Temperatures here are much colder than the surrounding lowlands. Precipitation depends on the orientation of the mountain in relation to moisture-bearing winds. Important highland crops include alfalfa, potatoes, and wheat. Forestry and Fishing Forestry , the management of trees and other vegetation in forests, is an important economic activity in Africa.
In central and western Africa, where forest cover is heaviest, the forest sector contributes more than 60 percent of GDP. The export of forest products, especially high-grade woods like mahogany and okoume, brings in significant revenue. Okoume, for example, accounts for 90 percent of the trees logged in Gabon. These woods are generally exported to Japan, Israel, and the European Union. Mahogany and okoume are used to make everything from homes to musical instruments to lightweight aircraft.
Many species of both mahogany and okoume are endanger ed. Experts argue that overharvesting will eventually destroy forest habitat s. Saplings planted to replace the logged trees do not grow fast enough to be harvested on a regular basis, and the rain forest habitat in which these trees thrive is being destroyed for agriculture and development.
Today, Africa is torn between developing its forests to their fullest economic potential and protecting these natural landscape s from over-development. The commission created the Sangha Tri-National Landscape, a reserve that covers more than 1 million hectares 2. Africa has fisheries on all its marine coasts, as well as inland. The Great Lakes and Nile River, for instance, support huge freshwater fisheries. Marine fisheries are important to many coastal countries in Africa.
West Africa is one of the most economically important fishing zones in the world, producing 4. Namibia and South Africa are also major players in the marine fish market, exporting between 80 and 90 percent of their fish annually.
Small fish such as herring and sardines are the most common catch on the African coastline. However, larger fish, such as tuna, cod, hake, and haddock, are the most profitable. As a result, in the past century, fish stock s have declined by up to half in some coastal zones.
PAF will focus on stricter regulation s and environmental management. These processes will increase fishery revenue and promote the sustainable use of marine and inland fish resources. Mining and Drilling Africa is a major producer of important metal s and mineral s. Metals exported by African countries include uranium, used to produce nuclear energy ; platinum, used in jewelry and industrial applications; nickel, used in stainless steel , magnets, coins, and rechargeable batteries; bauxite, a main aluminum ore ; and cobalt, used in color pigments.
Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and Tanzania are other major producers of gold. Africa dominates the global diamond market. Unfortunately, several African conflicts and civil war s have been caused and funded by the diamond industry. Diamonds that come from these regions are known as conflict diamond s or blood diamonds.
The KPCS also aims to prevent diamond sales from financing wars. Countries that do not meet KPCS requirements are not allowed to trade with much of the rest of the world. Africa is home to select deposits of oil and natural gas , which are drilled for energy and fuel. In , the continent produced Oil exploration has significantly increased on the continent, and many countries are looking to become first-time producers.
Oil and natural gas production have also been connected to civil conflict. In Nigeria, guerrilla groups have attacked oil infrastructure and stolen oil from pipelines since the early s. These groups, primarily ethnic minorities, say foreign oil companies have exploited their labor while keeping most of the wealth. They also charge that out-of-date equipment has severely polluted air, soil, and water resources. This pollution has lead to losses in arable land and fish stocks.
However, the severe actions of these guerrilla groups have also increased pollution as they have damaged equipment. The attacks have also reduced production and local income, as many companies are forced to shut down.
The largest engineering projects and urban area s are directly linked to the production and trade of resources such as water, oil, and minerals. Africa is home to a number of engineering marvels. The Aswan High Dam, the newer and larger of the two dams, produces more than 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year, enough power for about 15 percent of the country. The Aswan Dam complex regulates the flooding of the Nile and stores water for agriculture. While farmland has increased by percent as a result of the dam, land fertility has decreased.
Nutrient -rich silt is unable to spread over the Nile valley because it is trapped in Lake Nasser. The mine is made up of eight shafts that reach depths of up to 3, meters 11, feet underground. One of the shafts is in the process of being deepened to about 4, meters 13, feet , making it the deepest mine in the world. It rises inland from narrow lowlands along the coast. Except for the coasts of Mozambique and Somalia , much of the continent lies at least 1, feet above sea level.
This plateau is Africa's most prominent physical feature. Throughout this plateau lie several huge basins , or depressions, which you'll notice on the map on the right. Each basin spans more than miles across and is as much as 5, feet deep. The world's longest river, the Nile River , flows more than 4, miles through Uganda and Sudan and into Egypt.
Its waters have provided irrigation for the region for thousands of years. More than 95 percent of Egyptians depend on the Nile for their water. In fact, the average population density along the Nile is more than 3, people per square mile. Compare that to the average population density of people per square mile in all of Egypt. Africa's rivers contain many waterfalls, rapids, and gorges. These features make the rivers less useful for transportation than shorter rivers on other continents.
The 2,mile-long Congo River forms the continent's largest network of waterways. But a series of 32 cataracts, or waterfalls, makes large portions of that river impassable. Furthermore, meandering courses also make Africa's rivers difficult to use for transportation. For example, the Niger River begins in West Africa and flows north toward the Sahara , where it forms an interior delta and turns to the southeast.
It then cuts through Nigeria and forms another huge delta as it empties into the Gulf of Guinea. Africa does not have a long chain of mountains, such as the Rocky Mountains in North America or the Himalayas in Asia. However, Africa's valleys and lakes add to the continent's varied landscape.
The continent's most distinctive landforms are in East Africa. As the continental plates pulled apart over millions of years, huge cracks appeared in the earth.
The land then sank to form long, thin valleys—called rift valleys. The rift valleys, which you can see on the map on page , show that the eastern part of Africa is pulling away from the rest of Africa. A cluster of lakes formed at the bottoms of some of these rift valleys.
These African lakes are unusually long and deep. Lake Tanganyika, the longest freshwater lake in the world, stretches about miles and reaches a depth of more than 4, feet. One of the main concerns is that the scramble for Africa is fuelling corruption, environmental degradation and internal dissent. Salil Tripathi, senior policy adviser at peacebuilding NGO International Alert, says: "Unless properly managed, the windfall gains from resource extraction cause more problems.
It reduces a state's incentive to impose a free and just taxation system, and encourages corruption and acquisition of weaponry. Those problems include human rights abuses, which the great powers scrambling for African resources seem happy to tolerate. In Equatorial Guinea - where US companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron are active - president Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been heavily criticised over torture, electoral fraud and corruption. Despite this, he was welcomed at the US State Department by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in April last year and described as a "good friend".
China is also willing to work with repressive regimes, particularly Zimbabwe and Sudan. Its support, including arms sales, to the repressive regime in Khartoum, has come under the spotlight.
The environmental impact is also alarming. The clearing of forests for timber exports increases vulnerability to erosion, river silting, landslides, flooding and loss of habitat for plant and animal species. Gas flaring from oil production, where unusable waste gas is burned off, pumps large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
It is estimated that flaring in the Niger delta emits 70m tonnes of CO2 a year. To put this into context, Sweden emitted These flares have contributed more greenhouse gases than all of sub-Saharan Africa combined, according to the World Bank.
The environmental and social impact of extractive industries is already acknowledged as a key factor in conflicts in Sudan and Nigeria. Such moves are welcome, says Wykes, but they are voluntary codes of conduct, and many companies and countries have not signed up to them - notably China. Charities and NGOs working on the issue believe that even governments that are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD are reluctant to investigate allegations against western companies of corruption or complicity in human rights abuses.
What is needed, says Tripathi, are more effective regulatory mechanisms. So far, there's not much evidence that it is taking place - so this century's scramble for Africa could be as undignified, and as deadly, as the last.
Exports to southern European countries still dominate, but China is the principal destination for timber from east Africa, most notably Mozambique. The exploitation of timber resources in Liberia was a key source of funding in its civil war. Nigeria is the largest producer in Africa and 11th in the world. Angola is the second-largest, with production expected to reach 2m barrels per day by Sudanese production and export has risen rapidly in the past few years despite internal unrest in Darfur, although output dropped back a little last year.
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