Kampala / Dakar / Nairobi – July 2025
As Africa battles rising food insecurity and erratic rainfall patterns, experts are sounding the alarm over the neglect and destruction of wetlands, calling them “the continent’s hidden lifeline” for agriculture.
Wetlands — from the Sudd in South Sudan to the Inner Niger Delta in Mali — play a pivotal role in natural irrigation, flood control, biodiversity, and soil enrichment. They support rice paddies, fish breeding, and grazing lands for millions of rural families.
But according to a 2025 report by the African Wetlands Conservation Network, over 45% of major wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa have shrunk or degraded due to a combination of land reclamation, pollution, damming, and climate change.
“Wetlands are not wastelands,” says Dr. Lydia Nambeya, a wetland ecologist based in Uganda. “They are water banks that agriculture can’t survive without.”
Key facts: – Wetlands provide over 60% of inland fish in Africa, sustaining protein needs for low-income families – They recharge groundwater aquifers and regulate downstream flooding – In Nigeria’s Hadejia-Nguru wetlands, farming productivity drops by 30% when wetlands recede
Despite this, wetlands continue to be drained for real estate, sugarcane plantations, and road infrastructure. In many countries, legal protections are poorly enforced or nonexistent.
In Ghana and Kenya, communities near disappearing wetlands report increasing crop failure and livestock losses due to dry-season stress and water scarcity.
The African Union’s 2063 Agenda includes commitments to wetland preservation, but implementation remains weak without localized enforcement and farmer education.
Environmentalists are urging governments to treat wetlands as strategic food security infrastructure, not just conservation zones.
“With the right investments, wetlands can buffer Africa’s farmers against climate shocks,” says Mamadou Ba, an agricultural planner in Senegal. “Lose them, and we lose more than biodiversity—we lose our harvests.”
Promising initiatives include: – Eco-farming techniques that align with wetland preservation – Community-led wetland governance in Zambia and Ethiopia – AI-powered wetland monitoring supported by international NGOs
Yet activists warn that without political will and real-time policy changes, Africa may face a “silent famine” rooted not in war or drought, but in wetland collapse.