Mauritania plants trees to hold back desert Mauritania has
launched a tree-planting program aimed at protecting its capital
from the advancing desert and coastal erosion, a project that
could eventually extend thousands of kilometers across Africa.
President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz on Saturday planted the first
of some 2 million trees that are meant to form a "green belt"
around the capital, Nouakchott, and curb erosion elsewhere in
the desert nation that straddles black and Arab Africa. "The aim
of this green belt is to stop the advancing desert and stop
encroachment by the sea, which is threatening the town with
floods," Ba Housseynou Hammadi, minister for the environment and
sustainable development, said. "This belt will also play an
economic role. Some of the trees that have been chosen can be
used for firewood. Others will produce gum acacia, which is (a
natural gum) sought after for pharmaceutical products," Hammadi
added. It will take four years to plant the trees in Mauritania.
The project is part of