An ambitious reforestation project, carried out by refugees in Minawao, Cameroon, has turned an extensive area of desert into the forest – and changed people’s lives.
The region, already badly affected by climate change, has gradually become home to nearly 70,000 refugees since 2014. They have fled violence linked to militant group Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria. The new arrivals accelerated the desertification process, cutting down the few surrounding trees to support themselves.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) launched a reforestation program in 2018.
Refugees and local communities received training on how to give seedlings the best chance of survival in a harsh environment. The so-called “cocoon technology”, developed by Land Life Company involves burying a doughnut-shaped water tank made from recycled cartons. This surrounds the plant’s roots and feeds it.
To date, volunteers in the refugee camp have given new life to more than 100 hectares (250 football fields) of severely degraded land.
“Minawao has become a place that is green all over and there are a lot of benefits to that. We have shade from the sun, the soil has improved and the trees attract water”, says one of the volunteers Lydia Youcoubou.
This project is contributing to the Great Green Wall, an African-led initiative that aims to grow an 8,000-kilometre continent-wide barrier to stop the ongoing desertification of the Sahel, a territory on the border of the Sahara and the Sudanian savanna.
