A grand vision for a wall of vegetation reaching thousands of miles across Africa and slowing the spread of the Sahara Desert took a step closer to becoming a reality yesterday with the first international conference to discuss how to bring it about.
The Great Green Wall would be a nine-mile wide band of trees and shrubbery across the southern border of the Sahara’s southern Sahel desert, stretching 4,400 miles through 11 countries from the Senegalese capital of Dakar in the west to Djibouti on the Indian Ocean coast.
The harsh conditions and resultant lack of economic opportunities are in part blamed for sending economic migrants north to Europe and as factors in the spread of Islamist extremism in the area. Groups such as Boko Haram and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) prey on young men who are unemployed and desperate. Boko Haram has been known to offer microloans to prospective fighters.
Adopted by the African Union in 2005, the ambitious Great Green Wall plan was boosted in December by $4bn of funding from signatories to the historic UN climate change summit in Paris (COP21). Further pledges have been made by the World Bank and the French government, one of the continent's major former colonisers .
The Great Green Wall, it is hoped, could help meet that target by absorbing as much as 250 million tons of carbon.
Dr Dlamini Zuma, chairperson of the African Union Commission, said the wall could become one of the 21st Century wonders of the world.
“There are many world wonders, but the Great Green Wall will be unique and everyone can be a part of its history,” she said during an event on the sidelines on COP21. “Together, we can change the future of African communities in the Sahel.”
Elvis Paul Tangam, the African Union Commissioner in charge of the plan, said 15 per cent of the trees were planted already, largely in Senegal and Burkina Faso.
“Senegal has reclaimed more than four million hectares of land along the Great Green Wall,” he told America’s Public Radio International this week. “They have planted more than 27,000 hectares of indigenous trees that don’t need watering. Many animals that had disappeared from those regions are reappearing - animals like antelopes, hares and birds that for the past 50 years nobody saw.”
Senegal has largely planted acacia trees which can be harvested for Gum Arabic, a substance used widely to manufacture products including pharmaceuticals and soft drinks, for which demand is currently outstripping supply. Other indigenous trees are planted to maximise shade and prevent ground water loss and shrubs that can be grazed by livestock.
Countries signed up to the initiative have now put together national action plans which will be presented at a conference between African ministers, development bodies, local civil society groups and environmental charities in Dakar this week.