UN launches world's largest program to fight desertification in Africa

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2005

NAIROBI (AFP) — The United Nations and international lenders launched a multi-billion-dollar initiative to fight desertification in Africa, billed as the world's largest scheme to prevent land degradation.

TerrAfrica plans to invest four billion dollars (3.3 billion euros) over 12 years to stem the expansion of African deserts and promote sustainable land management as part of wider efforts to reduce the continent's crushing poverty, officials said.

The multi-agency partnership, made up of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), The World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), hopes to coordinate a concerted push to ease the problem which affects more than 65 percent of all Africans, they said.

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