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Schermata 2021-03-18 alle 10.45.01

Great Green Wall: how to save Africa from desertification

The Great Green Wall is a long corridor of forests, 15 kilometers wide and about 8,000 kilometers long, that connects Africa from West to East: it is one of the solutions put in place by the African continent to combat the desertification

Great Green Wall of Africa: what is it?

The Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (in French: Grande Muraille Verte pour le Sahara et le Sahel; in English: The Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative, GGWSSI in acronym) is an African initiative set up to combat the effects of global climate change and desertification. Led by the African Union, the initiative aims to improve the quality of life of millions of people through the planting of different tree species which, by forming a true green belt between North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, will be able to stop desertification, create a native habitat for fauna and offer shelter, food and water resources for rural communities.

It was the biologist Richard St. Barbe Baker, in 1952, during an expedition in the Sahara, the first to propose a “green barrier” to oppose the advance of the desert: his idea to contain the desert was to create a long belt of trees 50 km wide. It was approved by the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Sahel and Sahara States during their seventh regular session held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in June 2005.

During our last mission in Burkina Faso, we visited the Ouaga Park: together with Manitese and Acra, two Italian NGOs, we are collaborating on a reforestation project, a real food forest of about 1 hectare that is part of the Ouaga Green Belt, a sort of large green ring that is being created in Ouagadogou, the capital of Burkina.

What is at stake here is truly remarkable: to stop desertification by creating new forests, creating a long green corridor 15 kilometers wide and about 8,000 kilometers long that connects Africa from West to East, from Dakar to the Republic of Djibouti. Just think that over 228 million inhabitants live in this area over an area that covers 780 million hectares, more than double the surface area of India. Many of these desert areas could be saved if new trees, new forests, food forests and arable land were planted. An important repopulation, with the consequent creation of employment and, therefore, new income that could allow African communities to achieve food self-sufficiency and find new channels for the sale of products derived from the fruits: shea butter, the superfood moringa, but also baobab and neré.

 

Our social reforestation project in Burkina Faso

With the aim of creating a process of women’s empowerment capable of supporting the local community to make it self-sufficient, we are working on a social reforestation project that allows you to adopt species that are fundamental for the subsistence of villages.
The Baobab, the KaritĂ©, the Moringa, the NerĂ© are all species that, in addition to fighting desertification, contribute to the training of BurkinabĂ© women with respect to the care and processing of the fruits of these trees into finished products, for both food and cosmetic use. This “Project for the improvement of nutritional conditions of women and children in the health districts of Garango and Tenkodogo, Burkina Faso” (Cod. n. 11874) was born in collaboration with the Italian NGO Aes-Ccc and is funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.

Women in Burkina Faso are the mainstay of rural communities as they constitute the vast majority of the workforce. The trees that will be planted will be managed by the Union of Women of Garango and the resulting products will be marketed in the local market and in the capital, Ouagadogou. The project aims to find new sales and distribution channels for cosmetic products such as shea butter, baobab oil and moringa oil. In addition, the team will help local communities to optimize processing and find a suitable certification to enhance the sustainability of the products made.

 

 

By adopting a tree in Burkina Faso you can contribute to the birth of the food forest, helping the local community to become self-sufficient from the food point of view and find new sales channels for products such as shea butter and many other cosmetic products, 100% organic and natural.

 

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