Environmental Challenges to Meeting Sustainable Development Goals in Southern Africa

There is an inextricable link between ecosystem integrity and the potential for achieving sustainable development goals (SDG). This chapter highlights key ecosystem threats and their drivers within the southern African regional context to emphasize the role of earth system science in supporting the achievement of regional sustainable development goals. It describes how some major anthropogenic threats have unfolded in terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems of the region. Earth system science is increasingly contributing to understanding how globally driven climate and environmental changes threaten these ecosystems, and in turn how these impact people’s livelihoods. Long-term changes in rainfall variability, concomitant disruption of hydrological balances, impacts on ocean chemistry, together with more immediate impacts on the frequency and magnitude of extreme climate events are some of the critical global change drivers. While terrestrial ecosystems are already faced with encroachment by novel species, characterized by the proliferation of both invasive alien and endemic woody species, freshwater and marine ecosystems appear more immediately threatened by more local impacts, such as the accumulation of contaminants. Overall, predicted climate and environmental changes are projected to hamper development trajectories and poverty reduction efforts, and possibly exacerbate adverse impacts on human livelihoods.