SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

Jul

05

2025

By NANCHIN WINIFRED KAZEH; ABUBAKAR S. RINGIM and SULAIMAN INUWA MUHAMMAD

Nigeria’s Hadejia wetlands are a vital stopover for migrating birds: new survey records species found in the park

SUSTAINABILITY

THE Hadejia Wetlands National Park in north-western Nigeria is a vital ecological treasure, designated as both a globally important wetland (Ramsar site) and an Important Bird Area, a site recognised internationally for conserving birds. Spanning 297km², the Hadejia Wetlands National Park is a mosaic of woodlands, wetlands and seasonally flooded marshes. It provides refuge for thousands of resident and migratory birds and is a key breeding site for waterfowl that migrate from Europe and Asia in the winter to sub-Saharan Africa. The park is recognised for its role in supporting biodiversity and local livelihoods but faces increasing threats from deforestation,…

Jul

02

2025

By OGECHI ADEOLA; INNOCENT NGARE and OLANIYI EVANS

African women are key to fighting climate change – these are the green skills they will need

SUSTAINABILITY

WOMEN are an important and often underutilised human resource in Africa. They’ve faced many problems historically. Limited access to land, finance, education, and decision-making platforms have meant that women across Africa haven’t been able to take part fully in the green economy. A green economy enhances well-being and social equity while reducing environmental risks. It demands that people use fewer resources to create more. With the world moving towards renewable energy and finding ways to adapt to climate change, new sectors of work are opening up. With access to green skills, women’s productivity in the green economy could triple. This…

Jul

01

2025

By ALICE KAYIBANDA KAYISIRE

Rwanda’s healers and gardeners are preserving local plant knowledge

SUSTAINABILITY, MULTIMEDIA

ANGELIQUE Nyirantwari, a traditional healer, carefully clipped a stalk of igisura (Urtica massaica) planted in her garden, avoiding the leaves’ burning sting. She moved with the quiet precision of someone who has carried this knowledge throughout her life, carefully cutting the leaves for her neighbour. At 55, she still learns daily, and each plant is a chapter in a lifelong study of healing. “Every plant is a medicine,” she said. Nyirantwari, a mother of two from Rukira in Rwanda’s eastern province, has mastered over 200 medicinal plants. Her journey began at six years old, guided by her father, who taught…

Jun

27

2025

By MULAKO DEAN MUKELABAI and RICHARD BLANCHARD

Zambia runs on mostly green power, but households use polluting cooking fuel: study suggests how to fix this

SUSTAINABILITY

ZAMBIA, like many African countries, is facing a crisis over clean cooking fuel. Over 80% of the population still relies on polluting fuels like charcoal and firewood. This exposes families to toxic indoor air, deepens poverty and gender inequality, drives deforestation, and adds to climate change. Globally, air pollution from cooking using fuelwood, coal, and dung contributes to over 3.2 million premature deaths each year, including 237,000 children under five. In Zambia, having electricity at home does not automatically lead to cleaner cooking. In the global south, electricity only starts to support clean cooking once national access rates exceed 80%.…

Jun

25

2025

By MAMAHLOKO SENATLA JAANE

South Africa’s big rooftops could power 6 million homes: how to make it happen

SUSTAINABILITY

SOUTH Africa has many factories, warehouses, schools and hospitals – big buildings with large rooftop spaces. In such a sunny country, these flat surfaces would be perfect for large photovoltaic solar systems that could generate enough renewable energy to supply themselves, and feed into the national grid. This would reduce the amount of coal that South Africa’s national electricity provider would need to burn. Renewable energy engineer and PhD candidate Mamahloko Senatla-Jaane was part of a team who researched how commercial buildings could be set up to serve as strategic assets for decarbonisation and increase the security of South Africa’s…

Jun

20

2025

By JAY DOORGA and NATALIE SUM YUE CHUNG

Mauritius is facing a water crisis: harvesting water from its rivers with 10 reservoirs can help – research

SUSTAINABILITY

MAURITIUS’s water supplies are running very low. As a small island, it is affected by tropical cyclones, rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and a warming ocean. Rainfall levels have decreased by 8% over the last 10 years. The country’s reservoirs are currently only about 38.2% full, down from 92.6% in February 2024. The population has increased from 479,000 in the 1950s to over 1.26 million in 2022. The bigger demand for water has placed pressure on already strained resources. Droughts in Mauritius are predicted to become more severe and frequent. This will trigger serious water shortages that will disrupt farming…

Jun

17

2025

By SETH ASARE OKYERE; LOUIS KUSI FRIMPONG; MATTHEW ABUNYEWAH; SETH OPOKU MENSAH and STEPHEN LEONARD MENSAH

Small towns are growing fast across Ghana – but environmental planning isn’t keeping up

SUSTAINABILITY

AFRICA’S urban future will be shaped not only by large cities and capitals but also by its many small and medium-sized towns. Large capital cities are no longer the hotspots of rapid urban growth. According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), small and medium-sized towns are growing faster than large cities. These smaller towns often start as rural settlements. Despite their rapid growth, many small towns lack infrastructure and planning capacity, leaving them vulnerable to environmental risks. Ghana offers a telling example. While the spotlight is often on the rapid growth of the two major cities, Accra and…

Jun

12

2025

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

70 rhinos safely arrive in Rwanda in unprecedented wildlife translocation

SUSTAINABILITY, MULTIMEDIA

ON Tuesday, the tenth of June, Rwanda welcomed dozens of four-footed new residents to the country as dozens of metal crates holding 70 southern white rhinos touched down on Rwandan soil. Rwanda’s Akagera National Park is the new home for the transplanted rhinos. They will graze on the park’s shrubs and gradually acclimatise to the environment. The rhinos' journey took them over 4,000 kilometres via roads and sky, from South Africa’s Munywana Conservancy in KwaZulu-Natal. The unprecedented translocation marks the largest cross-continental movement of rhinos ever attempted in Africa, helping to flip the continent’s conservation script, which is often headlined…

Jun

10

2025

By DAVID PHAHO and STEVEN MATOME MATHETSA

Africa’s power pools: what the G20 can do to help countries share electricity

SUSTAINABILITY

SOUTH Africa holds the presidency of the G20 this year. The group is made up of 19 of the world’s largest economies, the European Union and the African Union. A priority of South Africa’s G20 presidency is African connectivity: promoting cross-border energy trade and regional power pools as a way to share electricity across borders on the continent. David Phaho and Steven Mathetsa of the African Energy Leadership Centre set out how South Africa could use its presidency of the G20 to drive regional renewable energy sharing. What is a regional power pool? A regional energy power pool is where…

Jun

05

2025

By OLUWABUSAYO WURAOLA

Climate justice for Africa: 3 legal routes for countries that suffer the most harm

SUSTAINABILITY

Climate change lawsuits have become a new way for countries to assert their rights against actions that degrade the environment. But African countries have yet to fully exploit this route. In the Netherlands, the court found that greenhouse gas emissions breached the rights to life and private and family life that are protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. In Germany, the court found that the government had breached the Climate Protection Act by not setting out a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after 2030. This meant that future generations would unfairly bear the burden of trying to…