The first report on the Great Green Dam revealed that the 11 African countries concerned with it have managed - since the project was launched in 2007 - to reclaim 20 million hectares (49.4 million acres) of land, and that it will eventually reach 100 million hectares by 2030. Over 247 million acres).
The report was released by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification on September 7, during a teleconference with the participation of UN frameworks and African ministers of the environment.
Promising future
The report stated that the project awaits a promising future, considering that so far it has enabled the peoples of these countries to provide profits of $ 90 million and create 350,000 jobs.
The report came under the title "The Great Green Dam: Reality and Prospects", and it was emphasized that, in order to achieve the stated goals, the concerned countries must reclaim 8.2 million hectares (20.26 million acres) every year.
The Green Great Wall project is one of the largest global projects to combat desertification and land degradation, and it was launched in 2007 by 11 African countries: Senegal, Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. And Eritrea, and Sudan.
The project cuts the northern half of the African continent from east to west, with a length of 8 thousand km, a width of 15 km, and an area of 153 million hectares (378 million acres). It will also contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change, as it is expected that by 2030 it will be able to absorb what Up to 500 million tons of carbon dioxide.
"We are waiting for a lot of this project in the future," said Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Ibrahim Tiao, in the press release accompanying the study. "The peoples of African countries depend mainly for their livelihood at 80% on the abundance of the lands."
"But unfortunately, these countries have lost, during the past 30 years, a lot of their good lands by 65%, and today they need to be rehabilitated, and the Green Dam is a great opportunity to do so," he added.
Various dimensions of the project
It seems that the Great Green Dam project has a security and social dimension, which was confirmed by Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations in the press conference, saying that the project “gives the region’s youth jobs and hope for a promising future, because the land provides many good things, which enhances the chances of stability in The region knows a lot of security problems. "
Desertification has wiped out 65% of the finest lands in Sahel countries (Pixabay)
For her part, Mauritanian Environment Minister Myriam Bikai said - in this seminar - that betting on this dam is also economic and social, as many countries depend on agriculture in their economy, such as Mauritania, which depends on this sector by 60%, and it will also enable the concerned countries to provide New jobs could reach 11 million jobs, which is a very large number.
As for environmental affairs expert Baba Mal, advisor to the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, he emphasized that the initiative is pioneering and can be generalized to various countries of the world, and that efforts today will be focused in order to involve society in the success of the project and protect forests from overexploitation.