Green Hand In The Kalahari Desert

The name Kalahari is believed to derive from the Tswana word Kgalagadi which literally means Waterless Place.

The Kalahari Desert has the largest continuous stretch of sand on earth with sand dunes stretching westward to where it meets the Namib Desert. Most of the Kalahari Desert is covered with vegetation and is described as Savannah.

There are wide variations in temperature and it is not uncommon for summer days to reach in excess of 45 degrees Celsius whereas night-time frosts may occur during winter with temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius.

The project looks to plant initially 3,000,000 trees across the three countries of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The project was inspired by the successes of the factors of the Great Green Wall in the Suhel with regards to climate change fight and impacting lives of people in the community. The aims of the projects:

• Carbon capture through trees planted. (Also helps with water retention)
• Improve Community lives through engagement in the project and subsequent value creation.
• Trees will help support the ecosystem that also has the highest density of the largest land mammal anywhere in the world which easts plants.
• Provide opportunity to test ideas that may prove useful in the Great Green Wall of the Sahara.

So far the GGW has been able to report the following:

• Successful planting of draught resistant trees in less than a decade(Senegal)
• Restoration of degraded land(Ethiopia & Nigeria)
• Rehabilitation of land (Burkina Faso)
• 11 countries along the green wall have re-habilitated nearly 4 million hectares of land and created 350,000 jobs in the process. A broader group of 21 African countries is committed to restoring and rehabilitating 100 million hectares of land by 2030, creating 10 million green jobs.