Kilimanjaro shows local costs of global change

Mt Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania could lose its entire icecap by 2015, symbolising that global climate change "may be felt first and hardest by the environment and people of Africa", the environmental lobby group Greenpeace reported this week. Ten years ago, glaciers covered most of the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, the name of which derives from Kilima Njaro or "shining mountain" in Swahili. According to some projections, almost the whole of Kilimanjaro's icecap could vanish in the next 15 years if recession continues at the present rate, the NGO said in a press release on Tuesday. As environment ministers from around the world gathered in Morocco to finalise the Kyoto Protocol on mitigating global climate change, environmental campaigners on Mt Kilimanjaro highlighted the risks to the environment and livelihoods in northern Tanzania, and Africa in general. Western industrialised nations were trying to ensure that the protocol was as weak as possible in order to protect their atmosphere-polluting industries, but catastrophes such as the loss of the icecap on Kilimanjaro were "the price we pay if climate change is allowed to go unchecked", said Greenpeace campaigner Joris Thijssen. "Here in Africa, we will not only lose glaciers but will face more extreme droughts and floods, widespread agriculture losses and increased infectious diseases, all of which are felt most by people in developing nations," Thijssen added. See http://www.greenpeace.org Peaking at 5,895 metres, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and home to at least 1,800 species of flowering plants and 35 of mammals. The mountain is also a major source of water supply to some 5 percent of Tanzanians, and up to one million people earn a living from it, either through agriculture or the tourism industry, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the capital, Dar es Salaam. Scientists on Thursday warned that rising temperatures, linked with emissions of greenhouse gases, could damage the ability of vital crops such as rice, maize and wheat to seed themselves. Key cash crops in East Africa, such as coffee and tea, would also be vulnerable to global warming in the coming decades, according to a statement from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). "Poor farmers here [in East Africa] face declining yields and incomes in the traditional coffee- and tea -growing areas, pushing them into even more biting poverty," said executive director Klaus Toepfer. That increased the fear of desperate farmers being forced into higher, cooler mountainous areas, intensifying pressure on sensistive forests, threatening wildlife and the quantity and quality of water, he said - www.unep.org "This can only lead to environmental damage which, in turn, can lead to increased poverty, hunger and ill-health," he added. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday reminded delegates at the climate change conference in Morocco that the fight for a meaningful Kyoto treaty was "not just an environmental issue" but "a fundamental development issue". Mountain glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change, and those at tropical latitudes are particularly responsive. In November 1990, Kilimanjaro was well flanked by glaciers on its southern and southwestern slopes, but these receded alarmingly within a decade, as detailed in photographs from space taken by the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-97 on 2 December last, Greenpeace reported on Tuesday. Ohio State University Prof Lonnie Thompson in February presented findings that one-third of the ice field on Kilimanjaro had disappeared, or melted, over the last 12 years, it said. An estimated 82 percent of the icecap crowning Kilimanjaro when it was first surveyed thoroughly in 1912 was now gone, and the ice had also thinned out — by as much as a metre in one area, it added. In addition to climate change, encroachments around mountain resources - through farming, grazing, gathering of fodder and commercial logging - have resulted in increased levels of poverty for resident communities, according to Nehemiah Murusuri of UNDP Tanzania. Other major threats to Kilimanjaro include land degradation due to soil erosion, littering by tourists and guides, and the shrinkage of its water resources. A project launched by the UNDP and the UN Foundation in September is intended to benefit 20,000 people directly and 200,000 indirectly by involving the communities who live around Mt Kilimanjaro in conserving the mountain and using its resources in a sustainable manner. However, community involvement in conservation of Mt Kilimanjaro at the micro level will mean little if global climate change causes ecological loss on a larger, devastating scale. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported earlier this year that average global temperature could increase by up to six degrees Celsius over the next 100 years, yet many ecosystems could tolerate a change of only two degrees before risking unpredictable damage, Greenpeace reported on Tuesday. "This is not just about losing beautiful landscapes. Climate changes affect the whole ecosystem, and that means people's lives all around the globe," it added.