This month, AnswerConnect partnered with Tree Aid to help combat desertification and lessen the impacts of climate change by:
- Growing trees across Africa’s drylands.
- By training local farmers in sustainable land management methods.
Read more about Tree Aid’s work with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in support of the Great Green Wall initiative.
What is desertification?
Desertification occurs when fertile land becomes a desert.
Effects of Desertification
Desertification triggers poverty and food instability in local communities. When crops fail and drought depletes natural resources, local people struggle to support themselves financially and nutritionally because the land they rely on becomes barren and unproductive.
Tree Aid is helping combat desertification by restoring degraded land in Africa to increase biodiversity. Planting trees in these areas can help to protect surrounding land from droughts and floods by stabilising the soil and improving its fertility. Trees also absorb carbon dioxide, which is one of the major causes of climate change.
Image courtesy of Tree Aid
Training local farmers
Tree Aid supports local farmers by teaching them about sustainable land restoration methods, like digging Zai pits — holes filled with compost to conserve water and nutrients. After they plant trees, the organisation ensures local communities understand how to keep trees healthy, growing, and thriving.
The organisation also focuses heavily on involving women in the communities, enabling them to participate in projects through training sessions.
The Great Green Wall
The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement that Tree Aid supports, to grow a wide belt of trees, vegetation, and fertile land across the Sahel. The movement has surpassed its original goal to create an 8,000 km band of trees.
By 2030, the movement now aims to restore 100,000,000 hectares of land, sequester 250,000,000 tons of carbon, and create 10,000,000 jobs. Tree Aid works with the African Union and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in this project to support the Great Green Wall.
A greener Africa can improve the quality of life for local communities and the world.
Image courtesy of Tree Aid
Trees Mean Life
Tree Aid believes that protecting the environment and tackling poverty are inseparable. Trees are the solution and have the power to protect people from poverty, hunger, and the effects of the climate crisis.
Since the organisation was founded in 1987, it has helped over 1.8 million people living in poverty and has grown nearly 22.5 million trees.
AnswerConnect is proud to partner with Tree Aid to create a greener Africa.
To read about AnswerConnect’s other tree planting initiatives, click here.
