Renewable resource trends in East Africa

Woodland cover, grazing land, and arable soils are being lost, and dwindling food production leaves the region vulnerable to drought in the event of rainfall shortages. Surface water in lakes, rivers, and coastal areas is being increasingly polluted by untreated industrial and domestic waste. Although progress is being made in controlling resource degradation, swifter action is needed to keep pace with the revolutionary demographic and resource trends which, if unchecked, bode ill for the 110 million people who will be living in East Africa by the year 2000. Policy recommendations are to improve and maintain the productivity of the area"s natural resource base, identify key resource conflicts, include a resource management perspective in the development planning process, upgrade sources of resource information, and initiate new forms of government and private sector institutional development to cope with emerging resource problems. Specific recommendations to implement these policies are also made. Included are 31 figures, 20 tables, 12 pages of references (1940-84), and a list of sources for related visual materials.