Earth Equity News

Niger: Land of Hope. By Alex Perry, Time Magazine, 12/13/10. “The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that on the southern edge of the Sahara, an area the size of Somalia has become desert in the past 50 years... In a May 2008 report, the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said 46% of Africa is threatened by land degradation. UNCCD executive secretary Luc Gnacadja concluded that desertification is ‘the greatest environmental challenge of our times.’… The coming climate crisis will have a massive human cost… [But,] for University of Amsterdam environmental researcher Chris Reij, returning to Niger in 2004 after a decade's absence was ‘quite a surprise.’ In areas that used to be completely barren, where you could see villages miles away, ‘suddenly the view was blocked with green.’… Today Niger is one of the world's foremost examples of a green economy. Fighting climate change in Niger is development. Trees, soil and water have been reinstated as capital. Conflict between farmers and herders is down 80%, says Reij. And all this without dependence on schemes such as CDM or UN-REDD. Which means, as Reij says, ‘most of it didn't cost anything.’"