World Environment 2021, 11(1): 9-25 DOI: 10.5923/j.env.20211101.02 The Assessment of China’s Scramble for Natural Resources Extraction in Africa E. C. Merem 1,* , Y. A. Twumasi 2 , J. Wesley 1 , D. Olagbegi 1 , M. Crisler 1 , C. Romorno 1 , M. Alsarari 1 , P. Isokpehi 1 , M. Alfarei 1 , G. S. Ochai 3 , E. Nwagboso 4 , S. Fageir 5 , S. Leggett 6 1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Jackson State University, 101 Capitol Center, Jackson, MS, USA 2 Department of Urban Forestry and Natural Resources, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA 3 African Development Bank, AfDB, 101 BP 1387 Avenue Joseph Anoma, Abidjan, AB 1, Ivory Coast 4 Department of Political Science, Jackson State University, 1400 John R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, USA 5 Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, Jackson State University, 1400 John R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, USA 6 Department of Behavioral and Environmental Health, Jackson State University, 350 Woodrow Wilson, Jackson, MS, USA Abstract Recent narratives in various areas of Africa reveals the growing influence of China in many facets of the economy with a hold on the control of the continent’s natural resources based on invitation. Just as every nation has a right to trade with others, commerce remains the life blood of many African countries where natural resources commodity flow stands as the economic engine driving the generation of revenues. While African countries rely on the ensuing bilateral deals often tagged as resources for infrastructure swaps. The lust for foreign assisted programs in economic development in exchange for natural resources access among African countries over the years provided an opening for China’s presence in the spirit of global commerce in the continent. While China’s robust investments in physical development, renewable and non-renewable resources can no longer be dismissed as solely a pretense to aid African development in exchange for something given some of the upsides. The scale of these activities continues to have profound effects on the ecology of the countries in the continent in the form of degradation of natural areas, deforestation, and erosion of biodiversity. Yet very little exists in current studies to assess the ecological risks from the growing presence of China and the scramble for Africa’s natural resources. For that, this enquiry will fill that void by using mix-scale methods of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and descriptive statistics in assessing China’s presence and the quest for natural resources in the continent. Emphasis are on the issues, trends, factors, impacts and efforts. The results reveal vast exploitative activities directed at renewable and nonrenewable assets involving mineral ores, oil and gas, lumber, and fishery with notable impacts on the ecosystem. With the effects manifested in the form of environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, and resource depletion and fiscal burdens on African nations. The problems come from a whole range of socio-economic, policy, and environmental factors located in the larger global system. As a remedy, the paper suggests the need for ethics and transparency, tight fiscal policy, ecological monitoring, enlightenment campaigns, public input in bilateral deals and the design of an interactive natural resource information system for Africa. Keywords China, Natural resources, Scramble, GIS, Impacts, Factors, Ecosystem Degradation 1. Introduction The African continent as new frontier inhabited by 18% of the world population boosts of over 60% of arable land and 30% in top 10 global strategic minerals [1]. Just as such endowments in natural resources triggered the illegal occupation of the continent by foreign powers in the 1800s, the motives behind China’s presence and obsession with natural resources extraction in Africa regardless of the environmental impacts [2,3,4] is beginning to draw similar * Corresponding author: edmund.c.merem@jsums.edu (E. C. Merem) Received: Jan. 13, 2021; Accepted: Feb. 18, 2021; Published: Mar. 20, 2021 Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/env comparisons as new form of colonialism [5,6,7]. But as a non-colonial power, China had no history of pitting African tribes against one another for economic influence and greed nor sow the seeds of religious and regional political hegemony in favor of feudal agenda at the expense of ethnic minorities and the enlightened as past European powers did [8]. Nevertheless, China’s emergence as 2nd largest economy globally and the most populated nation on track to overtake the US amidst growth of its cities, relies heavily on raw natural resource access particularly the energy types for viability [9,10]. In that light, during the past years, the literature continues to point to the widespread influence of China in the economy with a major hold on the control of the continent’s natural resources by mutual agreements [11]. Since countries can enter bilateral deals with each other in