Refugees Help Reforest the Desert

For four years now, a refugee camp located in north-eastern Cameroon is training its population to plant seedlings in order to halt the desertification of the country through a program that is part of a greater project to reforest one of Africa’s largest deserts.

“Since the beginning of the project, 360,000 seedlings have been grown in the nursery and planted on more than 100 hectares,” explains Abdul Aziz, project coordinator at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). “The camp was almost deforested, but this project has helped to repair the vegetation cover.” 

The Minawao refugee camp is home to some 70,000 Nigerian refugees who have been trained to plant seedlings in an effective way despite the harsh environment. Indeed, they use Land Life Company’s “cocoon technology” where a doughnut-shaped water tank made from a recycled carton is buried to help the seedlings to take roots. The program – developed by the UNHCR and the LWF – is part of the Great Green Wall initiative which aims at growing an 8,000-kilometre continent-wide barrier that prevents drought, desertification, and land degradation in the Sahel, one of Africa’s largest deserts.