Africa's rich abundance of life seems inexhaustible, but growing pressure on animals and plants could lead to greater poverty, more wars and migration to other continents, experts warned. From fish in Burkina Faso, to Ethiopian wild coffee, Kenyan forests and traditional medicine plants in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the continent's natural resources are being threatened by human activity and climate change, experts say. "If Africa's systems degrade and human wellbeing becomes an issue, cycles of poverty, violence and wars will get worse," said John Donaldson of South Africa's National Biodiversity Institute. He was speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Cape Town that gathered over 300 policymakers, scientists and activists from 15 African countries and Germany to discuss research into the protection of plants and animals around the continent. Surging populations, overuse of land, and climate change threaten to kill off creatures around Africa, where up to 15% of all species currently face extinction, the conference heard. However, on a continent where economies depend heavily on natural resources for mining, agriculture and tourism, changing the behaviour of people to protect animal and plant life is a challenge. "If you are really hungry and you don't know how to feed your children the next day, you don't care about biodiversity or anything else which isn't of instant importance to you," said Edward Linsenmair of the African conservation group Biota. According to Donaldson, the key is to get governments and individuals to make long-term plans for the environment. "With poor communities you have to understand the dynamics driving land use in the first place." Jakob Fahr from the German University of Ulm gave an example from West Africa where Mount Nimba, teeming with diverse flora and fauna, represents a "deadly cocktail" for long-term conservation. The mountain has been declared by the United Nations as a World Heritage in Danger. It straddles the borders of C