Natural Sciences

Regional Challenges

The rich endowment of natural resources in the non-Sahel West Africa region offers great benefits and opportunities to the countries in the purview and their people – but also certain risks. While enjoying rich biodiversity, diverse landscapes, and vas natural resources, the region faces important challenges in environmental sustainability and protection, including rapid biodiversity loss, desertification, land degradation, and emerging water pollutants. To effectively respond to these growing issues, it is key to develop science, technology, and innovation (STI) systems and technologies that allow for more efficient utilization of natural resources, to reduce pollution, to diversify the national economy, and to update economic structures. However, limited government commitment for STI policies and a lack of quality STI statistics and indicators are further limiting factors.