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Africa’s Great Green Wall

Transforming the Sahal into a world wonder is the aim of Africa’s Great Green Wall, regreening landscape from Senegal to Djibouti. Can it meet its ambition to reverse poor land use

Can Africa’s Great Green Wall beat back the Sahara desert and reverse the degrading landscape? The ambitious 9 miles wide and 5000 miles long line of vegetation will stretch all the way from Dakar in the west to Djibouti in the east.

Thomas Fessy is in Senegal where the wall has already begun to evolve into a series of forests and garden communities. He meets the planners, planters, ecologists and local villagers to hear how its early progress is reversing years of poor land use, turning nomads back to farmers, empowering women and creating healthy ecosystems for rain fed agriculture.

But can it meet its ambition to stabilize an unstable region, reverse the growing trend of migration, fight the effects of climate change and ensure this big African dream doesn’t die in the sand?

Picture: The Great Green Wall, credit: Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Sun 1 Oct 2017 01:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 25 Sep 2017 19:32GMT
  • Tue 26 Sep 2017 02:32GMT
  • Tue 26 Sep 2017 04:32GMT
  • Tue 26 Sep 2017 06:32GMT
  • Tue 26 Sep 2017 13:32GMT
  • Sun 1 Oct 2017 01:32GMT

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