Africa is currently faced with the great threat of desertification: the spread of desert-like areas of land. Desertification is detrimental to the vitality of Africa; the UN Food and Agriculture Organization projects that Africa will lose two-thirds of fertile land by the year 2030 if it is not stopped. The Great Green Wall Initiative is a proposed solution to protect African land from drying out and becoming uninhabitable.

The two main causes of desertification are climatic variations and human activity. The climatic variations referred to are usually drought and loss of moisture, whereas the human activity ranges from deforestation to overzealous vegetation removal.

These factors are often the result of population growth and poverty, as both are linked to pressure and dependance on the land to provide ample vegetation. Africa has 40 percent of the earth’s drylands, which is the highest percentage of any continent.

Consequences of desertification range from environmental to health to economic. It leads to a horrible decrease in soil fertility, consequently leading to subpar crop yields, which contributes to poverty.

Interestingly, poverty is both a consequence and cause of desertification as low crop yields encourage farmers to exploit land to produce enough food, which further strips soil and results in this dilemma.

Similarly, as arid land does not produce enough food to sustain a population, people migrate to more sustainable environments. The journey of those in desert areas to more urban or developed areas results in overpopulation of cities as well as immigration headaches.

The number of refugees in Africa fleeing from the consequences of desertification have been estimated at 10 million individuals. This is an example of how desertification does not only affect those living in the immediate areas affected, and how the consequences can be felt worldwide, both in developing areas and in urban environments. This is where The Great Green Wall Initiative comes in.

As can be inferred by the name, The Great Green Wall Initiative strives to plant a ‘wall’ of trees to protect African land. Millions of trees have been planted since the endorsement of the plan in 2007. In addition, the project strives to implement irrigation systems that do not harm the land and promote economic activities that will not damage the environment.

Essentially, The Great Green Wall Initiative aims to plant trees and tailor other measures to combat desertification to the specific needs of affected countries. In Senegal alone, 27,000 hectares of degraded land was recovered as a result of planting 11 million trees. The revived land includes farmland that has enabled women to maintain income and feed their families, as well as benefiting the economy.

There are 13 main players in The Great Green Wall Initiative: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, but this group also includes Benin, Ghana, Togo, The Gambia, Senegal, and Sudan.The Great Green Wall Initiative has been working to restore African land upset by desertification since 2007, after success when employed in other areas before. The trend of success seems to continue in Africa. Desertification is a dangerous progression that affects not only the environment, but the economic and social stability of the area. Implementing the Great Green Wall Initiative across 20 countries has already benefited African land and its inhabitants, and serves as a great collaborative project to take back the future of the continent from the effects of desertification.