Country Comments

The Central Africa Republic (CAR) is one of the world’s most economically impoverished countries. CAR has a human development index in the bottom 10 percent, meaning that lifespans, education levels and per capita GDP there are among the lowest in the world. The country, however, is rich in biocapacity and biodiversity. It is in the equatorial region of Africa and much of the country is part of the Congo Basin, home to the second-largest rainforest on the planet. As a result of this rich biodiversity, CAR’s current population is more than sustainable. Unfortunately this verdant environment may be completely transformed by the end of the century by the dominant force of population growth driven by a very high average fertility rate of 5 children per mother over the past decade. More than 80 percent of the region’s total forest loss is actually small-scale clearing for subsistence agriculture to feed the growing population.

The civil war that erupted in 2013 not surprisingly severely undermined conservation efforts virtually wiping out elephants from one of their historical strongholds in Central Africa. Recent aerial surveys found that elephants might be locally extinct in the northern Central African Republic. The country still experiences much political instability, violence and human rights abuse leaving little security for people or wildlife.