Abstract:
Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA’s) iconic biodiversity is of immense potential global value but is
jeopardized by increasing anthropogenic pressures. Elevated consumption in wealthier countries
and the demands of international corporations manifest in significant resource extraction from
SSA. Biodiversity in SSA also faces increasing domestic pressures, including rapidly growing
human populations. The demographic transition to lower fertility rates is occurring later
and slower in SSA than elsewhere, and the continent’s human population may quadruple by
2100. SSA’s biodiversity will therefore pass through a bottleneck of growing anthropogenic
pressures, while also experiencing intensifying effects of climate change. SSA’s biodiversity
could be severely diminished over the coming decades and numerous species pushed to extinction.
However, the prospects for nature conservation in SSA should improve in the long
term, and we predict that the region will eventually enter a Green Anthropocene. Here,
we outline critical steps needed to shepherd SSA’s biodiversity into the Green Anthropocene
epoch.
