By Safiya Hassan, GLOBUS Correspondent The word Sahel comes from the Arabic ساحل, meaning ‘coast’, and is an apt name for an area which borders the Sahara Desert to the north, jungles to the south and spans the entire width of the African continent, from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. This region and the... Continue Reading →
Africa’s Overfishing Epidemic
By Safiya Hassan, GLOBUS Correspondent Fishing has quickly become one of Africa’s fastest growing industries, with fisheries found to contribute $24 billion directly to the continent’s economy, accounting for 1.1% of total African GDP. The growth in demand is thought to be spearheaded by China’s trade expansion, in its quest to feed its ever-growing population. However, this has... Continue Reading →
Palm Oil Production in the Republic of Gabon
Recommendations to establish sustainable palm oil operations in the Republic of Gabon By Pratyush Satyanarayan This piece is part of a series of assessment submissions from Warwick Economics’ Introduction to Environmental Economics module for first-year students. Executive Summary In recent decades, the global market for palm oil has grown significantly. With South-East Asia’s land availability becoming increasingly... Continue Reading →
Deforestation and the Illegal Charcoal Trade in the Horn of Africa
By Safiya Hassan, GLOBUS Correspondent In October 2018, a ship carrying 200,000 bags of charcoal was intercepted in the strategic Iraqi port of Umm Qasri, located in the Persian Gulf (Xinhua,2018). These bundles of charcoal were believed to have been sourced from the prized, and rapidly decreasing, species of Acacia, known as Acacia Bussei, and... Continue Reading →
Chinese Imperialism: A Knife in the Back of Sustainable Development
Bismarck remarked after the Berlin Conference of 1885 that “he who controls Africa will control Europe”. This chauvinistic war cry came to define the 19th and 20th Century ‘Scramble for Africa’, with European powers waging battle for imperial control over African nations. The flag bearer of this hypermasculine discourse, however, is decentralising from Europe: imperialism... Continue Reading →