“Africa’s Green Wall”- Has It Failed? We Debunk
A tik tok video claims that Africa’s green wall has failed. The video attracted over 17,000 views, 200 likes, 155 comments and over 90 people saved and shared the video on other social media platforms.
The video clip used to back up the claim, was found to be a story by Al Jazeera (aired on April 22nd 2021) reporting about the effect on trees that were planted in communities affected by the growing desert in Senegal.
What is the Africa green wall?
According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Africa great green wall was launched in 2007 by the African Union to combat land degradation, desertification and drought which are results of climate change in the Sahel region.
It started with countries like Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan and others joined later in 2014.
The Great Green Wall project is being implemented across 22 African countries and aims to restore the degraded areas in those countries as well as to curb the expansion of the Sahara desert.
Fact check
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification ( UNCCD) says the great green wall is a work in progress with key results registered from the start of this project such as reafforestation, restoration of land and planting.
According to the UNCCD 2020 report about the implementation of the green wall project, Ethiopia has the bigger percentage of land restored compared to Senegal which is in the 5th position with 119 land areas restored from desertification over a period 2008 to 2019.
You will find more infographics at Statista
“Since several restoration projects involve a tree planting component, it is particularly important to closely follow the survival rates in the five to 10 years following the planting. A plantation with a low survival rate is likely to disappear completely,” the report highlights the challenge addressed in the news story by Alzajeera.
The UNCCD says that The Great Green Wall is now being implemented in more than 20 countries across Africa and more than 19 billion US dollars have been mobilised and pledged for its support.
Rating/Verdict:
The claim is misleading, since it’s based on results of one country yet over 20 countries are working on the progress of Africa’s great green wall.
This fact-check was produced by Debunk Media Initiative with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.
