Africa’s remaining tropical glaciers are rapidly disappearing as greenhouse gas emissions drive global warming.
New maps published by Project Pressure show the Stanley Plateau glacier, in Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, lost nearly 30% of its surface area between 2020 and 2024.
The Rwenzoris’ glaciers are a vital source of water for more than 5 million people living in the plains below the mountain range; they also have cultural significance.
Project Pressure’s ongoing surveys, carried out in collaboration with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, are intended to provide local authorities with data needed to adapt to the loss of the glaciers and other impacts of climate change.
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Africa’s remaining tropical glaciers are rapidly disappearing as greenhouse gas emissions drive global warming. In the Rwenzori Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, the retreat of glaciers is endangering local communities’ water security, livelihoods, and culture warns the NGO Project Pressure on the inaugural World Day for Glaciers.
The Stanley Plateau glacier in the Rwenzori Mountains pictured in 2022 and 2024. Since 2020, the glacier lost nearly 30% of its mass. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
Since 2012, Klaus Thymann, director of Project Pressure, has led expeditions to the Rwenzori Mountains to track the demise of their glaciers. The pace of decline is “staggering,” he says. Mount Baker and Mount Speke have both lost their glaciers already, and the remaining glaciers on Mount Stanley are increasingly fragmented. Surveys found that the Stanley Plateau glacier lost nearly 30% of its surface area between 2020 and 2024.
Klaus Thymann has led multiple expeditions to the Rwenzoris since 2012, witnessing a “staggering” rate of glacier retreat in that short time. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
Klaus Thymann has led multiple expeditions to the Rwenzoris since 2012, witnessing a “staggering” rate of glacier retreat in that short time. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
“The pure basics of glaciers is that it has to be cold,” says Thymann. “As the melting point rises, they simply vanish and that’s what’s happening in the Rwenzori Mountains.”
In recent years, as more and more greenhouse gas emissions have entered the atmosphere, the melting point — the elevation at which temperatures are too warm to form and preserve glacial ice — has crept ever upward. Now it sits above the Stanley Plateau Glacier; it’s estimated this glacier will be gone in a matter of years, soon followed by the mountains’ remaining glaciers.
“That will happen in my lifetime,” Thymann says.
Africa’s tropical glaciers are found in the Rwenzori Mountains, on Mount Kenya, and Mount Kilimanjaro. At current rates of warming, the U.N. says they will all be gone by 2050.
Their loss will be felt in many ways across the region, says Alfred Masereka, an ecological monitoring and research ranger with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, who lives in the area. The Rwenzori Mountains are the highest point feeding the Nile, and the waters that flow from these glaciers are an important source of freshwater for around 5 million people downstream.
Masereka says the water flowing from the glaciers has also been pivotal in the development of industry via hydropower, irrigated crops, and supporting livestock and fisheries. The frozen peaks have also brought in vital tourism dollars for local people.
“Because of the glaciers, local communities have earned a lot of money,” he says. “They have been able to pay school fees for their children, develop their homes, and access good medical facilities.”
Climate change isn’t just shrinking glaciers; it’s increased the risk of floods, mudslides and wildfires. A mudslide earlier this year damaged the home of Kule Jocknus Bwabu Solomon, pictured, in the Rwenzori foothills. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
Climate change isn’t just shrinking glaciers; it’s increased the risk of floods, mudslides and wildfires. A mudslide earlier this year damaged the home of Kule Jocknus Bwabu Solomon, pictured, in the Rwenzori foothills. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
As well as raising average temperatures, climate change has also made the dry seasons drier , and the wet seasons wetter. That’s exposed the region to fierce wildfires and dangerous mudslides.
Like many glaciers around the world, those in the Rwenzori Mountains hold special significance for the Bakonzo people, who live at the foot of the mountain range. In Bakonzo cosmology, the god Kithasamba is said to reside in the snow and ice on Mount Stanley. As the glaciers melt, their god is literally losing a home.
“The Bakonzo people, who live along the Rwenzoris, get their heritage and pride from the glaciers,” Masereka says.
A research team from Project Pressure, UNESCO and the Uganda Wildlife Authority, has mapped the Rwenzori Mountains’ remaining glaciers and installed long-term monitoring equipment. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
A research team from Project Pressure, UNESCO and the Uganda Wildlife Authority has mapped the Rwenzori Mountains’ remaining glaciers and installed long-term monitoring equipment. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
In collaboration with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Project Pressure recently created a 3D model of the Stanley Plateau glacier.
“The idea is that the local people, in collaboration with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, collect the data,” Thymann says. That could help inform adaptation, particularly when it comes to water security and storage.
Mount Baker photographed in 1968 and in 2024. Today, it’s almost ice free. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.
“Without data, you cannot take informed decisions,” Masereka says, “but now this research will help us take decisions from an informed point of view.”
He says he hopes the mapping brings the world’s attention to the demise of these glaciers. “We are losing glaciers that are very, very important to the livelihood of the communities along the entire Rwenzoris.”
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Citations:
Hinzmann, A., Mölg, T., Braun, M., Cullen, N. J., Hardy, D. R., Kaser, G., & Prinz, R. (2024). Tropical glacier loss in East Africa: Recent areal extents on Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and in the Rwenzori Range from high-resolution remote sensing data. Environmental Research: Climate, 3(1), 011003. doi:10.1088/2752-5295/ad1fd7
Thompson, L. G., Brecher, H. H., Mosley-Thompson, E., Hardy, D. R., & Mark, B. G. (2009). Glacier loss on Kilimanjaro continues unabated. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(47), 19770-19775. doi:10.1073/pnas.0906029106
Knight, J. (2023). The last glaciers in Africa and their environmental implications. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 200, 104863. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2023.104863
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