"Within Africa, the most vulnerable areas to global warming and sea level rise, outside the deltaic regions, would be the small islands" Vijaya L. Saha Ministry of Lands, Mauritius - Islands. Islands will suffer the combined effects of both sea-level rise and storm damage. In small island nations, such as Mauritius and Seychelles, much of the infrastructure and productive resources and activities (such as fisheries, agriculture and tourism) are located along the shoreline. It can be anticipated that these will be devastated and parts of their human populations may need to be relocated, to other countries in some cases. Biomass and energy. It has been estimated that fossil-fuel burning and defor- estation contribute 2.4% and 0.9% carbon dioxide respectively to the atmosphere annually. The African nations contribute towards a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other trace gases (except CFCs) through deforestation and biomass burning. Halting deforestation world-wide will reduce carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere by about 2.5 billion tons per year, the amount needed to stabilize atmospheric composition. It is believed that reforestation of 1-2 million sq. km . will result in annual storage of I billion tons of carbon dioxide. However, the 1985 Villach workshop on developing policies for responding to climatic change concluded that "large scale afforestation has a limited potential to slow down carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere and buy time to reduce fossil fuel emissions." It may be safely concluded that the greatest potential for preventing climatic change lies in the energy and industrial sectors of the developed and developing nations. As industrialized countries contribute over 75% of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere through fossil fuel burning, it has been suggested that they should replace fossil fuel with alternative energy sources such as solar and wind energy, hydroelectric power, tidal and ocean thermal conversion. These energy sources should continue to be encouraged in developing countries in part as alternatives to future fossil fuel use, but also as alternatives to woodfuel. It is estimated that in Africa, about 3.6 million ha of forests are cleared each year. Côte d'Ivoire has the highest deforestation rate in Africa. Other African countries with significant deforestation rates include the Gambia, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria and Kenya. African grasslands are commonly burned to improve productivity and release significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Decomposition of organic matter is another source of carbon dioxide and a rise in temperature in forested zones will result in a corresponding increase in carbon dioxide release due to decay. How much of the added carbon dioxide will be absorbed by forest trees is not well known. It is possible that global warming will stimulate forest growth, but this is unlikely due to the other factors limiting carbon dioxide assimilation such as low level of nutrients, evapotranspiration, wind speed, soil impoverishment, precipitation and cloudiness. 0 "It is essential that the role of grasslands in African carbon cycling and in maintaining sus- tamable agro-ecosystems should be thoroughly studied, both for practical and theoretical reasons. Such investigations cannot be done by short-term research .,, . 4, .: .. •- . .. -, . . •. . —David 0. Hall .r5fd1/lL$vØA Kings College, London, UK .' 10 .. .,. . . I p1- . , ' ,-• _ •. - 1.,