TRACKIG AFRICA’S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALENGES

Africa is surfing’s last true frontier. A continent blessed by nature with abundant biodiversity hot spots, many harbouring perfect line ups yet to be discovered. At the same time our continent is challenged by an array of environmental pressures. The world’s 7+ billion strong population with its near insatiable appetite for the planet’s finite resources has brought humankind right to the edge; gobbling up nature for short term benefit to the detriment of present and future generations. And Africa has borne the brunt of poverty, under-development and having its resources plundered by venal global forces. The net result is that the continent’s natural environments are facing multiple threats. These are the sites of the struggle. It's time for us to get involved.

PLASTIC POLLUTION

Take a walk on a beach, any beach. You may or may not see a crab, maybe a seagull, but you will definitely find plastic trash… and normally lots of it. It’s a well known fact, our seas are choking on plastic. A staggering eight million metric tons of the stuff ends up in our oceans every year. Unraveling exactly how it gets there is critical to solving the problem.

A recent study estimates that more than a quarter of all plastic waste is pouring into the oceans from just 10 river systems around the world, two of them