4 ms·

Now that’s a wall I can get behind.

padraic7a 6y ago
Unfortunately the Great Wall doesn't seem to be doing so well. This article is from 2024. I looked for updates and found the Wikipedia page. It contains some contradictory statistics but this is the most recent: "In September 2020 it was reported that the Great Green Wall had only covered 4% of the planned area". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall
- woofie11 6y ago
  That's common in the region. You announce major new projects, start them, and don't finish them. New leadership comes in, ignores the old projects, and starts a new set. You don't fix or finish old things started by your predecessor. You start building new ones.
  - vulcan01 6y ago
    > in the region Nah, that happens everywhere (at least where governments change every few years).
    - woofie11 6y ago
      There's a difference of scale. EU, US, China, Korea, Japan, etc. have some of this, but also successfully have long-running projects. Things build up over time. You have major institutions and infrastructure maintained over multiple administrations. This problem is common everywhere, but it's extreme in most ECOWAS countries.
- Someone 6y ago
  https://catalogue.unccd.int/1551_GGW_Report_ENG_Final_040920.pdf https://catalogue.unccd.int/1551_GGW_Report_ENG_Final_040920... says they pivoted a bit: “The aim of the GGW was originally to create a long vegetation barrier between the 100 and 400 mm isohyets, including ramps, and over a length of at least 7000 km along the Sahel, being roughly 15 km wide. In recent years this vision has evolved into an integrated ecosystem management approach, striving for a mosaic of different land use and production systems, including sustainable dryland management and restoration, the regeneration of natural vegetation as well as water retention and conservation measures” I think that makes it hard to report % completed. Also, 4% is a lot of land (that same PDF says they currently target about 1½ million km² of land. That’s a lot more than that 7,000 by 15 km band originally envisioned (For comparison, the USA and Canada each are about 10 million km², so that would be about 7½% of North America), in the poorest part of the world. As https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-05-02/africas-great-green-wall-making-progress-two-fronts https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-05-02/africas-great-green-w... says “it will take at least a generation to make it a reality”

Unfortunately the Great Wall doesn't seem to be doing so well. This article is from 2024. I looked for updates and found the Wikipedia page. It contains some contradictory statistics but this is the most recent: "In September 2020 it was reported that the Great Green Wall had only covered 4% of the planned area". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall

woofie11 6y ago
That's common in the region. You announce major new projects, start them, and don't finish them. New leadership comes in, ignores the old projects, and starts a new set. You don't fix or finish old things started by your predecessor. You start building new ones.
- vulcan01 6y ago
  > in the region Nah, that happens everywhere (at least where governments change every few years).
  - woofie11 6y ago
    There's a difference of scale. EU, US, China, Korea, Japan, etc. have some of this, but also successfully have long-running projects. Things build up over time. You have major institutions and infrastructure maintained over multiple administrations. This problem is common everywhere, but it's extreme in most ECOWAS countries.
Someone 6y ago
https://catalogue.unccd.int/1551_GGW_Report_ENG_Final_040920.pdf https://catalogue.unccd.int/1551_GGW_Report_ENG_Final_040920... says they pivoted a bit: “The aim of the GGW was originally to create a long vegetation barrier between the 100 and 400 mm isohyets, including ramps, and over a length of at least 7000 km along the Sahel, being roughly 15 km wide. In recent years this vision has evolved into an integrated ecosystem management approach, striving for a mosaic of different land use and production systems, including sustainable dryland management and restoration, the regeneration of natural vegetation as well as water retention and conservation measures” I think that makes it hard to report % completed. Also, 4% is a lot of land (that same PDF says they currently target about 1½ million km² of land. That’s a lot more than that 7,000 by 15 km band originally envisioned (For comparison, the USA and Canada each are about 10 million km², so that would be about 7½% of North America), in the poorest part of the world. As https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-05-02/africas-great-green-wall-making-progress-two-fronts https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-05-02/africas-great-green-w... says “it will take at least a generation to make it a reality”