King Canute couldn't stop the ocean's tide from rolling in — can Africa hold back the desert? That's certainly what the continent is trying to do with its proposed"Great Green Wall", 8, 000km(almost 5, 000 miles)worth of trees that officials hope will stop the advancement of the Sahara Desert, which has been rapidly expanding southward.
The idea was introduced in the 1970s when the once-rich region turned barren(贫瘠的)due to climate change and intensive land use. But it's not a new idea; China has its own desert vegetation project to hold back the Gobi Desert!Thanks to the Chinese plan, the African project aims to plant 100 million hectares of trees by 2030 across the entire Africa. The initiative is a decade in, and around 15% completed, and there have already been benefits for many communities and wildlife. It's bringing life back to the continent's degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale, providing not only food security and jobs but a reason to stay for the millions who live along its path.
The creators of the wall hope it will bring an urgently needed solution to the threats facing the African continent, creating 10 million jobs in rural areas, as well as preventing 250 million tons of carbon. The initia- tive is Africa-driven, which for those on the continent, is vital, and may hold the key to success. "The Great Green Wall …is about ownership, and that has been the failure of development aid because people were never identified with it, "said Elvis Paul Tangam, African Union Commissioner for the Sahara and Sahel Great Green Wall Initiative. "But this time they identify. This is the very thing of us!"
The wall may seem like a moonshot, but all the best ideas usually are. As Thomas Sankara, former president of Burkina Faso said in 1985, "You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain degree of madness. The courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. "
