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Small-scale farming is destroying Africa’s mountains

20 March 2025 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Andre Damons

Africa’s mountains are being destroyed – not by global warming, but by small-scale farming caused by overpopulation on the continent.

This is according to Dr Willem Daffue, veterinarian, adventurer, explorer, and conservationist who delivered the first plenary keynote address on the first day of the Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2025). The conference, which follows a highly successful first conference in 2022, is currently taking place at the Champagne Sports Resort. It ends on 20 March 2025.

Comparing photos that he took 40 years ago in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with more recent photos, Dr Daffue painted a dire picture of the future of Africa’s mountains and the unique animals found there.

Overpopulation

Dr Daffue works for the Himalayan Wildlife Project, tracks bears in the Karakoram Mountains, documents and photographs endangered species on a global level – such as the Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino. He is also involved in the Giraffe Project of the University of the Free State (UFS).

“Global warming has not yet affected Africa’s mountains. The rainfall in these areas actually increased. So has the population. Humans are destroying the mountains. The small-scale farmers have caused the most destruction. The reason for this is overpopulation.”

“Overpopulation is forcing people to invade national parks where they start farming for survival. These people are poor, uneducated, and is dependent on aid. All the animals in these areas are critically endangered.”

In his presentation, Dr Daffue talked about the Erta Ale, an active basaltic shield volcano in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia, the Simien Mountains in northern Ethiopia, as well as the Bale Mountains in the highlands of Ethiopia – with unique animals exclusive to the areas, including the wild ass, baboons, beisa oryx, Soemmerring's gazelle, Walia ibex, the golden jackal, and the Simien wolf.

Endangered animals

“Almost all the animals found in Ethiopia are endangered. It is the total destruction of nature. Only 4% of all mammals are still wild animals. 96% off all mammals on earth are humans and domesticated animals, and 70% of all birds on earth are chickens.”

“So, we are going to lose it. We are already past a point where we could save some of the animals and nature; it is an emergency but if we wake up now, we might still have a few things to save,” said Dr Daffue.

The answer is to curb the population growth, to educate the people, and to lift them out of poverty. Which is extremely difficult to do.

According to Dr Daffue, a conference such as the SAMC is extremely important, as it brings together different role players, including academics, researchers, communities, and policy makers. It helps in making plans, sharing knowledge, and getting policies out to people, the decision makers.

The conference

The Southern African Mountain Conference – conceptualised by the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU), the African Mountain Research Foundation (AMRF), and Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS) as a joint initiative between Eurac Research and the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security – is unique, as it seeks to integrate the science, policy, and practitioner sectors for sustainable interventions in Southern African mountains.

Southern African mountains comprise those situated south of the Congo Rainforest and Lake Rukwa and include the mountainous islands of the western Indian Ocean. Thus, SAMC2025 is targeting Angola, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (southern mountains), Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, La Réunion, South Africa, southern Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The SAMC series is implemented by The Peaks Foundation (a non-profit company). SAMC2025 is held under the patronage of UNESCO.

News Archive

Fight against Ebola virus requires more research

2014-10-22

Dr Abdon Atangana
Photo: Ifa Tshishonge

Dr Abdon Atangana, a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Groundwater Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS), wrote an article related to the Ebola virus: Modelling the Ebola haemorrhagic fever with the beta-derivative: Deathly infection disease in West African countries.

“The filoviruses belong to a virus family named filoviridae. This virus can cause unembellished haemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman monkeys. In literature, only two members of this virus family have been mentioned, namely the Marburg virus and the Ebola virus. However, so far only five species of the Ebola virus have been identified, including: Ivory Coast, Sudan, Zaire, Reston and Bundibugyo.

“Among these families, the Ebola virus is the only member of the Zaire Ebola virus species and also the most dangerous, being responsible for the largest number of outbreaks.

“Ebola is an unusual, but fatal virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body. As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the immune system and organs. Ultimately, it causes the blood-clotting levels in cells to drop. This leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding.

Since all physical problems can be modelled via mathematical equation, Dr Atangana aimed in his research (the paper was published in BioMed Research International with impact factor 2.701) to analyse the spread of this deadly disease using mathematical equations. We shall propose a model underpinning the spread of this disease in a given Sub-Saharan African country,” he said.

The mathematical equations are used to predict the future behaviour of the disease, especially the spread of the disease among the targeted population. These mathematical equations are called differential equation and are only using the concept of rate of change over time.

However, there is several definitions for derivative, and the choice of the derivative used for such a model is very important, because the more accurate the model, the better results will be obtained. The classical derivative describes the change of rate, but it is an approximation of the real velocity of the object under study. The beta derivative is the modification of the classical derivative that takes into account the time scale and also has a new parameter that can be considered as the fractional order.

“I have used the beta derivative to model the spread of the fatal disease called Ebola, which has killed many people in the West African countries, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, since December 2013,” he said.

The constructed mathematical equations were called Atangana’s Beta Ebola System of Equations (ABESE). “We did the investigation of the stable endemic points and presented the Eigen-Values using the Jacobian method. The homotopy decomposition method was used to solve the resulted system of equations. The convergence of the method was presented and some numerical simulations were done for different values of beta.

“The simulations showed that our model is more realistic for all betas less than 0.5. The model revealed that, if there were no recovery precaution for a given population in a West African country, the entire population of that country would all die in a very short period of time, even if the total number of the infected population is very small. In simple terms, the prediction revealed a fast spread of the virus among the targeted population. These results can be used to educate and inform people about the rapid spread of the deadly disease,” he said.

The spread of Ebola among people only occurs through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person after symptoms have developed. Body fluid that may contain the Ebola virus includes saliva, mucus, vomit, faeces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine and semen. Entry points include the nose, mouth, eyes, open wounds, cuts and abrasions. Note should be taken that contact with objects contaminated by the virus, particularly needles and syringes, may also transmit the infection.

“Based on the predictions in this paper, we are calling on more research regarding this disease; in particular, we are calling on researchers to pay attention to finding an efficient cure or more effective prevention, to reduce the risk of contamination,” Dr Atangana said.

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