Only about one-third of Africa's original forest cover still remains. Some twenty African countries by the year 2050 will not have enough fresh water to meet their agricultural, industrial, and domestic needs. But some examples of such exploitation are instructive, since they show that the people, and to a large degree, the country overall has not benefited from their resource anywhere near as much as they might have. The wealth from Nigerian oil, for example, is not distributed widely throughout Nigerian society, remaining with only a very few foreign companies and now very wealthy Nigerians. The same story applies to Botswana's diamonds.
Mining is also the only sector in which direct foreign investment is increasing.
In the past, gold mining operations were not significantly regulated and, not surprisingly, companies did not invest much in environmental management and restoration, and community development. At the same time, communities living adjacent to the gold mining operations and who have long suffered from their negative environmental impacts have become more vocal in expressing their concerns and needs. A fourth example, this time dealing with a so-called renewable resource, comes from Central Africa's forests. Two countries, Cote d'Ivoire and Central Africa Republic, risk losing all that is left unless immediate action is taken. There is a dearth of large-scale, national timber industries in Africa and, in Central Africa, they are absent altogether.