Eswatini Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

limited supplies of potable water; wildlife populations being depleted because of excessive hunting; population growth, deforestation, and overgrazing lead to soil erosion and soil degradation

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Climate

varies from tropical to near temperate

Land use

agricultural land: 68.3% (2018 est.)

arable land: 9.8% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.8% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 57.7% (2018 est.)

forest: 31.7% (2018 est.)

other: 0% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 24.8% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 2.42% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Food insecurity

severe localized food insecurity:due to higher staple food prices - the price of maize meal, the key food staple, increased in the first five months of 2022 and, as of May 2022, were 3 percent higher on a yearly basis; wheat flour prices were also at record highs in May 2022; this mainly reflects the elevated global prices and the country’s high dependence on imported wheat to satisfy national consumption needs (2022)

Revenue from forest resources

2.25% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0.1% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 15.07 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 1.16 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 1.9 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 218,199 tons (2016 est.)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 40 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 20 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 1.01 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

4.51 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)