Wetlands are areas on which water covers the soil or where water is present at or near the surface of that soil.
Wetlands are a vital link in the African water cycle. They are a source of life for both people and nature. Although African wetlands cover only about 4% of its total landmass, they store more than half the world’s liquid freshwater. Especially in Africa, many people depend directly on wetlands for their livelihood because of their fertile soils, availability of fresh water and fish stocks. African wetlands host a broad array of species and play and essential role for migratory birds from Europe and Asia.
Despite their importance, inland and coastal wetlands are being lost faster than any other ecosystem. Large-scale irrigation, drainage and pollution increasingly take their toll. Poor people living in wetland areas are especially affected, as their resource base is disappearing.
The recent surge of interest in biofuels increases pressure on global land availability. Europe, North America and Latin America have experienced serious growth in the production of biofuel feedstock. Africa has so far remained at the sideline of this development, but the continent is increasingly viewed as the global powerhouse for biofuel feedstock production due to its supposed supply of ‘excess’ land.
This raises the question of how the development of biofuels will impact on African wetland areas and the people that live there.
This quick scan aims to improve our insight into this development by providing answers to the following questions:
1. What is likely to be the demand for African grown biofuels?
2. Which biofuels are likely to be ‘winners’ in the African context?
3. Which areas in Africa are likely to become expansion areas for biofuels?
4. What is the likely nature and magnitude of the impacts of biofuel expansion in Africa?
The scope of this quick scan is limited to the most likely future feedstocks, their impacts on wetlands and their people and general expansion areas.
Feedstocks under consideration include all scalable cultivated biomass sources for the production of transport fuels (biodiesel and ethanol), industrial heat and electricity.
The study focuses on both direct effects and indirect effects of biofuel production.
Both environmental and social effects of biofuel production on wetlands and the communities that depend on them are assessed and attention will be given to negative as well as positive effects.
The geographical focus is on Sub Sahara Africa, and on likely biofuel developments in the medium term, i.e. 2020 – 2030.

By: S. Sielhorst, J. W. Molenaar, D. Offermans

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