Hello, I'm glad to share my first report in this 21st  term as regional representative for Africa. In recent African Union Presidential Summit that took place in Rwanda, Kigali on 21st  Mar 2018. 44 African countries signed an agreement of continental free trade area. All countries, government bodies, International Organizations, Companies and Individuals are expecting much in this agreement; but particularly how environmental actors respond to this? That's what we're going through in this report.

Drawing on different reports released by environmental institutions in Africa, there are pros and cons concerning free movement of goods and people in general. It is even harder to determine which one weight more than other, because there are some policies that are foregone to regulate cross-border operations. However, cons weight more on the side of ecosystem. The faster economy undergoes the growing transition; the more traditional environment mitigations outdate and expose ecosystem to critical condition.

Well, starting with pros, governments get involved expecting mainly resource mobilization benefits. Which is good for land locked countries like Rwanda for example. Rapid growth in all aspects of the economic development such as the emerging of new supply chain of the agriculture products. The policy really touches most facets of the economic sector and lead to dramatic personal and states development. Concrete example is the European Union; during the industrial revolution, the continent was undergoing the fastest development transition ever.

Things are different in the ecosystem aspect and requires much effort to stabilize. There have been different reports on endangered species even on this platform. Actually those who watch closely reported above 80% of those horrible acts to be cross border crimes, therefore when you decide to deploy free movement of people and goods policy, you should enhance security for those endangered species otherwise they will disappear dramatically. That's how someone come with zoo parks policy some years ago in Europe. The first zoo park was created in 1828 for scientific purpose, it was London Zoo.

The more states get involved deep, the more possibility to the ecosystem threatens. Concrete examples include, Industrialization, fastest growing mobility facilities such as the increase of personal, public and transit vehicles, in few words the fastest growing transition of energy sector which is among the largest emitters of carbon dioxide. During the industrial revolution, Europe was enjoying their works' benefits to the fullest, today things have changed and everyone is worrying about climate changes. Extreme hotness, extreme coldness a concrete example is recent extreme heat reached 30-degree C in Sweden.

Today Africa is undergoing the fastest transition of development as Europe some years ago. Everyone is thirsty of the economic revolution and the benefits, but without giving attention to the ecosystem and climate change can be foolishness. After all, it is a global issue. There is no them and us. What is happening there, tomorrow can happen here. I can't say free trade area is a horrible economic policy to go for, but requires special attention specifically for ecosystem.