UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Government

Name of Ministry/Agency:	Department of State

Country:	United States of America

Name of Focal Point:	Hiram Larew

Initiative Title:	Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment

Internet links:	http://na.unep.net/

Scope:	Regional: - Africa

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: End:

Lead Institution:	U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and othersI

Stakeholders/Partners:	Those interested in changes in, uses of, and trends in African land and water.

Relevent issues:	- Strategies for effective resource management

Objectives/Challenges:

A new publication -- Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment -- documents environmental change at more than 100 locations spread across every country in Africa. The Atlas, produced by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment and the United Nations Environment Program, has more than 310 satellite images, 300 ground photographs and 151 maps, along with informative graphs and charts that provide a vivid visual portrayal of Africa and its changing environment.
This publication leverages scientific and technological assets of U.S. government agencies (e.g., United States Geological Survey and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), academic institutions and the private sector -- within the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) -- to promote science-based policy making, using earth observational data. The Atlas on highlights important environmental issues in all African countries and provides evidence of local changes such as deforestation, shrinking of lakes, and urban growth using current and historical satellite data.

Lessons Learned:

Those who read this Atlas and reflect upon its images will gain a deeper understanding of environmental impacts upon Africa’s people, land, plants, animals, air and waters. The pace and scale of change are hard to ignore. The Atlas also contains a few signs of improvement in our ability to protect against and even reverse environmental degradation. As shown throughout, there are inspiring photos of places where people have taken action – where there are more trees than thirty years ago, where wetlands have sprung back, and where land degradation has been reversed.

Summary:

Key results: The observations and measurements of environmental change illustrated in the Atlas help gauge the extent of progress made by African countries on important environmental challenges. More importantly, this book contributes to the knowledge and understanding that are essential for adaptation and remediation.

Rapid and dramatic transformations are taking place on the land and water that sustain Africa’s people, including land degradation and desertification, water stress, declining biodiversity, deforestation, increasing dust storms, rising pollution and rapid urbanization. Many environmental issues in Africa occur on large geographic scales, involving shared lands and waters, migrating animals and people, and air pollutants that drift over borders of neighboring countries.

Next Steps: The publication will be released in English and French in June 2008 at the meeting of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in South Africa. In addition to paper publication, the Atlas materials will be provided as free downloads through a dedicated web site and release on Google Earth. A number of capacity building workshops and outreach events are being planned.