negative impacts associated with the growing deficit on the continents’ inhabitants’ security, health and well-being are vast and expanding. Recognising this ecological fragility, Agenda 2063 outlines the continent’s development agenda for the next 45 years. It includes a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth, sustainable development, peace, security, resilience, good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law amongst its express aspirations.6 Agenda 2063 coincides with the post-2015 global development agenda reflected in Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,7