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What Is the Environmental Cost of China's Helping Hand In Africa?

China is building roads, ports, railway lines, power plants and other infrastructure needed by African countries and others around the world. A Belt and Road Initiative adopted in 2013 as a global infrastructure development strategy will see investment in almost 70 countries and international organisations.

 

These ventures could generate economic growth opportunities, with the World Bank estimating growth of 3,4% to economies of those countries. However, these developments often lead to the expansion of human movement which can promote deforestation, illegal wildlife trafficking and the spread of invasive species write Blake Alexander Simmons, Kevin P. Gallagher and Rebecca Ray for The Conversation.

China has a large presence in many African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, with critics accusing those countries and others of turning a blind eye to allegations of China's human rights abuses.

InFocus

Pixabay, Lungelo Ndhlovu / Thomson Reuters Foundation, Google, ZSM/Wikimedia Commons

Construction of infrastructure in Africa (file photo).

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