Environmental Awareness As A Panacea For Sustainable ...

Environmental Awareness As A Panacea For Sustainable
environmental management in Africa
Presenting Author EMMANUEL EKPENYONG -
emmanuel.ekpenyong@shell.com
Introduction:
Environmental awareness is knowledge leading to concern for
the conservation and improvement of the environment. Awareness of
environmental sustainability issues is considered very low in
sub-Sahara Africa compared to other social phenomenon such as
conflict, corruption and food security. Sustainable environmental
management is not possible without participation by the people.
Meaningful participation requires that people be informed about
the environmental effects of their day-to-day activities.
It is paradoxical that the worst environmental challenges
in the world - environmental degradation, disruption of rural
livelihoods and environmental conflict are manifest in several
part of Africa yet, the population and national leadership
across the continent are least informed about environmental
sustainability issues. It was highlighted that African
leaders/negotiators had limited understanding of the issues and
processes involved in the Kyoto protocol and therefore could not
make meaningful contribution to the negotiations (Daily
observer, 2009). If policy leaders are less informed of
environmental issues and its impact on development, it becomes
more glaring that there is a significant gap in the level of
environmental awareness across Africa.
'IAIA09 Conference Proceedings', Impact Assessment and Human Well-Being
29th Annual Conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment,
16-22 May 2009, Accra International Conference Center, Accra, Ghana (www.iaia.org)

Factors contributing to low environmental awareness in Africa
Illiteracy and poverty is pervasive in Africa and this
meant that poor families are more concerned about daily survival
than keeping an eye on environmental issues. Poverty in Africa
is partly a product of years of environmental degradation and
un-sustainable agricultural practices such as bush burning.
Globalization and rapid industrialization of the last two
decades in Africa, especially the phenomenal growth of the
extractive industry brought with it attendant environmental
challenges which compromised the welfare of resource-poor farm
families.
Large part of the continent is classified as countries with
low human development (UNDP, 2008), the population is daily
fixated on how to put food on the table rather than bother with
the niceties of environmental sustainability. This low interest
and awareness directly leads to more reckless environmental
problems, which in turn breed poverty in a vicious cycle that is
self-sustaining.
Furthermore, education in the continent is still very low
due to inadequate infrastructure, and manpower as well as under
funding of the education sector. Due to limited number
educational facilities, there is a relative low access to
education, especially for women in the region
A population with low educational opportunities does not
allow for rapid dissemination and assimilation of current
information necessary for their survival
There is also an observed weakness of regulatory framework
in Africa. There is hardly any clarity when it comes to relevant
environmental legislations and policies in Africa. Very often,
provisions in the legislation conflict such that it becomes
difficult to implement practically. Therefore, to publicize what

is not clear is tasking even to the literate talk less of people
who cannot read or write.
Moreover, most governmental agencies charged with the
administration of environmental regulations are not well
resourced (material and men) to conduct significant awareness
campaign. This has in no small way contributed to low awareness
of an African on issues bordering on sustainability.
There is also a near-absence of reputable professional
bodies and environmental rights groups. In other field of
endeavors such as human rights activism, there is an avalanche
of well-organised professional groups that orchestrate issues of
concern to them. Such cannot be said of environment profession,
where there is not enough well organised association.
Impact of low environmental awareness
Lack of environmental awareness has resulted in insufficient
pressure on government and regulatory agencies on one hand and
corporate organizations whose activities impact the environment
on the other. It takes someone that appreciates the impact of an
activity or policy on the environment to make a proper complain
to relevant authorities. It is in this light that one can
understand reasons why Africa environment continues to be
degraded without any significant complain by the populace. In
some instances, some Africans have been known to unwittingly
undertake activities that are injurious to the environment.
Example is the case where Green Peace tracked the export of
electronic waste from the United Kingdom (disused and expired
computers), into Africa, namely Nigeria and Ghana, from where
they are broken into parts only for these parts to be sold to
others who use them for various product (Green Peace, 2009).
All this happen in the open in Africa and nobody bothered not
because they don’t care, but because they don’t appreciate its
impact on the environment and their life. It also inhibits rapid

and appropriate development of environmental regulations. It
takes an articulate population to push and ensure revision and
updating of regulations that relate as new information becomes
available.
Christian Aid has taken this work further to project how many
people might die from disease associated with climate change by
the end of the century in sub-Saharan Africa – an estimated 182
million people. (Christian Aid)
This manifests in poor enforcement of environmental standards,
complacency of businesses in environmental performance and
unacceptable environmental practices and wrong expectations from
corporate bodies and government by members of society sometimes
leading to unpleasant outcomes.
Policy options for combating low awareness
Government, environmental practitioners and environmental rights
groups must make deliberate efforts to create awareness of
environmental sustainability issues among Africans to make
businesses and regulatory agencies become more accountable.
Effective mechanisms proposed for raising environmental
awareness include the following.
Government must take immediate steps to integrate issue of
global environmental dilemma into high school curriculum, and as
part of general education course in all higher institutions.
There must be deliberate efforts to train and re-train all
school teachers on basic environmental awareness as they occupy
sensitive position with respect to raising environmental
awareness in the populace.
It has been demonstrated in the developed countries that
increase environmental education and awareness result in better
appreciation and management of environmental. In Tapajos River

Basin in the Brazilian Amazon, A group of educators provided
support to miners, training 4200 people in 141 mining locations
on use of cleaner technologies and increased awareness The
effectiveness of this training was evaluated based on 20
performance indicators. After 120 days of training, an absolute
improvement of approximately 29% had been achieved (Rodolfo N.
Sousa and Marcello M. Veiga)
Strengthening professional bodies to enhance professionalism
among environment practitioners in Africa. Efforts must
intensify in empowering environmental groups/associations across
Africa to enable them raise awareness on current global
environmental issues and its potential impacts in Africa.
Government must partner with professional association in the
areas of training and retraining of teachers and raising
awareness among the general populace.
It is proposed here that regional environmental network should
be inaugurated immediately for knowledge sharing among
practitioners. Membership should be drawn from all professional
associations and environmental right groups in Africa and
moderated distinguish professional with credible track record.
Such network should be supported both by individual government
and regional body such as Africa union.
Conclusion
There is a serious gap in environmental awareness among
Africans. This poses significant challenge to the sustainable
management of African environment. Awareness can be created
through mass education of people through inclusion of
environmental education in school curriculum and strengthening
of professional network across the continent.
Increasing awareness must necessarily have direct and tangible
benefit to sustainable environment management in Africa.

Bibliography:
Daily observer (2009): Calls for common African voice, as
environmental change confab kicks-off. Daily Observer, 2 March
2009
Earthlife Africa and Oxfam International February 2009- Climate
Change, Development And Energy Problems In South Africa: Another
World Is Possible.
Greenpeace - Making Waves Illegal e-waste export to Nigeria
tracked down. Greenpeace website: 18 February 2009
Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA,
2007). ‘University raises awareness on climate change’ in The
Environmentalist May 2007
Rodolfo N. Sousa and Marcello M. Veiga (2009): Using Performance
Indicators to Evaluate an Environmental Education Program in
Artisanal Gold Mining Communities in the Brazilian Amazon.
Journal of the Human Environment: p40-46 Feb 2009 AMBIO:
UNDP (2008): Human Development Reports. UNDP. 2008