Life Sciences Commons^™

Africa's Conservation For Development, Norman Miller, Rodger Yeager

Dartmouth Scholarship

Africa's modern dilemma is a "floor of life" issue. Resource loss, environmental degredation, and overpopulation have reduced many people to the lowest subsistence levels in living memory. By all accounts a biologically diverse wonderland, Africa is quite literally the last place on earth for many plant and animal species. Yet the basis of human and nonhuman survival has become threatened in many areas because of soil and water depletion, deforestation, and desertification. Human mistakes are invariably cited as among the basic causes of these tragedies.