Omkring 15 procent af The Great Green Wall er blevet plantet, men der skal mere fart på, hvis muren af træer efter planen skal nå tværs over Afrika gennem Sahel i 2030, lyder det fra FN.

20 million hectares of land restored to Africa's Great Green Wall
About 15 percent of The Great Green Wall has been planted, but more speed is needed if the wall of trees is scheduled to reach across Africa through the Sahel by 2030, according to the UN.

Langs Saharas sydlige grænse skyder nye træer frem flere steder. Det er en del af det store projekt med at bygge Afrikas store, grønne mur.

Men der skal mere fart på, hvis målene for 2030 skal realiseres.

”Vi må have udvidet genoprettelse og de tilknyttede gevinster for lokalbefolkninger,” siger QU Dongyu, generaldirektøren for FN’s Fødevare- og Landbrugsorganisation (FAO).

Udtalelsen faldt torsdag den 25. juni i forbindelse med et møde for forskellige FN-agenturer og andre multilaterale organisationer. Her drøftede deltagerne, hvordan man kommer videre med den lange række af træer, der skal plantes på tværs af Afrika, som en mur mod ørkenen.

Indtil videre er 20 millioner hektar land allerede genoprettet, skriver FAO, men der er et stykke vej endnu. For at nå projektets mål for 2030, skal der genoprettes 8,2 millioner hektar mere årligt frem mod slutningen af årtiet.

Knap 8.000 kilometer naturmur
The Great Green Wall, som den kaldes, skal bestå af en mur af træer på tværs af Afrika fra Dakar i Senegal til det lille østafrikanske land Djibouti – i alt knap 8.000 kilometer. Formålet er at stoppe ørkendannelse, at skabe frodigere jord og bedre muligheder for lokalbefolkninger samt at reducere ekstremisme og konflikt i det ustabile Sahelbælte.

Along the southern border of the Sahara, new trees are sprouting in several places. It is part of the big project of building Africa's Great Green Wall.

But more momentum is needed if the goals for 2030 are to be realized.

"We must have expanded recovery and the associated gains for local people," said QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The opinion fell on Thursday 25 June in connection with a meeting of various UN agencies and other multilateral organizations. Here, participants discussed how to move forward with the long line of trees to be planted across Africa, like a wall against the desert.

So far, 20 million hectares of land have already been restored, writes the FAO, but there is still some way to go. To achieve the project's goal of 2030, 8.2 million hectares more must be restored annually by the end of the decade.

Almost 8,000 kilometers of natural wall
The Great Green Wall, as it is called, is to consist of a wall of trees across Africa from Dakar in Senegal to the small East African country of Djibouti - a total of almost 8,000 kilometers. The aim is to stop desertification, to create more fertile land and better opportunities for local people, as well as to reduce extremism and conflict in the unstable Sahel belt.

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