A Green Great Wall across Africa's north would not only curb desertification, but it would help to preserve local biodiversity and "colonize the desert" by making its soil farmable, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade said July 8 at a
hosted by the United Nations University in Tokyo.
Launched in 2005 by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, la Grande Muraille Verte project aims to create a green belt from Dakar to Djubouti "to stop and colonize desertification," as Wade put it. Trees would be planted on a route 7,000 kilometers long and 5 km wide across 11 sahelo-saharian nations: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti.
China began a similar, multi-decade project a few years ago to keep the Gobi Desert from advancing.
A group of international experts is currently identifying locations for Africa's green belt as well as appropriate trees to be planted, Wade said. It is crucial to select trees that can absorb enough water in the rainy season to survive and grow during the dry season, Wade explained, noting that the affected areas see, on average, three months of rain each year.
Construction has already begun: In Senegal, two kilometers of wall and 180 basins to capture rainwater have already been built, but construction has been stopped due to a lack of funding. Africa needs international support to finish the project, Wade said. One water capture basin costs US$140,000 and one kilometer of Green Great Wall costs approximately $1 million.
"The environmental problem is a world's problem," Wade said.
The event was organized by the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies and the Science Council of Japan.
