The Sahelo-Saharan states have launched the Great Green Wall project within the framework of NEPAD, which involves planting a five-kilometre-wide strip of trees over a distance of 7,000 km from Dakar to Djibouti, across the desert, to prevent further desertification. The wall will stretch from the Gulf of Aden on the east coast of Africa right across the Sahelo-Saharan states to Senegal on the west coast. "With the regeneration of biodiversity, we plan to give our planet a new 'green lung' and contribute thus to the fight against climatic changes," said a representative of the Government of Senegal.
The tree varieties have already been selected, in accordance with the climatic zones and each country is responsible for the Green Wall within its own borders.
There are plans to build water capture basins alongside the Green Wall.
"The process consists in collecting rain water during the rainy season at the lowest point of each village by compacting the ground as a basin.
"Every year during the rainy season we lose important quantities of water by evaporation, infiltration underground or running off to the ocean.
"With water capture basins these resources are valorised to enable farmers in rural areas to grow food all year long, develop fish farming and satisfy their nutritional needs and even export market garden produces."
The Senegal government believes that Africa "with its unexploited huge land resources -- can at the same time be a bread basket and a reservoir for biofuel."
Plants like Jartropha which can be used for biofuel grow wild in Senegal.// The Guardian, 23 July 2008)
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