21 Countries Partner to build Africa’s “Great Green Wall”
This is probably one of the most inspiring event that we will see in our time.
Twenty one African countries have partnered to build what is dubbed as the “Great Green wall”. This wall will entail a chain forest and woodland that will spread across Africa from one coast to another. It will be located at the Southern Edge of the Saharan desert. The region is known as Sahel region. The project was initially started by a team of eleven countries in partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program.
This idea was born in 2002 at a summit in the capital of Chad. A proposal was made to contain the expanding desert by establishing a 50Km-deep tree buffer that will stretch across multiple countries. It was approved by the member states of that region by 2006 and was formally adopted by the African Union in 2007. Work on this project started in 2007 before a strategic framework was developed in 2012.
It is an African led movement of epic proportions that will start from Senegal in West Africa to Djibouti in Eastern Africa. It will cover a total length of 8000 km. The first eleven countries to start this were: Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea.
Some other countries that have recently adopted this are: Angola, Congo, Zambia. Mozambique and Madagascar.
What the Great Green Wall will achieve
What started as an attempt to prevent continual encroachment of the Sahara desert, has morphed into a movement that now also includes sustainable land development, job creation, peace building and livelihood sustenance.
It is envisaged that the wall should be complete by the year 2030. Once complete, it will absorb over 250 million tons of carbon, restore over 100 million Hectares of degraded land and create jobs to over 10 million people in rural areas.
This initiative also contributes to or directly supports ten of the 17 sustainable development goals. Once complete, this effort is expected to cost about 8 Billion USD . It is currently about 15% complete.
Individual countries have so far made tremendous progress regarding this. It is reported that over 11 million trees have so far been planted in Senegal and 700 acres of land have been restored. In Burkina Faso, over 30,000 acres of land have been restored while 18 million trees have been planted. Ethiopia has so far restored over 4000 acres and planted over 3 million trees.
The project brings together African countries and tens of international and local organizations. Some of the partners that are working on these projects are : Greeneum ,African Forest Forum,African Union Commission, European Union, Arabia Maghreb Union just to name a few. They support the initiatives through providing support, funding and also with direct linkages to raw materials and other resources.
Greeneum is working with communities in the Sahel region and helping them with tree planting and also partnering with green projects to help them secure funding, facilitate carbon trading and also capacity build them so they leverage on Blockchain and AI technologies.
Greeneum is currently seeking affiliates and green projects across the region that it can work with.
Affiliates can be green energy producers, activists, consumers and government entities. As an affiliate, you can get funding for your green project from a pool of investors on this platform. You also get attractive commissions by onboarding more investors and green energy producers on to the Greeneum grid. You can also engage in trading in carbon credits on this network.
Click on the Affiliate button here on the website to learn more & Join us!
