What Is Wrong with Us? When we treat trees as strangers and forget we are part of nature

There is a quiet contradiction unfolding across Africa, and it deserves urgent reflection. We are a continent whose ancestors understood the sacred value of forests, rivers, wetlands, and sacred groves. Across generations, African societies lived with an instinctive awareness that human life was inseparable from nature. Trees were not viewed merely as timber. Rivers were not seen merely as water channels. Forests were not empty land waiting to be cleared. They were living systems that sustained life, moderated climate, protected soils, and preserved the delicate balance between human existence and the natural world.

Yet today, much of modern Africa is behaving as though nature is external to us, as though forests are separate from our survival rather than central to it. What is wrong with us is not simply that we are losing trees. What is wrong with us is that we are increasingly acting as though we are apart from nature instead of part of it.

That illusion is becoming dangerously expensive. Africa currently records the highest net forest loss rate in the world. Between 2010 and 2020, the continent lost approximately 3.9 million hectares of forest annually, more than any other global region. Nearly half of all global deforestation during parts of that period occurred on African soil. These figures are not just environmental statistics. They represent declining rainfall systems, rising temperatures, disappearing watersheds, weakened agricultural resilience, and shrinking ecological security for millions of people.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom): When a people cut down the shade that shelters them, they are not destroying trees alone; they are dismantling tomorrow.

We have begun to forget that nature is not outside us

Across many African countries, deforestation is still treated as an unfortunate side effect of economic growth rather than a central threat to national survival.

Trees are cut for charcoal, timber, road expansion, settlement growth, mining activity, and agricultural expansion. Forest land is often classified as unused land simply because it has not yet been cleared. Standing forests are too often regarded as dormant assets rather than living infrastructure. Yet forests are among the most productive systems on Earth.

They regulate rainfall patterns, protect water bodies, stabilise soil, cool temperatures, absorb carbon emissions, and sustain biodiversity that underpins agriculture itself. When forests disappear, the consequences are never confined to trees alone. Rivers become shallow. Flooding intensifies. Drought becomes more frequent. Crop yields weaken. Entire local economies become more fragile. In countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, these consequences are no longer theoretical. They are visible and measurable.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom): The forest does not breathe for itself alone. It breathes also for those too impatient to protect it.

Short-term extraction has replaced long term stewardship

Africa’s environmental dilemma is not rooted in ignorance alone. It is increasingly driven by short-term extraction, replacing long-term stewardship.

In earlier eras, colonial systems extracted African forest wealth for export. Today, too often, African institutions, businesses, and communities have inherited the same extractive logic. The pattern is simple and deeply damaging: clear now, profit now, restore later if at all. This mindset fuels illegal logging, unchecked charcoal economies, unregulated land conversion, and the destruction of forest reserves for immediate financial return. Contrast this with countries that once faced similar crises and chose a different path. Costa Rica reversed severe deforestation through restoration incentives and now enjoys over half its territory under forest cover. South Korea restored degraded post-war landscapes through national reforestation programmes that transformed barren hills into thriving green systems. China has undertaken some of the largest reforestation campaigns in modern history. African nations do not lack knowledge. Africa does not lack ecological wisdom. What is lacking is consistent alignment between what we know and what we are willing to protect.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom): A nation that harvests without restoring is spending ecological capital it did not create.

We have normalised environmental self-harm

Perhaps the most uncomfortable truth is that Africa’s environmental decline is increasingly self-inflicted. Much deforestation is no longer imposed from outside. It is now sustained internally through tolerated practices that undermine long-term collective survival. Forest reserves are encroached upon with social acceptance. Riverbanks are stripped for farming without restoration. Mangroves are destroyed for fuel. Hillsides are cleared without erosion safeguards. In many communities, such actions are seen as necessary economic survival choices. In some cases, they are. But necessity does not remove consequence. The Congo Basin, the world’s second-largest rainforest after the Amazon, is under growing pressure from logging, mining, and agricultural expansion. Scientific studies now warn that parts of Africa’s forest systems are shifting from carbon sinks into carbon sources due to sustained degradation. This is not simply environmental decline. It is ecological self-sabotage.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom): When rivers dry, and rains fail, nature is not punishing us. It is reflecting us.

We continue to define development as if trees are obstacles to progress

In too many parts of Africa, development is still visually interpreted through land clearance.

1. A forested area is labelled unused land.
2. A cleared wetland is described as opportunity.
3. A stripped hillside is called expansion.

Yet advanced economies increasingly measure progress differently. European cities are restoring urban forests and green belts. Rwanda has prioritised landscape restoration. Ethiopia has invested in large-scale tree planting campaigns. Singapore integrates dense urban growth with disciplined environmental design. Meanwhile, in too many African settings, the bulldozer still arrives before environmental planning. This is not a rejection of development. Africa needs roads, housing, industry, and infrastructure. But development that destroys ecological foundations undermines its own future.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom): If development begins by destroying the roots of life, it builds prosperity on borrowed time.

The economic cost of deforestation is far greater than it appears

Deforestation often appears profitable only because its true costs are delayed.

1. The timber trader may profit today.
2. The charcoal producer may survive this month.
3. The land developer may earn this year.

But the larger bill comes later.

1. Farmers pay through declining rainfall.
2. Governments pay through flood damage and infrastructure repair.
3. Communities pay through water scarcity and soil degradation.
4. Future generations inherit ecological debt they did not create.

Globally, forests still cover over four billion hectares, yet the world continues to lose nearly ten million hectares annually. Africa’s share remains disproportionately severe because forest decline here is accelerating while other regions have slowed. What appears to be local economic gain is often long term national ecological impoverishment.

What must change in us

Africa’s deforestation challenge is not only a forestry issue. It is a governance issue, an educational issue, and above all, a behavioural issue.

Five shifts are urgently needed.

1. First, ecological education must begin early. Children must be raised to understand that human beings are part of ecosystems, not masters over them.
2. Second, environmental laws must move from symbolism to enforcement. Illegal logging and destructive land clearing cannot continue without consequence.
3. Third, forest protection must become economically rewarding. Communities that preserve forests should directly benefit from doing so.
4. Fourth, urban planning must integrate environmental intelligence. Cities must preserve green corridors, wetlands, and tree systems.
5. Fifth, traditional African ecological wisdom must be restored into public policy thinking. Indigenous conservation knowledge remains one of Africa’s greatest underused strengths.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom): A people who plant only for profit will one day discover that profit cannot summon rain.

What is wrong with us and why we keep sustaining it

What is wrong with us is not lack of awareness.

1. We know forests matter.
2. We know rainfall depends on tree cover.
3. We know rivers depend on protected watersheds.
4. We know ecological destruction carries consequences.

Yet we continue. That is the deeper crisis. Not ignorance, but failure of ecological conscience. Africa is not apart from nature. Africa is nature. Its forests are not decorative margins around human life. They are part of the lungs, kidneys, and climate regulators of our collective future. The tragedy is that we are behaving like tenants damaging the only house we own. If this pattern continues, Africa will not simply lose trees. It will lose rainfall stability, agricultural resilience, biodiversity wealth, water security, and climate balance at once.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom): The axe forgets, but the forest remembers every cut.

1. The real question is no longer whether Africa can afford to protect its forests.
2. The real question is whether Africa can afford to continue behaving as though forests are optional.

And perhaps that is the hardest truth of all: What is wrong with us is that we are weakening the very natural systems that make our existence possible, while assuming they will continue to sustain us indefinitely.

About Ing. Professor Douglas Boateng

Ing. Professor Douglas Boateng is a pioneering international industrial, manufacturing, and production systems engineer, governance strategist, and Pan-African thought leader whose work continues to shape boardroom thinking, supply chain transformation, and industrialisation across both the continent and globally. As Africa’s first appointed Professor Extraordinaire in Supply Chain Management, he has consistently championed the integration of procurement, value chain, industrialisation strategy, and governance into national and continental development agendas, aligning practice with purpose and long-term impact. An International Chartered Director and Chartered Engineer, he has received numerous lifetime achievement awards and authored several authoritative books. He is also the scribe of the globally acclaimed and widely followed daily NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom), which continues to inspire reflection, accountability, and purposeful living among audiences worldwide. His work is driven by a simple yet powerful belief: Africa’s transformation will not come from rhetoric but from deliberate action, strong institutions, and leaders willing to build for future generations.

Written by Ing. Professor Douglas Boateng
Chartered Director UK • Chartered Engineer UK • Fellow Institute of Directors UK • Fellow Ghana Institution of Engineering

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