Posted on 04/11/2026 6:46:09 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In an arid valley near the village of Kourtimale in southern Djibouti, a tattered chain link fence marks the boundaries of what was once Abdi Guelleh's farm.
...was once meant to be one tiny brick in one of the world's most ambitious environmental projects: Africa's Great Green Wall.
...
This multi-billion dollar project was launched by the African Union in 2007. The plan: to plant a "wall" of trees spanning the entire width of Africa — 4,350 miles long and 10 miles wide — to fight desertification in the Sahel, the arid region to the south of the Sahara desert.
The Wall's vision was boundless, and its backers called it a "new world wonder." It would re-green nearly 250 million acres of land across 11 countries from Senegal to Djibouti, and in doing so, would sequester 250 million tons of carbon, provide "green jobs" for 10 million people and alleviate poverty, food insecurity and conflict across the region.
...
[T]he United Nations estimated that $33 billion would be needed to complete the Wall. In each of the 11 countries, a national agency or dedicated ministerial department was set up to implement and track the project, with a coordinating entity, the Pan-African Great Green Wall Agency, based in Mauritania. International organizations — United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Union, the Green Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility and others — pledged billions.
Eighteen years later, vast amounts of money have been spent, yet most of the planned Wall remains no more green than Abdi Guelleh's barren field. What began as one of the world's most ambitious ecological undertakings has in many ways devolved into a cautionary tale of poorly planned projects, lacking in local participation and entangled in a labyrinth of opaque financing.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Even if drought resistant trees were grown and there was enough rain for them to survive, those kind of trees grow very slowly. Would take decades if not centuries to make any significant difference. Not very practical. Doomed for failure from the start.
Re: opaque financing
Conclusion: Fail!
The only thing green was the color of the money that was scammed.
I thought this was about Fenway Park.
Hey. This is almost verbatim of the NPR article. Who plagiarized whom?
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