Africa is going to plant the next great wall of trees, which is hoping to become the newest wonder of the world spanning almost 5,000 miles from coast to coast, across more than 2 countries.
By 2030, the project aims to restore 250 million acres of degraded land and provide security to its most vulnerable inhabitants. It also hopes to combat conflict and to stop the mass migration of Africans to Europe.
Lake Chad:
The trees are hoped to provide shield from the desert. Water is crucial to the Lake Chad basin, which is disappearing at rapid rates. For centuries, the lake has been the largest reservoir in the Sahel – the semi-arid belt that spans Africa south of the Sahara Desert. There are 30 million people who rely on the basin for daily life.
The lake is naturally shallow and it is replenished by monsoons, once covering eight per cent of the continent. In recent decades, these seasonal variations have stopped and now satellite images show that it is essentially a blue dot in the middle of the desert.
In 1963, Lake Chad spanned 9,652 square miles and has shrunk by an estimated 90 per cent in recent decades. Climate change is the biggest reason for its devastating decline, coupled with population growth and irrigation. The United Nations Environment Programme calls this an ‘ecological disaster’ – that is heavily backed by the the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Current situation:
The conflict has claimed thousands of lives and displaced 2.5 million people in the region. Today, there are holes dug into the sand, lined with faces, and residents are planting seeds of desert date, guava, acacia, mango trees and citron trees.
Currently, there has been eight billion pledged to build the Great Green Wall or Africa’s ‘Great Wall’ of trees. Temperatures have increased by 1 degree celsius in the Sahel since 1970, which is around double the global average during the same period. The region is considered the most affected by global warming in the world. In Chad, temperatures exceed 50C in the dry season.
There is 80 per cent degraded land across the Sahel, eliminating the opportunities for the world’s youngest population (expected to be 100 million by 2020, 65 per cent under 25).
Socio-political concerns:
These dire economic prospects allow there to be terrorist breeding and recruitment into milita groups. Around Lake Chad, Boko Haram offers anything from new trainers and phones, to access to school and doctors. By exploiting these vulnerabilities and offering resources, they allow populations to languish under their mutiny.
Those who suffer from the hands of Boko Haram end up in Dar es Salaam refugee camp. Over 6,000 Nigerian refugees have entered the camp this year after Boko Haram militants raided three villages on the Nigeria side of lake Chad.
There are a number of initiatives inspired by the Great Green Wall, which are helping crops and large scale tree planning. The roots of the Wall date back to the 70s when the Sahel was rocked by drought.
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