The African Union’s Great Green Wall project is being extended to countries in Southern Africa. Since its launching in 2007, the initiative has achieved only 20% of its objectives, according to a UN study published in 2020. The lack of funding and the security crisis are seriously hampering the development of this continental project.
The African Union (AU) has decided to extend the Great Green Wall project to Southern Africa. According to information published by Bloomberg on 9 February, this decision was taken because of security challenges in some of the regions involved in the project.
In addition, the Great Green Wall program was launched in 2007 by the African Union. It involves the continuous planting of several million trees on a 15 km wide strip across the continent, passing through 11 countries, from Senegal to Djibouti. It aims to plant millions of trees on the continent to combat the effects of desertification. The project also aims to restore more than 95 million hectares of land by 2030, capture and store 250 million tonnes of CO2 through vegetation, and create 10 million jobs in rural areas while contributing to food security in one of the world’s most malnourished regions.