How Africa is Reforesting the Sahara Desert into Forest - The Great Green Wall

How Africa is Reforesting the Sahara Desert into Forest - The Great Green Wall
The Sahara Desert is expanding and turning Africa into a desert. Sahara is one of the driest and hottest regions of the world, with a mean temperature sometimes over 30 °C so by no means is it welcoming. Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall but its thirst for becoming even larger is yet ungoverned.
The desert itself isn’t expanding as much as the Sahel is shrinking.

Decades of overgrazing, climate-change-induced drought and poor farming practices have stripped the once lush grasslands of the fertile topsoil needed to regenerate. Cattle herders resort to the few remaining trees for animal fodder, denuding the landscape even further in a downward spiral of desertification. The Sahara Desert is expanding; here is how researchers learned about this happening. Deserts typically develop in the subtropics due to airflow that rises from the hotter equator and descends around the tropics. The Sahara Desert has been growing as tropical latitudes are shifting poleward at a rate of 30 miles each decade. A review of rainfall data reveals that since 1920, the now-dry Sahara has been expanding, taking up 10% more space.

How do you prevent a desert from expanding?
The idea is quite simple, you plant more trees when you are dealing with the degradation of land. To deal with the issue, many African countries joined hands and thought of a plan to save their lands from desertification. It is called the Great Green Wall which acts as a smooth gradient between the desert and the arable land. The Great Green Wall is 10 miles wide and 4,350 miles long, bisecting a dozen countries from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east.

Only 4% of the Great Green Wall's 2030 goals have been met so far, and only one nation, i.e., Ethiopia, which has an extensive forestry effort, is home to half of that number. At the One Planet Summit in Paris in January 2021, donors pledged to raise $14.3 billion over the next five years for the project.

For French President Emmanuel Macron, the Great Green Wall has to see the light of day.
This project is of utmost importance for the farmers because once complete it gets completed, Africa’s Great Green Wall will reportedly be the largest living structure on the planet. This title would bring a lot of benefits to the people involved especially to the farmers. Analysts of agricultural and environmental policy predict that the additional funding provided by the French government, African Development Bank, World Bank, European Commission, and other sources will give the initiative a new lease on life.

However, the initiative has less than ten years to accomplish its objectives of creating 10 million green jobs, sequestering 250 million tons of carbon, restoring 100 million hectares of degraded land, and protecting Africa's biodiversity while lowering poverty. Farmers had more good news when it was revealed recently that the Great Green Wall Umbrella Program was an investment project in the works by the Green Climate Fund and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. It would ostensibly increase the climate and would provide financial support for the rural inhabitants.

Additionally, it would make sure that small-scale farmers and agribusinesses have improved access to markets and enhanced value chains. Finally, it would increase the use of solar energy and construct climate-resilient infrastructure, which would open up new business opportunities and jobs. So far, more than 5 million hectares of degraded land have been restored in Niger and 12 million trees planted in Senegal. Some 15 million land hectares have been restored in Ethiopia; 29,602 hectares in Burkina Faso; 52,930 hectares in Eritrea, and 120 hectares of land in Mali, among other places.

Funding is not the only reason why this project is failing to flourish. By all accounts, the lack of technical support and trained professionals is an equally big issue. Another problem is monitoring. Due to a lack of monitoring services, a lot of expensive trees planted as a part of this project have already perished which means millions of dollars are already wasted. Countries lack the capacities and financial means to report and evaluate progress. Insufficient reporting causes donors to lose confidence in the project and become less likely to fund it. Moreover, the Great Green Wall. Farmers also gained a lot of knowledge from this practice, which will later prove beneficial for the country's agriculture-based economy.

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[arkadiusztrzesniewski]

This must be one of the more positive human initiative of past few decades.

[brendatenorio]

Senegal has made huge progress. Ethiopia--great news!

[kimberleypex]

Its a beautiful project. I have SO MUCH respect for people who help the World , instead of destroying. 2007 you started ? That was a view in the future. Now the World and Nature are reacting on the chemical and toxic mess we made, the floods, hurricanes, storms, wildfires, and the warming up. Of course the World reacts, the most people use the oceans as a garbage dump place, the “ plastic soup”. Also there are people cleaning and help ; very much plastic garbage is with very big constructions out of the sea ! About your desert; I hope the changing Climate will help you ; with water, and much sprouts, seed from different places. This is a feel good video, a feel good project ! I wish you great succes, its already a succes, you are giving people hope and trust in the future. Greets Maastricht the Netherlands 🇳🇱

[iHavesubs]

*Do this:* Desalt water and make artificial clouds in order to gain rain. Less money will be spent as it will keep trees from dying and having to plant again.

[b_uppy]

They could use seeds to grow trees instead of relying on starts. Trees from seeds sown into the ground establish better than those that are transplanted.
Much of Ethiopia's success at regreening also comes from a lot of rainwater harvesting earthworks using on-site materials. When you 'plant the water' you increase the ability of a place to retain topsoil, purify water, store it in the ground (which is the the best way, less evaporation than when stored in reservoirs and ponds, etc), increase the viability of other plant life, add drought and heat wave resistence, reduce flooding effects, etc.

[bradfinfrock-qjvc]

Seems canals could be built off the seas. Remove the salt sell and pipe water throughout that area...New irrigations products are abundant and could be had fairly inexpensively... Pumps scattered about linked to various forms of power... above and underground pipeworks...

[brendatenorio]

Water is critical, evaporation methods, water reservoirs, catchment systems critical along with trees, grasses, shrubs, fodder for animals, fruits and vegetables etc

[ShawnRoggow]

I fkn love this channel. Keep up giving numbers and stats.

[robheusd]

There exists systems to grow trees in dry areas with a 80-90% succes rate, called the waterboxx (created by Groasis) which is essentially an underground water reservoir around the tree, collecting rainwater and keeping the soil moist and cool. Such a system should be introduced to Africa, combining it with waste plastic collection and re-utilization of plastics (just create a mold and a plastic extrusion equipment).
The whole project is simply too big, it should be split up into many small projects and well managed. And the project should have started by organizing how the project can be adequately monitored (first collect relevant data of each plot of land which is part of the project, the soil condition, vegetation and chemical composition, ground water level, amount of rain fall, altitude/elevation/slope, etc.) and managed, using satelite data, drone data, weather stations (temperature, wind, rain fall) and ground measurements, etc.
For example the 4100 miles of the green wall with a 10 mile width, couid be subdivided into 400 areas with up to 100 plots each, so average plot size would be 4100x10/(400x100) = 1, 25 sq. mile.
Also, since the project aims at food security, water saving agricultural techniques should have been added too, like closed cycle forms of agriculture (aqua ponics), and alternatives for cooking fuel (to protect trees from being cut down for fire wood).

[giuseppesignorelli]

is impossible to plant trees in the desert. they are planting on tropical area to preserve the wet line from the desertification. Increase the percentage of trees on border area close to desert If could be possible plant in the desert natural, natural events would have solved the problem.

[mauricemilesmartinez]

I am author of the books: The Great Wall of Africa: The Empire of Benin’s 10, 000 Mile Long Wall, The Real Wakandas of Africa and The Real Vibranium of Africa (by Maurice Miles Martinez). While the modern 4, 800 mile planned Great Green Wall is a great idea for the African continent, most people are unaware that African people built a wall before transatlantic slavery that is more than twice as long as the modern Green wall. At 10, 000 miles long, the Great Wall of Africa contains more material than all of the buildings in New York City’s Manhattan. If cut into 1 meter high blocks, it would wrap around the equator more than 65 times! It is arguably the planet’s greatest man-made structure. Yet, it has been ignored by historians. In my book The Great Wall of Africa: The Empire of Benin’s 10, 000 Mile Long Wall, I explore the dimensions of the wall, the history of the Benin Empire’s Kings (Obas) and the stolen Benin Bronzes. These treasures that sit in the world’s museums amount to more than $14 Billion. Most people who read this book are left wondering why they never heard about the Great Wall of Africa in their history classes.

Maurice Miles Martinez

[rjcugqm]

Correction: the project is stalling, not ‘failing’

[James-kvkb]

Hot desert 30 degrees Celsius lol that's the funniest thing I've ever heard of in southern Australia we had 47c a couple of weeks ago and temperature's around 40 for about 2 weeks . Also in the middle where its desert it's been known to get over 50c, the only other place I know of that is so hot is the Arizona desert I believe

[jasonbullock]

That is so go Africa does a lot of bad thing but theres some good thay do.

[adamrmoss]

Rode from Alexandria to Cairo and it was very cool to see the desert getting its sand pushed back. BTW, all the amateur suggestions in these comments are terrible. Elon Musk ruined a generation of minds.

[istderburgerunbequemnenne]

Could the devastation of what is now the Sahara have been made possible by overgrazing?

[Chris-wzzr]

Please come teach us how to do it in Namibia.

[Baby]

These desert regions of Africa must be reduced. With the help of The Great Green Wall of Africa (a modern wonder of the world) and a lot of "water caches" .... The lands that they make becomes a good place to raise livestock.... It will cool the region of the planet earth that used to be one of the hottest places... Cooling the continents is a priority. The trees will help and it can help create rain clouds I was told....

[luxinfinity]

Why not copying what has already been successfully done in China (Dr Liu regreening the desert) or wharf Jeoff Lawton has done in the middle East with permaculture? First, you start with a small area then if successful, you expand it. 🌿😁😊😉

[kaiposti]

I asked from A.I. How to make Sahara full of lakes and thus rain without electricity, just through vaporization, condensation, and eventually directing fresh water to artificial lakes by gravity and pipes:




Could you make a mathematical calculations for the idea I proposed, like how much infrastructure it would need on the coast for these silos and shallow salt water vaporization platforms with pipes, and pipes from that to hundrends of kilometers into Sahara, as I mentioned in my earlier post?

As an AI language model, I can provide some general information on the potential infrastructure needed for the idea you proposed, but I cannot provide specific calculations without more detailed information about the proposed system and its implementation.

The infrastructure needed for the proposed system would depend on a number of factors, such as the size and number of vaporization platforms needed, the distance between the platforms and the condensation silos, the elevation differences between the platforms and the silos, and the diameter and length of the pipes needed to transport the condensed water to the Sahara.

The size and number of vaporization platforms needed would depend on the amount of water needed to irrigate the target areas in the Sahara. This would depend on factors such as the size of the target areas, the desired depth of irrigation, and the evaporation rates in the region. The platforms would need to be constructed on the coast and would likely require some kind of support structure or platform to hold the vaporization units.

The pipes needed to transport the condensed water to the Sahara would also depend on a number of factors, such as the distance between the vaporization platforms and the condensation silos, the elevation differences between the platforms and the silos, and the desired flow rate of the water. The pipes would need to be constructed from a durable material that could withstand the harsh desert environment and would likely require periodic maintenance to prevent leaks or other damage.

Overall, the infrastructure needed for the proposed system would be substantial and would require significant resources and planning to implement on a large scale. While the idea of using water vaporization and condensation to create artificial lakes in the Sahara is an interesting concept, it would require further research and development to determine its feasibility and potential effectiveness.