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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/06/we-water-rest-water-the-green-belt-of-vegetable-plots-cooling-a-city>
"As far as the eye can see is a hodge-podge of trees, vegetable plots and water
tanks. Up close it may look like a gigantic allotment, but this unusual project
actually stretches for 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres), a green belt that now
completely rings the city of Ouagadougou.
The green belt began life many years ago in the 1970s, with the aim of building
a protective wall against the encroaching desert that lies beyond the greenery,
just a few steps away. In Burkina Faso, one-third of the territory – about 9
million hectares of productive land – is degraded, with an estimated average
degradation rate of 360,000 hectares per year, according to the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO). “Burkina Faso is not a climatically favoured
country, but the drought of the 1980s exacerbated the problem, leading to
significant population movements toward less degraded areas,” explains Sidnoma
Abdoul Aziz Traoré, an environmental economist and expert in land degradation
at the Centre Universitaire de Ziniaré (CUZ). But the situation, he says, is
not irreversible.
The initial goal of the green belt was to reforest 2,100 hectares at an annual
rate of 100 hectares, and by 1986, the area where trees had been planted was
1,032 hectares. The project stuttered a little in later years, despite reaching
2,000 hectares. But new impetus has recently been given to the project, which
seeks, beyond holding back the desert, to combat heat and promote urban
agriculture to help feed a city that has doubled its population in just 14
years, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and
Demography (INSD). The deadly heatwave that hit the country last year, with the
temperature in Burkina Faso exceeding 42.3C (108F) for three consecutive days,
only hammered home the urgency of what is now a vital project for the city.
“The Sahel responds more quickly to climate change, and we are less prepared,”
explains climatologist Kiswendsida Guigma at the Climate Centre of the Red
Cross Federation in the Burkinabè capital. “When we analyse the situation on a
large scale, we realise that the climate phenomenon has contributed to
increasing heat. As a result, there are new initiatives like planting trees.
People have realised that we need to cool the city, although we haven’t managed
to do it on the necessary scale.”"
Via
Positive.News
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
