Amid all the doom and gloom in the world, it is heartening to read about the progress being made with Africa’s Great Green Wall, a project that was launched in 2007 but is still going strong today. More than 20 countries on the continent have signed up to the reforestation programme, which is helping to halt and reverse the advance of devastating desertification.
The tree planting will eventually spread across a distance of 8,000km, from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East, creating a wall of greenery that is 16km wide at the southern edge of the Sahara desert. The project was launched in response to the desert’s expansion southwards, which had been helped by decades of over-grazing, deforestation and drought, putting the continent’s ecology as well as human livelihoods at risk.
As of 2019, about 15% of the forest wall had been completed, with more than 11 million trees planted in Senegal alone and the restoration of 37 million acres of land in Ethiopia and 12 million acres in Nigeria. As well as halting desertification, the wall enables food crops to be planted under the trees, improving the fertility of the soil, and sustains local micro climates.
Once complete in 2030, the wall is expected to have restored 100 million hectares of land in Africa, while absorbing 250 million tons of CO2. It is estimated that 350,000 jobs will also be created. When finished, the ‘wall’ will be the largest living structure on the planet.
further reading…
Amid all the doom and gloom in the world, it is heartening to read about the progress being made with Africa’s Great Green Wall, a project that was launched in 2007 but is still going strong today. More than 20 countries on the continent have signed up to the reforestation programme, which is helping to halt and reverse the advance of devastating desertification.
The tree planting will eventually spread across a distance of 8,000km, from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East, creating a wall of greenery that is 16km wide at the southern edge of the Sahara desert. The project was launched in response to the desert’s expansion southwards, which had been helped by decades of over-grazing, deforestation and drought, putting the continent’s ecology as well as human livelihoods at risk.
As of 2019, about 15% of the forest wall had been completed, with more than 11 million trees planted in Senegal alone and the restoration of 37 million acres of land in Ethiopia and 12 million acres in Nigeria. As well as halting desertification, the wall enables food crops to be planted under the trees, improving the fertility of the soil, and sustains local micro climates.
Once complete in 2030, the wall is expected to have restored 100 million hectares of land in Africa, while absorbing 250 million tons of CO2. It is estimated that 350,000 jobs will also be created. When finished, the ‘wall’ will be the largest living structure on the planet.