10 of the worst environmentally degraded countries in Africa

Consumption is at the heart of ecological degradation. The more humans have to feed this excess, the more the planet will suffer, and the more social gaps between global communities will widen. This cycle inadvertently accelerates other predicaments that reprehensibly move millions of people around the world.

The level of environmental degradation in the region is a determinant of the occurrence of disasters. In such cases, food and water shortages, conflicts, poverty, malnutrition, forced migration, disease, and natural disasters can occur.

As a result, it is important to measure the ecological damage caused.

Fortunately, on that note, Institute of Economics and Peace, a global research team focused on measuring the economic value of peace, for the third time releasing the annual Ecological Threats Report in 2022.

This report analyzes ecological threats in 228 countries and independent territories. It also covers more than 3,638 sub-national administrative districts, or 99.99 percent of the world’s population, assessing threats related to food risks, water risks, rapid population growth and natural disasters.

The latest Ecological Report identifies 41 countries facing the most extreme levels of food insecurity, 37 of which are Sub-Saharan African countries.

Of these 41 countries, 27 are what the report calls hotspot countries, and two-thirds of hotspot countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). These hotspot countries have catastrophic ecological threats, and also have the lowest levels of community resilience.

Globally, these hotspot countries are grouped into three regions: SSA, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and South Asia. The region is also the third least peaceful as measured by the agency’s Global Peace Index.

To measure each country’s ETR, the Institute for Economics and Peace, evaluates four different threats that are directly related to the causes of conflict, including, food security, natural disasters, water and population stress.

The threats are classified in severity from low to catastrophic. A country is defined as facing a disaster threat if it exceeds one or more of these thresholds.

Also to create the report, the Institute draws from a comprehensive, ecological, geospatial and social database based on 15 years of the Global Peace Index and the Positive Peace Index.

Here are the ten most ecologically damaged countries in Africa, according to the report.