CHAD: A three year old "Green Wall" of trees is holding its own against arid conditions around Chad's capital, N'djamena

Record ID: 711625

  • Title: CHAD: A three year old "Green Wall" of trees is holding its own against arid conditions around Chad's capital, N'djamena
  • Date: 14th September 2011
  • Summary: N'DJAMENA, CHAD (RECENT) (REUTERS) ROAD GOING THROUGH GREEN WALL WELL WITH 'GREEN BELT' PAINTED ON IT AND TREES IN BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF TREES WITHIN GREEN BELT
  • Embargoed: 29th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Chad, Chad
  • Country: Chad
  • Topics: Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVAB3VJ8PTDLL9SY2RKXBB5K4001
  • Story Text: In an effort to stop the desert from growing, more than 250,000 trees have been planted in Chad since a Green Wall project was began three years ago.
    The Green Wall, initiated by the African Union (AU) in 2007, involves planting a wall of trees and bushes of more than 70,000 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide, from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the east, to protect the Sahel region from desertification, a serious environmental challenge for many African communities.
    The project is set to go through 11 countries located on the southern border of the Sahara, Africa's biggest desert, including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal.
    According to the UN Environment Program (UNEP), globally, the rate of desertification is speeding up. Africa is the worst affected continent with two-thirds of its land in either desert or drylands.
    Since the launch of the project, Chad, has planted trees around the capital N'djamena, at a cost of around 4 billion FCFA (8 million US dollars).
    For some residents, the importance of the Green Wall has not yet been understood and they say the trees are not growing fast enough.
    "While these trees are a way to fight against desertification, people cut them down for wood, which they burn to keep warm. It has been three years since we planted these trees, but they are not growing and I do not understand why. Is it because people do not want to work to plant more? Well I do not know why, in any case, these trees are not growing," Mahamat Ali Hamad, N'Djamena resident.
    The initiative is also aimed at slowing down erosion, and the trees help rain filter into the ground.
    Bardoum Ndjekourbian, Chad's greenbelt coordinator says there are plans to expand the green wall into other towns in the country.
    "The green belt alone cannot stop the desert, you know there are several projects that we have introduced, which the country is in the process of putting into effect. There are also people who have joined groups which fight against desertification. There is a huge green wall that is in the process of being planted," he said.
    The trees that are planted should be "drought-adapted species", preferably native to the the area according to Ndjekourbian, who says different types of trees grow at different paces.
    "People are saying that the trees are not growing as they should. Well that is not quite true. Why? Because these are species that grow slowly. If we take for example the 'Senegalese Kaissia' which is all around us, they grow slowly. They grow very slowly, but in the same area you can see for example the 'neem', 'lazadiais sindica' which grows very quickly and which is already taller than us, in less than two years it is taller than us," he said.
    But critics say that the Green Wall project has yet to take off in other countries because of lack of funding and fears that it would not be maintained properly, as leaders have yet to make tree planting a priority.
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