Environment and Development in Africa - UNEP Studies Volume 2

One may well wonder what forms development in Africa will take between now and the year 2000, and to what degree environmental considerations will be taken into account. Given the environmental problems and development options, what premises and indicators can support a valid discussion of Africa's development strategies? Simply stating the question gives an idea of its extreme importance and the difficulty of giving even a tentative answer. Therefore, the approach we have proposed in the follow-ing pages is limited in terms of both time and the resources deployed. The goal of this glance into the future of Africa is above all to stimulate discussion. The most difficult aspect of this venture has undoubtedly been the comparison of what is necessary and what is possible in terms of basic needs and potentials in the areas of agriculture, industry and health. For a better evaluation of foreseeable trends it would have been useful to create concrete alternatives for production, consumption and human establishments: an ex-tremely difficult task which we have only begun to undertake here.