The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement with a simple, yet epic goal: to grow a 4,300-mile-long natural wonder that will stretch across the entire width of Africa. 

The project started 10 years ago to combat desertification, the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture. 

The idea was to plant a massive wall of trees 10 miles wide across the continent to keep the land from becoming barren. 

However, just a few years into the project, the organization faced a massive problem; it wasn’t working. 

Over 80% of the planted trees had died. 

After years of gathering information, the project has evolved. Slowly, the idea of a Great Green Wall has changed into a program centered around indigenous land use techniques, not planting a forest on the edge of a desert.

The best part is that now it appears to be working. 

The African Union and the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization now refer to it as “Africa’s flagship initiative to combat land degradation, desertification, and drought.”

According to the project’s website “The Wall promises to be a compelling solution to the many urgent threats not only facing the African Continent but the global community as a whole – notably climate change, drought, famine, conflict, and migration.”

Once it is complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on planet Earth; over 3 times the size of the Great Barrier Reef.