Urban Green Spaces in Africa: Nature and Challenges

Abstract

Green spaces constitute a major environmental resource of urban landscape. In Africa, statistics show that urban green spaces are depleting at an alarming rate with green spaces now occupying small proportion of the landmass of several urban areas. This paper sought to give a broad discussion on the nature and challenges behind the deterioration and poor management of urban green spaces in Africa. The paper adapted the systematic review approach and utilized publications that focused on or related to urban green spaces in the African sub-region. Among the major findings of the paper were that the nature and distribution of green spaces in Africa is influenced by the ecological zones and climate conditions of Africa. The challenges uncovered to hinder the development of green spaces in Africa included the following: rapid urbanisation, low resource base of institutions on green spaces, lack of priority to green spaces, corruption, uncooperative attitudes of the local people and political instability. To address these challenges, joint and committed efforts by national governments, city authorities and the local people to preserve these spaces is crucial. Green spaces should be treated as among the top priorities of the development agenda of urban planning authorities with the allied institutions managing green spaces well resourced to go about their activities as expected of them.

Full text

International Journal of Ecosystem 2014, 4(1): 1-11
DOI: 10.5923/j.ije.20140401.01
Urban Green Spaces in Africa: Nature and Challenges
Collins Adjei Mensah1,2
1Department of Geography and Regional Planning, University of Cape Coast, University Post Office, Cape Coast, Ghana
2Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Sch. of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham (UK), B15 2TT
Abstract Green spaces constitute a major environmental resource of urban landscape. In Africa, statistics show that urban
green spaces are depleting at an alarming rate with green spaces now occupying small proportion of the landmass of several
urban areas. This paper sought to give a broad discussion on the nature and challenges behind the deterioration and poor
management of urban green spaces in Africa. The paper adapted the systematic review approach and utilized publications that
focused on or related to urban green spaces in the African sub-region. Among the major findings of the paper were that the
nature and distribution of green spaces in Africa is influenced by the ecological zones and climate conditions of Africa. The
challenges uncovered to hinder the development of green spaces in Africa included the following: rapid urbanisation, low
resource base of institutions on green spaces, lack of priority to green spaces, corruption, uncooperative attitudes of the local
people and political instability. To address these challenges, joint and committed efforts by national governments, city
authorities and the local people to preserve these spaces is crucial. Green spaces should be treated as among the top priorities
of the development agenda of urban planning authorities with the allied institutions managing green spaces well resourced to
go about their activities as expected of them.
Keywords Africa, Urban, Green spaces, Nature, Challenges
1. Introduction
Although cities covers less that 5 per cent of the earth’s
land space, substantial amount of the world’s resources can
be found in them[1]. Among these resources are green spaces.
The ambience of urban planning does not only cover matters
of the built environment such as housing and transportation
network but also the integration of green spaces into the
physical urban landscape[2]. These urban green spaces
literally covers all public and private open spaces in urban
areas mostly covered by vegetation which are directly (e.g.
active or passive recreation) or indirectly (e.g. positive
influence on the urban environment) available for use[3].
They include parks, gardens, allotments, wetlands, and urban
trees. Planning concepts such as garden city, green belt,
green fingers and greenways highlight the need to preserve
the natural environment of urban areas by incorporating
many green spaces into the design of cities. This is because
these spaces offer immense benefits to cities. Socially, green
spaces have been found to create land uses that provide
avenues for recreation, support the development of children,
and also promote social interaction and cohesion[4 - 6].
From environmental perspective, it has been observed that
they help to ameliorate local climate, improves urban air
quality, conserve biodiversity and epitomise architectural
* Corresponding author:
collinsadjeimensah@gmail.com (Collins Adjei Mensah)
Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ije
Copyright © 2014 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved
beauty of cities[7 - 9]. In the economic realm, benefits that
green spaces offer include increment of property values
especially houses sited close to green spaces, creation of
more job avenues as many individuals will have the
opportunity to work on various parks and gardens and other
related businesses, and generation of revenues to augment
government expenditure[10 - 12].
Ideally, due to the immense benefits that green spaces
provides, it is expected that much spaces in urban areas will
be reserved for such purposes but this has not been the case.
Ironically, statistics shows that urban green spaces are
depleting at a faster rate in urban areas across the world. For
example, a study conducted on changes in land-use in 25
European cities found between 7.3 and 41 percent of lands
reserved for green spaces been lost to different land-uses[13].
Similarly, in USA, a study on land-use change in 274
metropolitan areas revealed a loss of about 1.4 million
hectares of green spaces to different land developments[14].
In Africa, the situation is worse. Studies on several African
countries revealed that there is intense pressure on green
spaces for different human activities resulting in persistent
deterioration of these spaces especially in urban areas where
the pressure is more profound[15, 16]. At the moment, the
rapid depletion of green spaces in Africa has resulted in
green spaces occupying very small per cent of the total land
space of many urban areas. For example, it has been found
out that several towns in the Republic of South Africa have
less than 10 percent of their total lands occupied by green
spaces[17]. The situation in Lagos city (Nigeria) is more
frightening, green spaces now occupy less than 3 per cent of

2 Collins Adjei Mensah: Urban Green Spaces in Africa: Nature and Challenges
the city’s landmass[18]. Furthermore, in Kumasi city (Ghana)
once the Garden city of West Africa, statistics shows that
several of the green paces in the city have been depleted
remaining only a small fraction which together with other
open spaces constitute about 10.7 percent of the total land
area of Kumasi[19].
Despite the excessive destruction and poor management of
green spaces in many regions of the world and Africa in
particular, studies on urban green spaces with particular
emphasis on uncovering the challenges confronting green
spaces are less focused on Africa. Much of such studies are
skewed towards the European sub-region and other regions
of the world. The few studies on Africa are not broad base;
they concentrate on green spaces within a particular city. It is
therefore against this background that this paper was put
together to provide a broader discussion on the nature and
challenges facing urban green spaces on the African
continent. This effort will make it easy for individuals,
policy makers and international bodies to at a goal come into
grips with the pertinent issues militating against the
successful development of green spaces in Africa and hence
contribute in diverse ways to avert the situation.
2. The Concept of Green Spaces in
Urban Landscape
The idea of incorporating elements of nature into urban
plans is an important feature in the history of urban
planning[20]. Different scholars have propounded concepts
that support the integration of green spaces into the physical
landscape of urban areas to enhance the living condition in
these areas. Some of the earliest urban utopian concepts that
stressed on the preservation of urban natural environment
(green spaces) include Charles Fourier’s fantasy villages
called “phalansteries”, Ernest Callebach’s novel “Ecotopia,”
and the most famous Ebenezer Howard’s “Garden City,”
which are all important landmarks in green city movements
[21]. George Cadbury’s “Bournville Village” also made an
important mark.
The term “green space” is a more recent term and its
origin can be traced from the urban nature conservation
movement and the European thinking about green space
planning which started in UK[22, 23]. The meaning of
green space is often confused with other terminologies in
urban planning especially open space and public open
spaces. In most cases these terms are used loosely or
interchangeably. To clarify the meaning of green space and
distinguished it from other concepts in the urban landscape,
some authors came up with the following definitions.
Fratini & Marone[24] used the term green space to cover all
areas that are naturally or artificially covered with vegetation.
Fam et al.[7] defined green spaces as all vegetated spaces
including trees, shrubs, and grasses. In the views of Jim and
Chen[25], green space consist of outdoor spaces which have
some amount of vegetation and mainly found in semi-natural
areas. Kit Cambell Associates[26] opined that green spaces
consist of any vegetated land or structure, water or
geological features found in a given area. Green spaces have
also been defined to cover all green infrastructure such as
network of natural, semi-natural and artificial ecological
system within a given area[27, 28].
Irrespective of the minor differences that exist in the
various definitions on green spaces, it can be deduced that
green spaces in urban areas covers all areas that to some
extent have some form of vegetation either natural or
artificial. It is not only limited to urban parks and gardens. It
covers land that is made up mainly of unsealed, permeable,
“soft” surfaces such as soil, grass, shrubs and trees which
are privately or publicly accessible or managed[22]. To get
much insight about the description of green spaces in urban
landscape, Swanwick et al.[23] came up with the following
clarifications. According to them, urban areas are made up
of the built environment and the external environment
between buildings. The external environment consists of two
main entities, “green space” and “grey space” (Figure 1).
The green space may either be linear (occurred along
transport routes such as roads, railways), semi-natural
(wetlands,woodland), functional (allotments, churchyards,
school grounds) and amenity (parks and gardens)[22, 23].
The second component of the external environment which
is ‘grey space’ covers land that to a greater extent sealed,
impermeable and has ‘hard’ surfaces such as concrete,
paving or tarmac.
The grey space is of two types, functional grey space
(which provide a specific purpose such as roads, pavements,
car parks and other hard surfaced areas related to different
types of built development) and civic grey space (publicly
accessible areas planned basically for public enjoyment such
as town squares, plazas and esplanades)[23].
In view of this classification, Swanwick et al.[23]
described urban open space as a combination of green
spaces and civic grey spaces and defined it as that part of
urban land that contributes to its amenity, either visually by
contributing positively to the urban landscape or by virtue of
public access. All open spaces that the general public have
access to are referred to as public open spaces.
In sum, urban green spaces can therefore be said to be a
subset of urban open spaces. Whilst urban green spaces are
limited to only the vegetative part of the urban environment
specifically the soft lands, urban open spaces on the other
hand encompasses all aspects of green spaces in addition to
those hard land surfaces made purposely for human usage.
3. Materials and Methods

International Journal of Ecosystem 2014, 4(1): 1-11 3
Figure 1. Description of green spaces in urban landscape
The paper was qualitative in nature. It employed the
systematic review approach which deals with using explicit
approach to search, appraise and synthesize available
literature to satisfy the aim of a topic understudy[29, 30].
This approach was utilized due to the nature of the paper
which was broad based laying much emphasis on green
spaces in many cities in Africa. The robust and
comprehensive nature of systematic review helped the paper
to avoid biasness in the analysis of results, allowed a wide
range of data to be assimilated and provided more accurate
and reliable conclusions[29, 30]. The paper dwelled
extensively on secondary materials such as books, journals,
conference papers and reports that concerned themselves
with the topic understudy. Relying on different works on
systematic review, rigorous processes or steps were followed
by the paper to retrieve data and provide the necessary
discussion accordingly[29 - 32]. These processes were as
follows:
1. Identifying publications to be included in the paper
Under this, journals, books and other written documents
that focused on urban planning and landscape, urban
greening, forestry, biodiversity conservation, and
environmental management were of great importance for the
paper since most of these areas of research give much
attention to urban green spaces. Careful attention was given
to some of the publications here to give the paper a solid
theoretical focus.
2. Publications on African continent
Since the thrust of the paper was on green spaces in
African cities, the search was narrowed down to published
materials on green spaces in Africa. Here no restrictions
were put in place. All written materials that were found on
green spaces in Africa irrespective of their content were
Grey Space
Buildings
External Environment
URBAN AREA
Functional
Civic
Green Space
Amenity
Functional
Semi-
natural
Linear
Public open
Space
Open Space
+ Public
access

4 Collins Adjei Mensah: Urban Green Spaces in Africa: Nature and Challenges
utilized. This was done to get a broader overview of green
spaces in Africa.
3. Focusing on the nature and challenges of green spaces
After getting broader overview of green spaces in Africa,
emphasis was given to materials that gave much attention to
the nature and challenges of green spaces in Africa. Rigorous
content analysis was done to clearly decipher the issues that
concern themselves to the topic under study. In situations
where materials did not explicitly focused on the nature and
challenges of green spaces but addresses it with other issues,
careful attention was paid to get the information that were
relevant to the paper.
4. Synthesizing the results
Various results that came out from the content analysis of
the available materials were put together and made meaning
from them to serve as the findings of the paper.
4. The Nature of Urban Green Spaces in
Africa
The findings of the paper revealed that the African
sub-region has different forms of urban green spaces. In most
African countries the major forms of urban green spaces that
were found included the following[33]:
• Semi-private space such as green space in residential,
institutional and industrial areas;
• Designated parks, street trees and roadside
plantations;
• Public green areas such as green parks, botanical
gardens, recreational gardens, outdoor play areas etc.
• Public and private tree plantations on vacant lots,
green belts, woodlands and peri-urban farming;
• Rangeland and forests close to urban areas;
• Natural forest under urban influence such as nature
reserves, national parks, and forests for eco-tourism; and
• Trees planted for environmental protection and
beautification.
Although a variety of green spaces exist in Africa, it came
to the fore that among the various forms of urban green
spaces much emphasis is given to urban trees. The
governments of most African countries in collaboration with
environmental agencies often embark on tree planning
exercises in urban areas to enhance the greenery and air
quality of those areas. The 2011 African Green City Report
indicated that in cities such as Durban and Johannesburg
(South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria), Maputo (Mozambique),
Nairobi (Kenya) and Cairo (Egypt) much emphasis was
given to the growing of trees than other forms of green
spaces. The report revealed that over the last five years
different governments have seriously embarked upon tree
planting exercises to plant about 62000, 500000, and 2800
trees in Durban, Lagos and Maputo cities respectively[34].
Trees commonly found to be grown in African cities
especially West African cities included the following;
Azadirachta indica, Eucalyptus species, Acacia species,
Terminalia catapa, Gmelina arborea, Tectona grandis (teak),
Polyathia longifolia (Weeping willow), Delonix regia and
different species of palm[33]. Royal palm tree, Acacia
auriculiformis, Polyathia longifolia (Weeping Willow),
Cassia siamea (Siamese Cassia) and Mangifera indica
(Mango tree) were among the dominant tree species found in
most urban areas of Ghana[35].
It was discovered further that the distribution of green
spaces in Africa is much concentrated to West, East and
Central Africa, and to some extent the southern part of Africa
than northern Africa. This distribution was found to be
influenced by the vegetation or ecological zones of Africa
(Figure 2). For example, the desert vegetation zone covering
the northern part of Africa where countries such as Tunisia,
Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Libya are located was found to
have unfavourable soil conditions which do not support the
growth of green spaces. In view of this, many urban areas in
northern Africa have limited green spaces[36]. On the
contrary, many cities in the West, East, Central and Southern
Africa were found to have much green spaces compared to
North African cities. This was because most of these cities
are located in the tropical rainforest and deciduous forest
vegetation zones which have favourable soil and rainfall
conditions that support green spaces (Figure 2).
In the western part of Africa, seven broad vegetation zones
were noticed[33]: mangrove forest, fresh water swamp,
rainforest, guinea savanna, sudan savanna, sahel savanna and
desert. Urban areas that lie in the desert and savanna
vegetation zones of West Africa have limited amount of
urban green spaces due to unfavourable soil conditions. For
example, urban areas in the northern part of Mauritania, Mali,
and Niger have limited amount of green spaces because of
the location of those areas within the desert vegetation zones
of West Africa[36]. Similarly, in Ghana and Nigeria, the
northern part of the countries have limited amount of urban
green spaces because those areas fall within the savanna
vegetation zones which have poor soil and vegetation
conditions for the growth of green spaces.
Climate was found to play significant role in the growth of
urban green spaces in Africa. Most African countries
especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa have two major
climate seasons; wet and dry seasons. The dry season is
characterized with very high temperatures and hot weather
conditions with average daily temperatures ranging between
18-30℃. This does not augur well for the development of
urban green spaces because during the dry season, trees and
grasses on many urban green spaces wither due to intense hot
conditions. The dry season in Ghana often called “harmattan”
is characterized with hot and humid conditions in the
southern part of Ghana, and very hot and dry conditions in
the northern part of the country[37]. During this period in
Ghana (November – March) there is excessive dryness of the
green vegetation of most urban areas especially the northern
part of the country. Poor irrigation mechanisms to water
green spaces especially shrubs and lawns in cities compound
this problem causing excessive desiccation of such green
spaces which often ends up in complete disappearance of
such spaces.

International Journal of Ecosystem 2014, 4(1): 1-11 5
Figure 2. Vegetation map of Africa

6 Collins Adjei Mensah: Urban Green Spaces in Africa: Nature and Challenges
5. Challenges Facing the Development of
Urban Green Spaces in Africa
The paper uncovered several factors that impact
negatively on the development and management of greens
spaces in Africa. For the purposes of clarity and easy
understanding, these challenges have been broadly
categorized under three main themes. These are the pressure
of urbanization, insufficient operation of urban planning
regulations and, and socio-economic and political
challenges.
5.1. Pressure of Urbanization
The predominant challenge that was found behind the
deterioration of urban green spaces in Africa was rapid
urbanization[33, 38, 39]. Cairo (Egypt) and Lagos (Nigeria)
which are among the most populous cities in the world can
be found in this region. The 2010 State of African Cities
Report by UN Habitat indicated that over one billion people
are living in Africa and out of this figure, close to 50 per cent
are dwelling in urban areas[40]. The statistics showed by the
report on the intensity of urbanisation and its adverse effects
in Africa was frightening. For example, in West Africa
where countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Cote D’lvoire
and Liberia are located, the total urban population in 2010
was 137.2 million compared to a mere 6.6 million in 1950. It
is projected that by 2050 the total urban population in West
Africa would reach 427.7 million. The urban population in
East Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania etc.) increased from
6 million in 1960 to about 77 million in 2010. The situation
in northern Africa and southern Africa was not different.
Southern Africa (Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Zambia etc.) remains the most urbanised region in Africa
with close to 60 per cent of the human population living in
urban areas. Similarly, more than half of the entire
population in northern Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Libya,
Morocco etc) also lives in urban areas.
The rapid urbanisation in Africa was found to have
resulted in excessive destruction of urban natural
environment such as green spaces[33, 41]. This was
manifested in the sprung up of many informal settlements
(slums) and urban sprawl taking place on lands reserved for
green spaces (such as urban forest, parks, gardens and
outdoor sport areas) to absorb the high urban population.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest slum population in the
world with about 200 million slum dwellers[42]. The high
rate of urbanisation in Kenya with its corresponding increase
in urban sprawl and slums on the destruction of urban green
spaces cannot be over emphasized. Kenya is noted for good
wildlife and natural vegetation in Africa. The population of
Nairobi which is the capital of Kenya has increased
tremendously to the tune of over 3 million people as against
343,500 in 1962[39]. This soaring population has resulted in
high rate of informal settlements and urban sprawl causing
intense destruction to many urban green spaces in Nairobi. It
has been observed that slums or informal settlements in
Nairobi cover nine (9) administrative divisions or areas and
in each of these nine administrative divisions the amount of
green vegetation lost is immense[43].
In Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, the
consequences of rapid urbanisation on the development of
green spaces is alarming. Most of the urban trees both exotic
and local species that were grown to enhance the greenery of
the city and also protect the natural environment have been
destroyed or degraded due to rapid population growth of the
city[41]. The green vegetation of Addis Ababa now covers
only 14.6 per cent of the total land area, this is because most
of the urban trees have been cleared for housing
purposes[41]. Moreover, rapid urbanisation has caused many
cities in West Africa such as Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna,
Sokoto (Nigeria), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone),
Abidjan (Cote D’lvoire), Accra, Kumasi and Tema (Ghana)
to lose substantial amount of urban green spaces to urban
sprawl and infrastructural developments[33]. In a related
development, a study on urban sprawl in Abuja (the capital
city of Nigeria) and its effect on the natural vegetation cover
showed a considerable loss of the natural vegetation to the
expansion of settlements[44]. Specifically, the study
revealed that in 2001 built-up areas covered 30.51 per cent of
the total land area of Abuja whilst that of the natural
vegetation was 21 per cent. However, in 2006 the coverage
of the built-up areas increased to 42.6 per cent whilst in
contrast that of the natural vegetation (green spaces)
decreased to 12.19 per cent as a result of increase in urban
sprawl to contain the high population growth of the city[44].
5.2. Insufficient Operation of Urban Planning
Regulations
Planning of towns in Africa is underlined by regulations
which are made by the legislature and approved by the
central government. Although several land planning
regulations on green spaces were found to be available in
various African countries but the operation of such
regulations was problematic. The following issues were
found to hinder the effective operation of urban planning
regulations on green spaces in Africa: the dysfunctional
nature of urban planning regulations; bureaucratic processes
involved in issuing development permits and weakness of
the planning institutions as result of insufficient resources to
work with.
The dysfunctional nature of the urban planning regulations
in Africa can be linked to the outdated nature of some of
these regulations to address the current development trends
in urban areas. It was revealed that some of the urban
planning regulations operating in some countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa were made about 60 years ago along the
lines of the planning regulations of their colonial masters at
that time such as the British, French and Germans[45]. For
example, the 1946 Town Planning Ordinance of Nigeria, the
1948 Town Planning Act of Malawi[46], the 1956 Town
Planning Ordinance of Tanzania[47] and the 1945 Town and
Country Planning Ordinance of Ghana are still in operation.
Little or no changes have been made to these regulations and
this makes it difficult for such regulations to

International Journal of Ecosystem 2014, 4(1): 1-11 7
comprehensively address some of the current urban
development problems such as rapid urbanisation and the
fast depletion of green spaces.
In addition to this, most African countries over rely on
master plans to manage urban areas. The master plan shows
on a map the outlook of desired urban form to be achieved in
future[48]. These master plans are not able to deal with new
challenges associated with urban developments in Africa
such as excessive destruction of green spaces. This is
because most of these master plans are outdated, rigid and
their preparation did not involve the participation of wider
stakeholders including the local people. The physical
development of Abuja (Nigeria) is still based on a master
plan which was prepared in the 1970s[48]. It was also
detected that the master plan for Lusaka (Zambia) drawn up
by Doxiadis in 1968, and the 1944 master plan for Accra
(Ghana) revised in 1957 are still in operation[48]. New
development patterns in these cities make it difficult for
these master plans to effectively guide the growth of these
cities resulting in massive encroachment of many green
spaces.
Delays in giving decisions on development permits by
planning authorities with its associated bureaucratic
processes was found to have consequences on the
development of urban greens space in Africa. It takes a very
long period about four years in Tanzania for a developer to
get all land documents such as detailed plans and building
permit approved by the planning authorities[47]. Similarly, it
has been observed that in Nigeria lengthy bureaucratic
procedures have to be followed before one can get the
necessary papers to proceed with any land development. One
has to go through about thirty-two (32) processes in Nigeria
before he/she can get the available land documents and this
could last for a year or more[49]. Furthermore, long
bureaucratic processes in securing development permits
from planning authorities have also been identified to take
place in Ghana and Cameroun[45]. Specifically, it came to
the fore that it takes about two years, and between 2-7 years
to get land titles and other development documents in Ghana
and Cameroun respectively[45]. All these long processes
influenced developers and other individuals in urban areas to
evade the required planning procedures to embark on land
projects which are unauthorised. The outcome of this has
been massive encroachment of green space lands for housing
and commercial activities by private developers in many
urban areas. Furthermore, lengthy bureaucratic processes
were found to give rise to corrupt practices such as collection
of bribes by planning authorities from private developers to
speed up the process. For instance, a study on Festac Town in
Lagos associated the poor physical development of the town
to bribes which are collected by the city planning
authorities[50]. The findings of that study showed that some
officials of the Federal Housing Unit in charge of Festac
Town area collects bribes before granting development
permits to developers. This was discovered to be a major
cause of high growth of unauthorized building structures in
Festac Town which have destructed much of the green
vegetation in the town. This is because developers can pay
bribes to get documents to encroach on lands reserved for
green spaces.
Furthering on corruption, misappropriation and
embezzlement of state funds meant for socio-economic
developments such as projects on green spaces by
government officials was also found as a problem
undermining the successful development of green spaces in
Africa[38]. Embezzlement of funds strongly came up as an
issue in Harare (capital city of Zimbabwe) to hamper the
protection of sensitive natural sites (green spaces) and the
integration of such sites into the overall plan and design of
the city[51]. It was revealed that despite provision of some
funds by donor agencies to incorporate ecological zones into
the plan of Harare city such funds were diverted or
embezzled by some government officials rendering the
project to be in standstill[51].
Compounding the problem of insufficient operation of
urban planning regulations in Africa was poor enforcement
of land planning regulations on green spaces. Inadequate
skilled personnel, insufficient logistics, financial constraints,
political interference and lack of coordination between
planning authorities were found to be the cause this problem.
Concerning poor coordination, this was found in Addis
Ababa to impact negatively on the protection of urban parks
as the coordination between government institutions, private
organization and NGOs on green spaces was poor[52]. The
coordination and partnership between government and
private institutions on green spaces in many West African
countries were also found not to be in good condition[33].
This is due to the fact that most city authorities in West
Africa do not recognize private organisation as important
entities on green spaces and therefore often take decisions
without the active involvement of the private sector. Poor
coordination between the various planning institutions in
Harare (capital city Zimbabwe) surfaced as a problem behind
the destruction of green spaces and insufficient dialogue
between the institutions was found out as a cause for that[51].
With respect to political interference it was found out that the
activities of the Harare city authorities are often politically
interfered especially when it comes to taking necessary
actions against individuals who encroaches upon green space
lands. Some of the offenders normally go scot free because
of close links they have with top government officials[51].
Lack of political will to undertake projects on green
spaces also emerged as a dominant challenge. Policy makers
were found to lack political will to initiate policies or
measures to enhance the development of urban green spaces
in many African cities. Factor analysis performed to
ascertain the factors destructing green spaces in Lagos city
pointed out lack of political will of the planning authorities to
initiate policies on green paces as a major factor for such
destructions[53]. The issue of lack of political will was also a
major problem in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Beautification
projects scheduled to be undertaken on about 300 hectares of

8 Collins Adjei Mensah: Urban Green Spaces in Africa: Nature and Challenges
land to enhance green spaces along the principal roads of
Addis Ababa have not been accomplished for some years
now due to lack of political will of the city authorities to get
the project ongoing[52].
In probing further on the poor enforcement of planning
regulations on green spaces in Africa, matters of unqualified
skilled personnel, low staff strength, financial constraints
and lack of logistics were discovered as predominant factors
that worry most institutions on green spaces in Africa. These
issues were among the key findings at Addis Ababa
(Ethiopia) where the authorities on green spaces were hit
with shortages of manpower and severe financial constraints
[52]. Similarly, in Abidjan, the body in charge of Parks and
Gardens was crippled with unqualified personnel and
financial inefficiencies[54]. The situation in Kumasi and
other cities in Ghana were not different. The Department of
Parks and Gardens, the official body in charge of the
development and maintenance of green spaces was found to
be in crises with woefully inadequate staff, lack of several
basic equipment for their activities, and limited funds to
undertake their planned activities[55]. These problems make
it difficult for many institutions on green spaces in Africa to
strictly enforce regulations on green spaces and also initiate
policies to preserve green spaces.
5.3. Social-economic and Political Challenges
Poverty emerged from the analysis of the paper to also
contribute to the depletion green space in Africa. The 2010
State of African Cities Report indicated that the rate of
Africa’s urban poverty is critical[40]. The findings of the
report included the following. As at 2003, about 47 per cent
of urban dwellers in Benin and 57 per cent of urban dwellers
in Burkina Faso lived on less than one dollar ($1) a day. In
2004 and 2005, as many as about 66 per cent of urban
dwellers in Niger and 65 percent of urban dwellers in Nigeria
lived below one dollar a day respectively. It was further
revealed that about 30 per cent of urban dwellers in Ghana
lived below one dollar a day in 2006. The high rate of urban
poverty in Africa has been linked to the depletion of Africa’s
green environment as many of the poor tend to over rely on
these resources for their survival[40]. Similar findings came
up in a study at South Africa which found many poor
communities to rely much on the green environment for
additional income or to improve their livelihood[15]. The
resultant effect has been excessive destruction of green
spaces in many urban areas in Africa by the poor to satisfy
their needs.
Lack of priority to green spaces in the development
agenda of some cities in Africa was uncovered to hinder the
growth of green spaces. Green spaces were found not be
among the main priorities of many African countries.
Matters of poverty reduction and provision of social
amenities such as housing, schools, hospitals and pipe-borne
water constitute the top priorities of many African countries.
This has influenced national governments and city
authorities not to give much attention and commit the needed
funds for the creation and maintenance of green spaces.
Bolnick et al.[56] echoed this by indicating that in Africa
much attention is given to brown agenda to the neglect of
green agenda which focuses on preserving the green
environment. Lugoe[57] observed that low priority given to
green spaces in Tanzania has resulted in poor
implementation of urban land-use projects on green spaces.
In Kisumu (third largest city in Kenya), it came to light that
due to low priority to green spaces many of the urban parks
have not received attention for long time causing most of the
parks to lack basic facilities such as chairs, toilets, notice
boards and playing facilities for children[58]. Similar results
was the case in Abidjan where several parks and gardens
were found in precarious condition with little or no
maintenance activities taken place due to little attention
given to green spaces in the city[54]. The low priority to
green spaces was found to have resulted in many city
authorities not providing good security on urban parks to
enhance the safety of park visitors. In Kenya, some urban
parks were found to be hibernated by drug peddlers,
criminals and had no security guards to keep the place safe
for users[58]. The Kumasi Children’s Park in Ghana is no go
area for many residents of Kumasi because the place has
been taken over by criminals with a whole lot of criminal
activities taken place on the park especially at night. A study
by Taylor[59] confirmed this when poor security on the
Kumasi Children’s Park was found as major factor hindering
the usage of the park. This situation on some parks in Africa
discourages many individuals from using public parks.
Uncooperative attitudes of urban dwellers towards the
management of green spaces also emerged as a predominant
challenge. This was found to be the result of lack of
involvement of the local people in decision making on green
spaces and poor awareness of the local people on the benefits
of green spaces. For example, decisions on green spaces in
many southern African countries (Malawi, Lesotho,
Mozambique) were found to be undertaken mostly by city
planning authorities without active involvement of the local
people[60]. This problem also resonated in a study on
national parks in Sub-Saharan Africa which found the local
people in different parts of Zambia, Cameroon and Benin not
consulted and involved in the management of parks in their
localities[61]. The poor involvement of the local people
together with their poor awareness on the benefits of green
spaces[54] have influenced most local people to perceive the
protection of green spaces as the sole responsibility of
planning authorities and therefore do not take good care of
these spaces in their neigbhourhoods. These have ended up
in indiscriminate destruction of green spaces by the local
people and conversion of some parts of many parks into
refuse dump in cities such as Kisumu (Kenya), Freetown
(Sierra Leone), Ibadan, Kaduna, Lagos (Nigeria), Kumasi
and Accra (Ghana)[33, 58].
Political instability was the last challenge that strongly
came up as a contributory factor for the poor management
and rapid deterioration of urban green spaces in Africa. Over
the last two decades, several civil wars have taken place in
many African countries such as Sudan, Somalia, Liberia,

International Journal of Ecosystem 2014, 4(1): 1-11 9
Chad, Mali, Cote D’lvoire, Sierra Leone, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Angola and Libya. The
devastating effects of these civil wars on urban development
as well as green spaces cannot be underestimated. For
example, in Libaria, over 10 year’s civil war in the country
destroyed substantial amount of urban natural environment
in areas such as Monrovia (capital city) and Bunchanan[62].
The Somalia civil war destroyed many urban trees. During
the war some major urban areas such as Hargeisa, Borama,
Berbera and Erigavo were the hot spots of the war and in
view of that both indigenous and foreign trees in these areas
were destroyed through cross bombardments[63]. In addition
to this, urban green spaces in Rwanda also came under
serious destructions caused by the civil war in Rwanda that
occurred in the 1990s. It was estimated that the civil war in
Rwanda destroyed some aspects of Gishwati forest, much of
Mukura forest, and about 70 per cent loss of the Akagera
National Park[64].
6. Conclusions
All in all, Africa as a region has diverse urban green
spaces with much attention given to the growing of urban
trees. Most of the green spaces in Africa are concentrated in
Sub-Saharan Africa than North Africa because of
unfavorable vegetation and soil conditions. The overall
development of urban green spaces in Africa was found to be
hindered by many challenges. These challenges include
urbanisation, low resource base of institutions on green
spaces, lack of priority to green spaces, the influence of
poverty, corruption, uncooperative attitudes of the local
people and political instability. To address these challenges,
joint and committed efforts by national governments, city
authorities and the local people to preserve these spaces is
crucial. Green spaces should be treated as among the top
priorities of cities with the core institutions managing the
green spaces well resourced to go about their activities as
expected of them.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is an extract from an ongoing project been
undertaken by the author to devise strategies to sustain urban
green spaces in Africa with particular emphasis on Ghana.
Special thanks go to my friend Otuo Serebour Agyemang
who inspired me to write this paper. I also want to thank in
advance the anonymous reviewer for the time and efforts that
he/she spent to review this paper.
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