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The Great Green Wall's one of the world's most ambitious eco-projects. Is it working?
BBC ^ | April 11, 2026 | Julie Bourdin , Tommy Trenchard , Maya Misikir

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 ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: abdiguelleh; africa; africanunion; defundnpr; djibouti; ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; europeanunion; globalwarminghoax; greatgreenwall; greennewdeal; juliebourdin; kourtimale; mayamisikir; npr; sahara; sahel; senegal; shithole; tommytrenchard; unitednations
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To: BenLurkin
cautionary tale of poorly planned projects

Actually, it's playbook - How can we con more money out of taxpayers and make them think it's a good idea?

41 posted on 04/11/2026 8:40:11 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: vikingd00d

BINGO!


42 posted on 04/11/2026 8:41:17 AM PDT by FrankRizzo890
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To: BenLurkin

Do not send tree, send suitcases!


43 posted on 04/11/2026 8:56:11 AM PDT by tupac (the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe)
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To: BenLurkin

“It’s all so tiresome.”


44 posted on 04/11/2026 9:15:01 AM PDT by dynachrome (“They don’t kill you because you’re a Nazi; they call you a Nazi so they can kill you.”)
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To: BenLurkin

Africa is a s hole and will always be a s hole because Africans are s hole people. Africa is a s hole because s hole Africans like living that way.


45 posted on 04/11/2026 9:19:33 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: bwest

I only care because I’m certain millions of American dollars were flushed down this corrupt green garbage.


46 posted on 04/11/2026 9:21:52 AM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: Organic Panic

Nice hate you got there. Be sure to send money to support hate sites.


47 posted on 04/11/2026 10:01:20 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: AZJeep
"the government will one day fix the pump"

"the pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles"

48 posted on 04/11/2026 10:21:06 AM PDT by Right Brigade (A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you,)
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To: Right Brigade

Maybe.

I had a friend, who went to Africa and loved it there. The weather, the beaches, even the people were nice.
There are lots of obvious problems, so he tried to help.
Not by distributing free food, but by trying to show them how to do stuff better and how they can easily help themselves.
He ran in concrete wall, nobody was willing to try anything!
Eventually, he gave up and went home.


49 posted on 04/11/2026 10:35:41 AM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
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To: BenLurkin

Screwing with Mother nature will never change Mother nature’s mind... We do not control the weather... Never have and never will.


50 posted on 04/11/2026 10:47:07 AM PDT by jerod (Nazis were essentially Socialist in Hugo Boss uniforms... Get over it!)
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To: BenLurkin

No hate. Realism.


51 posted on 04/11/2026 10:54:41 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: AZJeep

Watch “empire of dust” Free on YouTube.


52 posted on 04/11/2026 10:56:16 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: SunkenCiv

It really sounds like a great idea, but where does the water come from when there is not enough rain? Trees need a lot of water to grow, not just when planting, but often enough throughout their life. This project seems to me to be doomed from the start.


53 posted on 04/11/2026 11:19:12 AM PDT by Omnivore-Dan (have to )
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To: PeterPrinciple

Sounds like Newsom and his high speed rail system between LA and SF. The initial budget (2008) was $9.95 billion dollars for the 385 mile system. Today, 18 years later, 80 miles have been built and the cost is now projected to be between $70 and $100 billion. Gov’t has no incentive to be efficient or honest and CA has managed to be both inefficient and corrupt at the same time.


54 posted on 04/11/2026 11:25:25 AM PDT by econjack
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To: BenLurkin

The only Great Green Walls I know of are those between Al Gore’s and AOC’s ears.


55 posted on 04/11/2026 11:56:20 AM PDT by DPMD (u)
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To: BenLurkin
If it is being done by the "In-ter-national Co-mun-ity" it is a flop.

If it is being done by the locals it will probably work.

56 posted on 04/11/2026 12:58:15 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The tree accused of killed Sonny Bono was planted.)
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To: AZJeep
Why does he not fix the pump himself?

Because the pump is government property.

And if you touch it they will send people to arrest you. You might survive the process or you might not.

57 posted on 04/11/2026 1:02:56 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The tree accused of killed Sonny Bono was planted.)
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To: Omnivore-Dan
You and I are not the only people who know that. But when the whole project is just a scam to skim money for its advocates, facts of that kind are rarely taken into account.

58 posted on 04/11/2026 1:16:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (TDS -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: Omnivore-Dan

That’s the obvious reason for lack of trees—lack of water. The Sahel region is marginal—not as dry as the Sahara so it gets some rain except when there is a drought. So it may be possible to plant drought-resistant trees which can survive periodic droughts. But why hasn’t Mother Nature already seen to that if such plants are available? Maybe the locals burned them all for firewood.


59 posted on 04/11/2026 2:13:10 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: SunkenCiv

Another government waste. I wonder how much of American tax dollars went into this pie in the sky scheme.


60 posted on 04/11/2026 2:30:35 PM PDT by Omnivore-Dan (have to )
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