Deforestation in West Africa would increase the risk of floods

Deforestation also affects floods. This is the conclusion of a team of meteorologists having published on January 11, 2022 a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Scientists have turned their gaze to the southwest coast of Africa, one of the most deforested places in the world. On site, flooding caused by violent storms has increased considerably in recent years. Some populations are fleeing the areas concerned, while many material damages and deaths are to be deplored.

Africa: the most deforested continent in the world?

It was a report drawn up 14 years ago by theUnited Nations Environment Program (A P, for “Environmental Program of the United Nations”): Africa is experiencing a high level of deforestation. In 2008, Reuters relayed a press release from UNEP pointing to the felling of 4.4 million hectares of forest each year, the equivalent of the area of ​​Switzerland. The rate of deforestation in Africa was then doubled in comparison with the rest of the world. Between 2010 and 2020, more than 3 million hectares are deforested per year. The central african forestnicknamed “the second lung green of the world”, is also strongly impacted: 10 million hectares were razed between 2015 and 2020.

Meteorologists detail in the review PNAS the climate impact of deforestation in several West African countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana. Cross-referencing 30 years of data, collected since 1991, the researchers determined that the frequency of storms in these five countries has doubled over the past three decades. Deforested areas are thus more conducive to the circulation ofair marine. When the latter interacts with hot areas, high humidity is released, likely to cause storms and bad weather, themselves vectors of possible flooding.

The cost of deforestation

Floods in West African countries can thus be devastating. In October 2012, torrential rainfall caused the death of 363 people in Nigeria. Almost 650,000 homes and infrastructure had been destroyed, leading to the migration of two million people in search of refuge. Unep indicated in its report published in 2008 that the deforestation in some African countries and global warming would have a significant impact on the melting the snows of Kilimanjaro or the drying up of Lake Chad. Reforestation processes in various regions began several years ago to mitigate these fierce climatic phenomena.

Deforestation is a major challenge in the fight against the climate crisis. During COP 26which took place in Glasgow in November 2021, around 100 countries representing 85% of the world’s forests pledged to reverse the process of deforestation by 2030. initiative of 19 billion euros, which should benefit regions such as the Congo or the Amazon in order to slow down, or even stop, the deforestation of tropical forests considered essential in the fight against global warming.