Wall of trees being planted across Africa to halt desert

[...] tree by tree, a Great Green Wall is being planted across a belt of Africa to fight back, though the success of the Herculean effort depends in large part on about a dozen countries making a concerted effort and on funding.

The 9-mile wide wall is part of a wider initiative meant to help reduce seasonal winds packed with sand and dust, slow land degradation and the encroaching desert, and to improve the health and lives of those living nearby.

In Senegalese villages like Mbar Toubab, market gardening is now possible, allowing women like 38-year-old Aissata Ka to make more money as agriculture and economic opportunities blossom where acacia trees now grow.

Mohamed Adow, senior climate change adviser for the international development agency Christian Aid, says it’s important that such regeneration projects respect the rights of locals and are supported by communities.

“Selecting the right species (of trees and plants) and developing the right community-based forest management systems are vital to avoid simply ending up with a line of forest plantations that are resented by local people and subject to illegal logging and wood collection,” he said in an e-mail.

[...] Papa Sarr, the technical director of Senegal’s National Agency of the Great Green Wall, said that the level of revegetation and the subsequent financial benefits for locals are “cause for optimism.”