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WWF Climate Change
Campaign
Director Adam Markham
c/o World Wildlife Fund-US
1250 Twenty-fourth St., NW
Washington, DC 20037
Tel: (202) 861-8388
Fax: (202) 331-2391
E-mail: climate@wwf.org
Visit our website at :

http://www.panda.org


C L I M A T E   C O N N E C T I O N

T he Okavango Delta in northern Botswana, can provide an example of how the impacts of global warming may be felt.

By the 2050s, rainfall in the area could decline by about 5% and become more variable from year to year.

Temperatures would increase by about 1.5° C and evaporation could increase by as much as 15%, causing a general drying of the area, and reducing the reliability of maize production.

Climatic change presents a serious threat to African wildlife and ecosystems in the coming decades. Among those wildlife reserves likely to be affected are Kruger National Park, the Zambezi basin, and the Okavango delta. In Zambia in 1991, grazing species , such as hartebeest, wildebeest and zebra came under severe stress from droughts.

Global warming is already affecting much of southern Africa. Temperatures have risen by over 0.5¼C over the past hundred years, with the last decade being the warmest and driest ever. Over the past 20 years, there has been noticeably less rainfall, and wa ter has become much harder to come by for many communities.

Climate change will alter natural vegetation, wildlife habitats, crop growing seasons, and the distribution of pests and diseases.

Malaria-bearing Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes may extend southward and westward into areas of Namibia and northern South Africa.


Southern Africa

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