The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) had faulted a British Newspaper report that Nigerian government committed war crimes by terrorising some of its citizens in the war against insurgency.
This is contained in a statement posted on the Defence Headquarters official website www.defence info.mil.ng on Tuesday in Abuja.
“The report credited to the British Newspaper, Daily Independent, UK, in which it claimed that Nigerian government `committed war crimes by terrorising some of its citizens in the war against insurgency’.
“Is to say the least, unduly judgmental and quite consistent with the disdain and bias with which a section of the western media reports Africa,’’ it said.
The statement said that the newspaper did not lay claim to any sense of professionalism in coming out with that grossly unsubstantiated and bogus allegation against the Nigerian government.
“ No credible independent source or government official was contacted to ascertain the veracity of those wild claims yet the sanctimonious and all-knowing newspaper could not exercise any restraint to be sure of its story.
“Is it not preposterous to even suggest that `4000 people have died in military custody…’ when it is on record that suspected terrorists are held in various facilities while being processed for prosecution?
“At what point then did 4000 people die in military custody?
“This ludicrous report did not come as a surprise to anybody since this biased mindset against Nigerian government has always characterised this newspaper even before the commencement of the ongoing counter-terrorist operation,’’ it emphasised.
The statement said that the newspaper and its ilk should be reminded that the Nigerian military and by extension the government cannot be intimidated by this patterned bias and supremacist mindset in reporting Africa.
It said having adopted this kind of judgmental posture, “we will not be surprised by any phantom video they will release to support their wild claim.
“We therefore urge the general public to discountenance this obviously jaundiced report or whatever phantom video as it is all aimed at tarnishing the image of Nigerian military.
“The preposterous interrogative posture of Daily Independent since the inception of the war on terror in Nigeria clearly questions the integrity of the said documentary.
“And is therefore an indication of frantic effort at tarnishing the Nigerian military and ultimately the Nigerian nation.
“The so called documentary should therefore be taken with a pinch of the salt,’’ it advised.
The Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) on Monday said it spent over N4 billion yearly to run its operations of providing potable water to houses in the state.
The Group Managing Director of (LSWC), Mr Shayo Holloway, who made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said that making water potable was expensive.
According to him, if you imagine what goes into producing water, it is painful to see water leakages all over, especially with the corporation’s flat billing system because the property are not metered.
“That is why we want to meter property so that everybody will feel the need to conserve water.
“A lot of money is being wasted through water wastage and we are doing everything to correct that.
“We are working with the private sector in ensuring massive reduction in water wastage in the state.
“We have started installing meters in homes. As at today, we have installed about 4, 000 meters comprising 3, 000 in Ikeja and 1, 000 in Lekki and we are installing more.
“Our long term goal is to have every home metered,’’ he said.
According to him, metering allows the consumer to know what he is consuming and to pay for water consumed.
Holloway said metering would reduce wastage as a lot of water was being lost within houses from leaking tanks and Water Closets that people did not border to quickly rectify.
“But when there is a meter it will read all those leakages and that will make people to be more proactive towards addressing leakages within their households.
“So, what that means is that we will then have more water available for more people.
“They meters are working and will work even more in multi-tenement buildings,” he said.
Holloway said that because each property was supplied by one service connection, that service connection would be metered.
He said that it was for the occupants of multi-tenement buildings to resolve how they would pay for water consumed. (NAN)
Minister of Water Resources Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has attributed the slow pace of agricultural development in Africa to poor implementation of policies.
The FAO Representative to Nigeria, Mrs Louise Setshwaelo, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
Setshwaelo, said that the continent did not lack of good policies to promote agriculture, “but the will power to implement those policies’’.
She said that better implementation of policies was one of the areas FAO was collaborating with various governments in Africa to address malnutrition in the continent.
“We develop a lot of policies in Africa and honestly what I can say is that most African countries have good policies.
“What is lacking is implementation of those good policies and I think the political will has to be there,’’ she said.
The FAO representative also stressed the need to strengthen infrastructure to support agriculture in Africa, adding that irrigation was most under-utilised in the continent.
She urged African governments to ensure that investments in the agricultural sector were sustainable.
Setshwaelo said that increased access to land, credit and capacity building would further encourage the participation of youths and women in agriculture.
“We have women who make up to 50 per cent of the agriculture labour; women who are farmers themselves.
“Women actually have very limited access to resources, first is the issue of land and secondly is the issue of credit, they are the least people who are able to access these resources they need for production,’’ she said.
She urged youths to avail themselves of the opportunities in agriculture to become actively involved in developing the sector.
The FAO representative said there was need to build the capacity of young people to add value to the value chain.
“We need to build the capacity of not only the older population but also to encourage young people.
“It is not just about production, they can also be service providers, they can also be input providers, marketers and they add value to every knot of the value chain they can go into.’’
According to her, if agriculture receives improved participation of youths and women, it will reduce post harvest losses recorded in the sector.
“Because if you are producing little and 30 per cent of that is lost as post harvest losses, the chances of really reducing hunger also go down,’’ she said. (NAN)
The third feature in the series lays emphasis on the fact that climate change poses challenges to growth and development in Africa
The emissions already in the atmosphere, together with the greenhouse gases that will be emitted in the future, mean that the climate will continue to change. These changes in climate will create new risks and will amplify existing risks for natural and human systems. The IPCC report finds that for the remainder of this century, climate change will pose further challenges to food security, livelihoods, health and wellbeing.
A man walks over an irrigation channel in East Africa. Photo: Courtesy Neil Palmer/CIAT
During this century, temperatures in the African continent are likely to rise more quickly than in other land areas, particularly in more arid regions. Under a high-emissions scenario, average temperatures will rise more than 2°C, the threshold set in current international agreements, over most of the continent by the middle of the 21st century.
Average temperatures will rise by more than 4°C across most areas in the late 21st century. Changes in average temperature are projected to be greater over northern and southern Africa and relatively smaller over central Africa.
Under a low-emissions scenario, average temperature rises across Africa are projected to be less than 2°C over the course of the century. Projections for rainfall are less certain than projections for temperature. Most areas of the African continent do not show changes in average yearly rainfall under low-emissions scenarios. However, projections do show a very likely decrease in average yearly rainfall over areas of southern Africa beginning in the mid-21st century, and expanding substantially by the late 21st century, under a high-emissions scenario. In contrast, likely increases in average yearly rainfall are projected over areas of central and eastern Africa beginning in the mid-21st century for the same high-emissions scenario.
As climate change impacts become more dramatic, their effect on a range of climate extremes in Africa, including heavy rainfall, heat waves and drought, will become increasingly important55 and will play a more significant role in disaster impacts. There will be a likely increase in the frequency of hot days across the Sahara and parts of west, east and southern Africa.56 Eastern and southeastern Africa will likely experience more heavy rainfall, with more extreme wet days by the mid-21st century and greater potential for intense flooding, partially driven by possible changes in landfall of cyclones originating in the Indian Ocean. Global mean sea level will continue to rise during the 21st century under all emissions scenarios, by a magnitude that poses significant risks for Africa’s coastal settlements, as well as for coastal economies, cultures and ecosystems.
Sub-Saharan Africa is a rapidly developing region with a population of about 900 million, and wide ecological, climatic and cultural diversity. At present, six of the t0 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. Growth in these economies started from a relatively low base so the current rate of economic growth needs to be seen against a background of three decades of poor development performance, conflict and economic marginalisation. Some of these problems remain. However, there are hopeful signs that a number of countries are turning a corner – for the better.
It is critical to recognise that Africa’s growth is fragile. Real economic transformation has yet to take root. Part of Africa’s vulnerability lies in the fact that recent development gains have been in climate-sensitive sectors. Economically, many Africans depend for food, fibre and income on primary sectors such as agriculture and fisheries, sectors which are affected by rising temperatures, rising sea levels and erratic rainfall. Demographic and economic trends in Africa mean that climate impacts will be acute. For example, growing populations will increase the demand for water and food but prolonged droughts will put additional pressure on already scarce water resources and will reduce crop yields.
Already the region suffers from widespread, recurring risks to food production. Without adequate measures to adapt, these risks could become more intense under a changing climate. For scenarios approaching 4°C warming, the risk to food security in Africa could be very severe, and there would be limited potential for reducing risk through adaptation. The IPCC points out that some of the major crops in Africa are highly sensitive to changes in temperature. For example, climate change is very likely to have an overall negative effect on yields of major cereal crops across Africa, though with strong regional variability in the degree of loss. Estimated yield losses at mid-century range from 18% for southern Africa to 22% aggregated across sub-Saharan Africa, with yield losses for South Africa and Zimbabwe in excess of 30%.
Three rural communities in North Central Nigeria are beneficiaries to a scheme designed to give countryside folks access to sustainable energy and boost their standard of living.
On-grid and off-grid villages in Upper Uke, Lower Uke and Roguwa in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State are to be fitted and retrofitted under a pilot arrangement being promoted courtesy of a collaboration involving the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and National Orientation Agency (NOA).
From right: Local chief at Roguwa, Dr Akindeji Falaki of the National Orientation Agency (NOA and Etiosa Uyigue of the GEF-UNDP Energy Efficiency Programme, during the Inception workshop
On the heels of a training session at the Upper and Lower Uke communities held a week ago came a daylong sensitisation/inception workshop last Thursday at Roguwa, a village completely off the national electricity grid so that villagers rely on kerosene lamp petrol generators.
Hence, Roguwa will be fitted with solar panels to generate electricity and a mini-grid of overhead insulated cables to distribute the power to about 75 homes, each installed with an eight-hour backup battery. The conventional water pump in the neighbourhood will be replaced with a solar pump to power the community’s borehole.
Roguwa will be fitted entirely with the energy efficient light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. Installation is expected to begin in a couple of weeks’ time and span about a month. Community members chosen to maintain the equipment will undergo training while installation is ongoing. The project is estimated to gulp N10 million.
At Lower and Upper Uke, which are on-grid, a total of 400 houses (200 in each community) will each get five compact florescent lamps in replacement of existing incandescent bulbs. While the community health centre there will be fitted with a solar panel to generate power to light up the facility and power the refrigerator, solar panel will likewise be installed in a school at Lower Uke to power the lighting system. Similarly, a water pump in a borehole will be powered with a newly installed solar power generating system. The project cost is about N11 million.
The Uke communities make up the Uke Kingdom with a combined population of about 10,000, who are predominantly farmers. They have nine districts and five village areas.
Etiosa Uyigue, National Coordinator of the GEF-UNDP Energy Efficiency Programme, under which capacity the project is being executed, disclosed that, in each of the benefitting community, a Local Energy Regulatory Community (LERC) would be set up with consideration for gender balance.
Uyigue
He said: “The community leadership will be allowed to nominate those that will serve in the committee. LERC members will be given additional training on the maintenance and installation of the systems.
“In Upper and Lower Uke communities, with agreement from community leadership, the LERC members will put in place mechanism that will ensure that users of the proposed water borehole will pay a token for the service. Resources from the process can then be used to maintain the facility.
“In Roguwa Community, a metering device called ‘Current Limiter’ will be installed in each benefiting household. This is to ensure that community members pay for the electricity used/consumed and also prevents them from drawing current more than what has been allocated to each household. LERC members in the community will be responsible for managing the facility and managing the resources from the sale of the electricity on behalf of the community.”
According to him, the use of sustainable energy products have the potential to increase income into rural communities, cut greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate the general growth of the Nigerian economy.
“In this way, the much-needed income, skill transfer and manufacturing opportunities for small businesses would be injected into rural communities,” he added.
During the inception workshop, Dr Akindeji Falaki, Team Leader, Climate Change & Environmental Programme at the NOA, told the villagers that the project is being executed in partnership with them.
His words: “When we go, we will leave behind the things we are putting in place. Let us work together to use them well for the benefit of all. We are very happy to be here.
David Kusimo addressing the gathering
David Kusimo of the GEF Office in the Federal Ministry of Environment said the project is in line with Federal Government’s Vision 20/2020 and Transformation Agenda, which promote environment and efficient energy use. According to him, government is committed to providing green energy, and how to manage the environment in a sustainable manner.
“The project will enhance development in your community,” he declared, urging them to utilise the opportunity to better their lives by setting up small businesses and creating jobs.
The second part of the serial highlights the IPCC’s notion that, regardless of action taken now to reduce emissions, the climate will change until around the middle of this century
Regardless of future emissions, we are already committed to further warming, largely due to past emissions and inertia in the climate system. Globally, most greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities have come from just a few countries. Total emissions since 1970 have continued to rise, and emissions between 2000 and 2010 have been the highest yet.
Figure 1: Global impacts for different emissions scenarios
The IPCC warns that if global society continues to emit greenhouse gases at current rates, the average global temperature could rise by 2.6–4.8°C by 2100 (according to the IPCC’s highest emissions scenario).
The figure illustrates projected warming under a low-emissions scenario, a high-emissions scenario and two mid-range scenarios, and the temperature changes associated with each. Whether global society continues to emit greenhouse gases at today’s rate, or cuts greenhouse gas emissions sharply now, does not make a big difference in terms of climate impacts in the next few decades.
Curbing emissions to maintain global temperatures below 2°C would need urgent action at global level. However, the benefits to the global climate – and societies and ecosystems that depend on it – will only emerge in the latter half of the century. The IPCC lists the many reasons why mitigation action must start now and the kinds of immediate benefits it can deliver (see page 20). In contrast, taking action on adaptation today delivers many immediate benefits. But, there are limits to adaptation. For this reason, both adaptation and mitigation are needed; they each deliver benefits but over different timeframes.
In assessing future climate change, the Fifth Assessment Report presents four scenarios, known as Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The scenarios show the result of different levels of emissions of greenhouse gases, from the present day to 2100, on global warming. IPCC does not indicate which policy and behavioural choices society could make that would lead to the scenarios.
In all scenarios, carbon dioxide concentrations are higher in 2100 than they are today. The low-emissions scenario assumes substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The high-emissions scenario assumes continued high emissions. The two intermediate scenarios assume some stabilisation in emissions.
In the next few decades, warming will be the same in all scenarios. Regardless of action taken now to reduce emissions, the climate will change until around the middle of this century. In the longer term, in all except the low-emissions scenario, global warming at the end of the 21st century is likely to be at least 1.5°C.In the two higher emissions scenarios, global warming is likely to be 2°C. In the second lowest emissions scenario, global warming is more likely than not to be 2°C. Warming will continue beyond 2100 under all emissions scenarios except the lowest and will continue to vary between years and between decades.
Environmentalists are seeking the establishment of a legal framework that supports the mainstreaming of climate change scenario into states’ development plans and strategies. They believe that this will go a long way towards curbing how the phenomenon impacts the various sectors of the economy.
Dr Samuel Adejuwon, Director, Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment
According to them, adaptation policies need to be an integral part of government initiatives, given the cross-cutting nature of the impact of climate change. They agreed that planning and budget ministries of government should embark on human capacity and infrastructure building for all aspects of mainstreaming climate change.
The submissions were part of a communiqué issued after a two-day training workshop of State Planners/Budget Officers on Mainstreaming Climate Change into Planning Process in the South-South geo-political zone held recently in Calabar, Cross River State. The forum held at the instance of the Department of Climate Change of the Federal Ministry of Environment and National Planning Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and facilitated by the Economic Policy Analysis Centre (EPAC).
Participants agreed that funding mechanism and institutional framework are weak and there is need for establishment of a coordinating institution or commission to oversee the mainstreaming of climate change into development activities at the national level.
The stakeholders also recommended that appropriate methods should be deployed for development of functional and sustainable database to support climate change mainstreaming. A system of dissemination of climate change data should also be put in place, they added.
They noted that an elaborate advocacy and awareness programme on climate change should be embarked upon, using electronic and print media, advocacy workshops, town criers, grassroots information translated into local languages, and interfacing with school curricula.
The participants urged government to promote clean development mechanism, activities that will enhance renewable energy and efficiency through incentives in solar and wind energy development. They called on government to develop, access and deploy appropriate technologies for sustainable waste management practices.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, Rabi Jimeta, who was represented by the Director, Climate Change Department of the Ministry, Samuel Adejuwon, said that funding for climate change activities could be leveraged nationally from both federal and state governments to argument pockets of resources available internationally. Hence, the need to ensure better understanding and implementation of the various budgetary and planning instruments that are available to address the risks related to impacts of climate change and the sustainable development implications.
She noted that the country has some peculiar characteristics, making it vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. For instance, the country’s geographical area of approximately 924,000 square kilometres spreading across different ecological zones has made a shift in climate more noticeable in Nigeria than any other African country south of Sahara.
Her words: “This, invariably, is leading to the rapid Southern expansion of the Sahara Desert with associated water stress and the increased incidences of drought and desertification and aggravated decline in arable land and the consequent low agricultural yields in the country.
“On the other hand, the coastal region of the southern part of the country has been under consistent threatening by marine transgression and coastal erosion in the southern part of the country. The zone stretching about 853 kilometers along the Atlantic Ocean houses more than 50 million Nigerians and large economic infrastructure, especially oil and gas facilities critical to the country’s economy.”
She called for firm checks on the use of resources particularly land to prevent imminent land crisis, especially for agriculture.
“The population is growing very fast with concomitant demand for resources in the environment. These have implications on the physical environment as the desert is vastly encroaching in the north and erosion is becoming aggravated in the south due to climate change phenomenon. It is important that the country addresses all of these through national implementation of climate change activities to assist it in the fulfilment of its commitment under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Minister/Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission (NPC), Suleiman Olarenwaju Abubakar, made a case for the development of new policy strategies to mitigate challenges associated with climate change to meet commitments to the provisions of the Kyoto Protocols, especially as it relates to adaptation and mitigation measures.
Represented by the Acting Director, Youth Development, Falilat Abdul-Raheem, he said that the government has concluded the development of national infrastructure master plan to provide a coordinated road map for the climate change resilient infrastructure. He also disclosed that the government has undertaken the review of the performance of the first National Implementation Plan (NIP) of the Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and is determined to jointly develop strategies that will further strengthen the second national implementation plan taking into consideration climate change related issues.
The EPAC, represented by Segun Ojebiyi who set the tone of the workshop, said the aim is to provide advocacy on the imperatives of mainstreaming climate change into South-South states’ development plans.
The programme was expected to provide practical guide to policy makers and climate change champions, especially the planning/budget offices and non- state actors on the need to mainstream climate change into development plans and strategies as part of overarching measures to deal with impending threats of climate changes in Nigeria.
The event was attended by about 41 participants, which included representatives of state planning and budget offices and non-state actors.
The Federal Government has signed an agreement with United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) that aims at promoting urban youth empowerment and safer cities.
The deal is coming on the heels of an earlier commitment by the government through the contribution of $3 million aimed at research and strengthening UN-Habitat’s engagement with Habitat Agenda Partners and other non-governmental actors across sub-Saharan Africa. Another $2 million from the Ondo State Government will be used to prepare a range of programmes including youth empowerment schemes, slum upgrading, local economic enterprises, and land reform in the state.
Kacyira. Photo: Flickr.com
Minister of Youth Development, Boni Haruna, and UN-Habitat’s Deputy Executive Director, Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, signed the new agreement recently at the UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi.
The pact also sought to renew Nigeria’s commitment in line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with UN-Habitat in 2010 which covered youth empowerment, safer cities and good governance.
Specifically, the two officials signed a contribution agreement worth $1 million, which will mainly focus on: developing and producing the Nigeria State of Urban Youth report 2015-2016; establishing the Junior Professional Programme to engage young Nigerians to perform services for UN-Habitat and the Government of Nigeria and training of trainers for the existing youth centres managers across Nigeria.
The agreement further aims at developing a framework for the Nigeria Ministry of Youth Development to upgrade its existing youth centres to the model of UN-Habitat One Stop Youth Centres as well as establishing a joint UN-Habitat/Federal Ministry of Youth Development monitoring and evaluation mechanism of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
UN-Habitat and the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Youth Development signed a MoU in 2010 under which the two parties agreed to jointly carry out activities that would promote youth empowerment in Nigeria. Part of the activities jointly carried out was the first UN-Habitat African Urban Youth Assembly that took place in 2011.
One of the key outcomes of the African Urban Youth Assembly was the adoption of the UN-Habitat One Stop Youth Centre model, which is currently being implemented in Ondo and Zamfara states of Nigeria.
Chief Scientific Advisor, Prof Oyebanji Oyeyinka, who also doubles as the lead author of the State of Urban Youth Report, introduced the programmes that now take on board activities related to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nigeria.
Speaking at the event, Haruna said the Nigerian government was embarking on a deliberate policy to focus on youth development adding that it was imperative that any development agenda incorporates the youth.
“Nigeria is a country with a population of 170 million and 60 percent of this population is made up of the youth. Youth development is therefore a core component of our national development,” he said, adding that the Cooperative Agreement was a crucial link in achieving youth development in his country.
On her part Kacyira welcomed the partnership, adding that Nigeria had shown strong leadership on the continent in human settlement issues. “This has seen the country play a big role in the New African Urban Agenda,” she said.
The Deputy Executive Director said that she had met with several Nigerian cabinet ministers and governors when she visited the country and had met strong support for UN-Habitat’s work.
“UN-Habitat has the intellectual capacity to drive the youth agenda. It is also our belief that empowering the youth would be one of the ways of dealing with the Boko Haram menace Nigeria is currently grappling with,” she said.
The National Conference, which began on March 17, came to an end on Thursday morning.
The series of meetings the Confab chairman, Idris Kutigi, held with zonal leaders on Wednesday paid off as the delegates agreed on a position on the controversial draft constitution.
The confab ended with a minor amendment to the third volume of the confab report by replacing the draft constitution to read “Resolutions of the conference as draft amendments to 1999 constitution.”
The amendments to the third volume was moved by Maina Waziri.
Richard Akinjide moved the motion for the adoption of the confab report. The motion was seconded by Yadomah Mandara.
In this first of a nine-part serial, EnviroNews Nigeria examines the implications of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the African continent
The Fifth Assessment Report presents strong evidence that warming over land across Africa has increased over the last 50 to 100 years. This warming trend is very likely to continue. Surface temperatures have already increased by 0.5–2°C over the past hundred years (Figure 1). However, as shown by the white space covering much of the map in Figure 1, over large areas of Africa there is not enough historical data to show observed trends. The absence of this data is problematic. Planners have to deal with considerable uncertainty about future conditions.
Figure 1: Change in annual average temperature in Africa (1901-2012), and Figure 2: Change in annual average rainfall (1951-2012)
Investment in strengthening climate services – such as climate monitoring and national meteorological agencies – is assumed to be money well spent.
Most areas of Africa lack sufficient data to draw conclusions about trends in annual rainfall over the past century. But where data is available, these indicate that rainfall patterns are changing. A very likely decrease in average annual rainfall has occurred in some parts of western Africa, with an observed drop in average annual rainfall of approximately 25–50 mm each decade from 1951–2010.18 Some parts of southern and eastern Africa have very likely experienced increases in average annual rainfall of 5–50 mm each decade (Figure 2). However, rainfall trends in eastern Africa vary greatly over time and location. Some assessments suggest that wet seasons will be more intense and droughts less severe over eastern Africa by the end of the century, which indicates a reversal of the observed increase in droughts and heavy rainfall during the past 30 to 60 years.
The implication of the changing rainfall trends is that it will become increasingly important to put adaptation measures in place to manage and reduce the risks of changing rainfall on productive systems such as agriculture and forestry – and to build resilience.
Even today, climatic risks threaten lives and prosperity across many parts of Africa and there are clear signs that the impacts of climate change are already being felt. The health, livelihoods and food security of people in Africa have been affected by climate change. There is evidence that temperature changes have played a role in the increased incidence of malaria in parts of eastern Africa, and have already driven changes in the practices of South African farmers. Production of wheat and maize in parts of Africa has been impacted by climate change, as has the productivity of fisheries of the Great Lakes and Lake Kariba and fruit-bearing trees in the Sahel.
The impacts from recent weather-related extremes, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones and wildfires, reveal the exposure and vulnerability of some African people and economies to climate. Following droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, recurrent droughts and floods affected the Sahel in the 1990s and 2000s, often destroying crops and compounding food security problems. Floods in the Zambezi River Valley displaced 90,000 Mozambicans in 2008, some permanently. The experiences of extreme weather events in different parts of Africa highlight the risks to human wellbeing. The Fifth Assessment Report expects such events to become more frequent and more intense as the climate changes, though with large regional variations and differing degrees of confidence depending on the type of climate event. The economic losses due to extreme weather events are also rising with the increasing frequency of events and increasing exposure of assets.
The impacts of recent extreme weather events also demonstrate the vulnerability of some African ecosystems. The geographic range, seasonal activities and migration patterns of many terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have shifted in response to ongoing climate change. The abundance of species has changed, as have interactions among species. The pace of change has been rapid. Climate change has already led to changes in freshwater and marine ecosystems in eastern and southern Africa, and terrestrial ecosystems in southern and western Africa.
