The Great Green Wall

• The Great Green Wall initiative aims to restore land, sequester carbon and create jobs in some of the poorest communities in the world, where climate change is hitting the hardest.
• The project began as a reforestation initiative, but has grown into a broader and more ambitious plan for ecological, economic and social development.
• The future of the Great Green Wall will rely on the project’s ability to innovate. It needs to move into new areas, encouraging communities to switch to renewable energy and encouraging 'ecopreneurship'.

The Great Green Wall initiative is a reforestation project that aims to transform the lives of millions living on the frontline of the climate crisis. The goals of this African-led project are to restore 100 million hectares of land, sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon and create 10 million green jobs in rural areas. Once complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, three times the size of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Sahel is a 5,900 kilometer belt of land below the Sahara Desert, stretching across the breadth of Africa. It is a semi-arid region, known for its variable rainfall. The area has some of the world’s highest levels of poverty, and regular droughts and floods lead to shortages of food and drinking water. These in turn lead to humanitarian crises, and to migration.

In the past, efforts to tackle these problems have often been based on simplistic assumptions. Led for the most part by international NGOs and civil society organizations, they have focused on finding financial or technological solutions to the poverty of communities in the area. They have largely ignored the wealth of knowledge that local people have about their natural surroundings.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/how-a-great-green-wall-could-help-africa-combat-climate-change?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social_scheduler&utm_term=One+Trillion+Trees&utm_content=23/06/2021+05:00