African forests, People and Climate change Project: Forest and Climate Changes Policies, Strategies and Programmes in the SADC and COMESA Regions

Climate change is now known to be a key threat to achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction targets, as well as attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in Africa. Climate change is altering rainfall patterns, water availability, and sea levels; it is increasing droughts and the frequency of bushfires, and increasingly impacting on human health, agricultural productivity, forests and biodiversity. In this way, climate change will negatively affect the social, economic and environmental dimensions of human livelihoods in Africa.