Great Wall of Africa on the cards

TIMESLIVE

Sahara Desert. File photo
Image by: Google Maps

A grand vision for a wall of vegetation reaching thousands of kilometres across Africa and slowing the spread of the Sahara Desert came a step closer to becoming reality yesterday, with the first international conference to discuss its creation.

The Great Green Wall would be a 14km-wide band of trees and shrubbery across the southern border of the Sahara's Sahel desert, stretching over 7000km through 11 countries, from the Senegalese capital of Dakar in the west to Djibouti on the Indian Ocean coast.

The idea was conceived in the 1980s by Burkina Faso's then-president Thomas Sankara. Since then, it has evolved to become a shared concept across 20 countries.
The countries bordering the Sahel, which include Mali, Chad and Niger, lose as much as 50km of land each year due to the spread of the desert.
Adopted by the African Union in 2005, the Great Green Wall plan was boosted in December by $4-billion (R60-billion) of funding from signatories to the UN climate change summit in Paris. Further pledges have been made by the World Bank and France.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairman of the AU Commission, said the wall could become one of the 21st-century wonders of the world.