News
Today is World Environment Day, the world’s biggest international day for the environment which has been held annually since 1973. This year’s theme is ‘Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience’. Desertification and droughts are becoming major issues in many countries and these phenomena are being enhanced by climate change. All three subjects are interrelated as desertification and droughts can be countered by land restoration.
Whilst desertification is less of an issues for Mauritius, we are affected by droughts which are one of the hazards the country faces. Although we have been greatly affected by heavy rains and flash floods in recent years, we have also experienced severe droughts in 2009, 2011 and 2022, for example. The ‘Database on Climate Change-related Risk Drivers’ (https://environment.govmu.org/DocumentsList/Database%20on%20Climate-related%20Risk%20Drivers.xlsx) published by the Ministry of Environment, Solid Waste and Climate Change in 2023, states that Mauritius could become a region poor in water resources by 2050 if no measures are taken to restore water catchment basins. But more importantly, it indicates that Mauritius has had a deficit of 104 mm of rainwater over the last 60 years. Climate change is a factor responsible for more extreme droughts but deforestation may have a greater role to play, as it has been established that vegetation can increase rainfall by 40 % or more.
Here at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, we have been actively working on land restoration since the 1980s. Our focus has been on reforesting with native and endemic plant species at several sites such as Ile aux Aigrettes, Mondrain, Round Island, Gunner’s Quoin, Grande Montagne Nature Reserve and Anse Quitor Nature Reserve, and encouraging habitat restoration on several private lands.
The habitat restoration works are essential since deforestation is one of the major issues that Mauritius has been facing since Man set foot on the island. The statistics are resounding - less than 1.5% of good quality native forests remain and deforestation continues unabated. According to the Global Forest Watch Mauritius Deforestation Rates & Statistics | GFW (globalforestwatch.org), an online platform that provides data and tools for monitoring forests, Mauritius has lost 3000 ha of tree cover from 2001 to 2023 while the National Land Development Strategy (NLDS) draft report, showed that about 1000 Ha of forest was being lost annually in Mauritius. In 2003 there were 56,600ha of forests (state and private), prior to which time (Our note: period not stated), some 10,000 hectares of forest lands had been cleared mostly for infrastructural developments, including built-up areas, roads, agriculture, reservoirs and dams. By 2014 the total extent of forest cover in Mauritius had fallen again, by another 10,000 ha to 47,103 ha, representing about 25% of the total. Development has clearly been at the expense of Nature.
We seize the occasion of the World Environment Day to emphasize that further deforestation is not the way forward for a country that claims to practice sustainable development. Land restoration through adequate reforestation programmes should be on the agenda to increase the country’s resilience to climate change.
