China Wisdom to Help Tackle African Desertification

Among the countries that are obsessed with large areas of desertification land, few have ever made such a miracle as China, with nearly 2,000km reduction of desertification land per year in the last five years.

Now, the country is letting a hand to help build the Great Green Wall in Africa with its successful experience in tackling desertification.

A scientific project aiming to solve the desertification in the African Sahel regions was approved by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology this Monday. The project will provide technology that Great Green Wall in Africa needs, especially in Mauritania, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.

“The desertification prevention and control technology, materials and products in China, after technological evaluation of environment adjustability, will help build a technology application mode suitable for the Great Green Wall in Africa,” said LEI Jiaqiang, director of Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is leading the project.

The institute signed an agreement last September with the African Great Green Wall organizers to join hands in building the Great Green Wall in Africa.

The project will also help train staff for Africa, and thus improve the desertification combatting ability of the involving African countries.

Led by the African Union, the Great Green Wall is Africa's flagship initiative to combat the effects of climate change and desertification in Sahel and Sahara regions. The initiative forges ahead in afforestation, ecological adaptation, poverty reduction and regional economic development since its establishment in 2005, thanks to the long-stretching range across involving countries.