Land degradation and deforestation
News & Blogs
Listening to our land
“…With the knowledge we are gaining, we will become better land and natural resource managers, because we’re understanding how we need to treat our land, and the plants and animals on it.” These are the words of Rinouzeu Karizembi, one of only two women in the nine-member management committee of the Wild Dog Conservancy from […] Continue Reading
Combating desertification: Why we must take up this challenge
Much news reporting disregards one of the most serious environmental challenges of our time: desertification and land degradation. As Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) says: “Desertification is a silent, invisible crisis.” Desertification threatens the water and food security, livelihoods and health of hundreds of millions of people: 52% […] Continue Reading
Pakistan’s Billion Tree Tsunami restores 350,000 hectares of forests and degraded land to surpass Bonn Challenge commitment
Launched in 2015 by Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, the Billion Tree Tsunami aims to turn the tide on land degradation and loss in the mountainous, formerly forested KPK province in the Hindu Kush mountain range. The campaign simultaneously helped KPK province fulfil its 348,400 hectare commitment to the Bonn Challenge – a global effortto bring 150 million […] Continue Reading
How Ethiopia Went from Famine Crisis to Green Revolution
What most people probably don’t know is that Ethiopia has made significant progress during the last 20 years in restoring its degraded lands and improving its food and water security. According to Belgian and Ethiopian researchers,” Northern Ethiopia is now greener than it has ever been during the last 145 years,” and “human investments have overridden the impacts of […] Continue Reading
Malawi aims to restore trees and land covering half the country by 2030
Malawi plans to spend about $385 million by 2030 to plant trees and restore other degraded land, in an effort to reverse rampant forest losses in the country, forestry officials said this week. The area set to be rehabilitated covers 4.5 million hectares – nearly half of the country’s total land area, according to Tangu […] Continue Reading
Will Africa’s Great Green Wall discourage migration to Europe?
The Great Green Wall is more of a metaphor than an actual wall. It was initially conceived as a physical barrier of trees on the edge of the desert, but over the past few years, it has evolved into a hodge-podge of projects that attempt to restore degraded land and combat desertification. Thanks in part […] Continue Reading