Senegal's dream of a 'Green Wall' against the desert

(AFP PHOTO/ FRENCH MINISTRY OF DEFENCE)

There is little to show for it apart from small acacia shrubs, but Senegal's leader believes in a Great Green Wall that will stem desertification across Africa from coast to coast.

The project, launched in 2005, was meant to concern nations from Senegal on the Atlantic Ocean to Djibouti on the Red Sea.

But four years later, the Green Wall has barely emerged from the dust, and its supporters are hoping it will get a boost at the Copenhagen conference on climate change next month.

"Africa won't go empty-handed to the Copenhagen summit," vowed Senegal's environment minister Djibo Ka at a ceremony in the northern village of Labgar recently.

He said the Great Green Wall would be presented by President Abdoulaye Wade and feature "at the heart of debate."

"It's a dream that is becoming reality," he stated, leaning over an acacia shoot about 20 centimetres (eight inches) tall, but cautioned that if the wall was to grow, "we're waiting for firm, major and targetted commitments" by the donor community.

The project's aim is to build a tree barrier across the Sahel region where desertification is rampant. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that about two million hectares of forest (7,700 square miles) are now being destroyed each year in the Sahel.

The FAO has also warned that global warming will merely worsen the problem, leading to major migrations of people in countries that are already very poor and often unstable.

Eleven countries are associated with the Great Green Wall scheme, which was initially dreamed up by Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005, then adopted by Wade.

If all those nations took part, the wall would be 7,000 kilometres (4,340 miles) long and 15 kilometres wide.

The forest would also include catchment sinks to collect rainwater, which would be stored in reservoirs.

Not everyone is in favour.

"I don't believe in this project. There's no political will and woods are being cut down everywhere. And there's no concern for replanting," complained Haider El Ali, an ecologist who works for the Oceanium, Senegal's biggest environmental protection agency.

Such scepticism is understandable, as the plan is scarcely off the drawing board. Only 10 kilometres of the Green Wall have been planted in the past two years.

"We're planting local species, like acacias, which adapt well and which produce gum arabic, which provides resources to villagers," said Colonel Matar Cisse, the director of the national agency for the Great Green Wall.

"But the big challenge is to protect the planted areas from livestock, and so there have to be enclosures, as well as firebreaks to protect against bush fires."

Amid little fuss, the Oceanium has in the past three months planted 5,000 hectares of mangroves, an operation sponsored by the French food group Danone which wanted to compensate for the carbon emissions of one of its plants in France.

"The Great Green Wall is a stunt, a show to appeal to those ready to give money," El Ali insisted. His deputy Jean Goepp argued that "the idea is good, but first we need to make people aware of the issues."