Environment in Togo Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Formerly f rench togoland, the Togolese Republic won its independence from France in 1960. Togo was governed by military rule for the next several decades. The government has repeatedly been accused of human rights violations, and the political situation remains unstable. Because of the accusations, most bilateral and multilateral aid to Togo is frozen, although the European Union has resumed some aid in exchange for promises of political reform. More than 46 percent of Togo’s land area is arable, and the 65 percent of the labor force that is engaged in the agricultural sector is employed in both commercial and subsistence agriculture. Nevertheless, some basic foods are imported. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton are the chief export crops, generating around 40 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Togo ranks fourth in the world in phosphate production. Other natural resources include limestone and marble. With a per capita income of $1,700, Togo ranks 191st in world incomes. Almost a third of the population lives below the national poverty line, and over a fourth of Togolese are seriously undernourished. The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Reports rank Togo 143 of 232 countries on overall quality-of-life issues.

Bordering on the Bight of Benin in the Atlantic Ocean, Togo has a 56-kilometer coastline and 2,400 square kilometers of inland water resources. Togo shares land borders with Benin, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. Northern lands are comprised of gently rolling savanna that gives way to hills in central Togo and to plateau in the south. The coastal plain contains extensive marshes and lagoons. Elevations range from sea level to 986 meters at Mont Agou. The length of Togo extends for 317 miles, allowing it to stretch through six distinct geographic zones. The tropical climate is hot and humid in the south and semiarid in the north. Togo is prone to periodic droughts, and the north experiences the harmattan, a hot, dry, dust-laden wind that accelerates the pace of environmental damage and reduces visibility in the winter months.

Togo’s population of 5,548,702 is at great risk for the environmental health hazards that go handin-hand with poverty and an unstable political system. One of the major threats comes from the 4.1 percent adult prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS. Some 110,000 Togolese have this disease, and another 10,000 have died with it since 2003. Only 35 percent of rural residents and 51 percent of all Togolese have sustained access to safe drinking water. In rural areas, only 17 percent have access to improved sanitation, as compared to 34 percent of all Togolese. Consequently, the population has a very high risk of contracting food and waterborne disease that include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever, the respiratory disease meningococcal meningitis, and the water contact disease schistosomiasis. In some areas, there is a high risk of contracting vectorborne diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.

Because of environmental health factors, the Togolese have a lower-than-expected life span (57.42 years) and growth rate (2.72 percent), and higherthan-expected infant mortality (60.63 deaths per 1,000 live births) and death (9.83 deaths/1,000 population) rates. The low literacy rate (60.9 percent), particularly among women (46.9), contributes to the high fertility rate (5.4 children per female) and adds to the difficulty of disseminating information on birth control and disease prevention.

At one time, much of Togo was covered with dense rain forests. The Togolese have engaged in slash-and-burn agricultural tactics, however, in addition to cutting down trees for fuel and selling woods such as acajo, sipo, and aybe for export, with the result that deforestation of the rain forest is occurring at a rate of 3.4 percent per year. Extensive water pollution is endangering health and threatening the fishing industry. Urban areas are experiencing elevated levels of air pollution, in large part because of the extensive use of so-called taximotos that ferry people around cities such as Lome, the capital of Togo. Solid waste management is a major issue in both rural and urban areas.

In 2006, scientists at Yale University ranked Togo 103 of 132 countries on environmental performance, in line with the relevant income and geographic groups. The overall ranking was reduced by the low score on environmental health. Existing rain forests have been reduced to river valleys and small sections of the Atakora Mountains, even though the government has protected nearly eight percent of land area. Of 196 identified mammal species, nine are endangered; however, none of the 117 bird species are threatened with extinction.

Although Togo established an environmental framework with the Environmental Code of 1988, environmentalism has not always been a priority with the Togolese government. The Minister of Environment and Tourism and the Minister of Rural Development bear the major responsibility for implementing and enforcing Togo’s environmental laws and regulations, which are focused on: Sustainable development through reinforcement of legal and environmental institutions; enhancing environmental education, communication, training, and research; eradicating poverty; and checking pollution. Two of the major policy goals of the Togolese government are designed to provide 100 percent access to safe drinking water and improve sustained access to sanitation in the near future.

Togo participates in the following international agreements on the environment: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, and Wetlands.

Bibliography:

Central Intelligence Agency, “Togo,” World Factbook, www.cia.gov;
Timothy Doyle, Environmental Movements in Minority and Majority Worlds: A Global Perspective (Rutgers University Press, 2005);
Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom, Africa and the Middle East: A Continental Overview of Environmental Issues (ABC-CLIO, 2003);
Valentine Udoh James, Africa’s Ecology: Sustaining the Biological and Environmental Diversity of a Continent (McFarland, 1993);
United Nations Development Programme, “Human Development Report: Togo,” hdr.undp.org.