Africa to hold back the desert with "great green wall"
How do you stop the world's harshest desert from expanding southwards at a rate of 30 miles per year? Nobody knows for sure -- but scientists in northern Africa have a plan. After decades of steadily losing grasslands and agricultural space to the rapidly growing Sahara, the nations of north Africa have decided to construct a wall 7,000km long and 15km wide from east to west.OK, The Great Green Wall is not technically a wall -- it's essentially going to be a greenbelt. And, despite what it's name indicates, it will not be a continuous cross-continental wall -- at least not at first. The original length has been scaled-back to allow for more reinforcement and oversight. The plan is for nations to work with local communities to pick native trees and find irrigation resources to upkeep a giant tree line around the Sahara.
Two groups of concerned nations will be combining their tree-planting efforts, one on the west side and one on the east. In the west, the states of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal plan to launch pilot planting operations in September. Still in the planning stages: Chad, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia are expected to launch their pilot efforts a couple of months later.
It'd be nice to eliminate the degradation cause by over-grazing, unsustainable agriculture, and climate change, but hey you've got to start somewhere. Plus, how cool would it be if they actually succeeded in building a tree wall across the continent. I think that would be a big boost for Africa's collective self-esteem.
[via ENN]
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