Mali, Africa, has a big problem. People there keep cutting down the trees!
Aida M’bo stands in front of the Zamblara forest. She used to serve in Mali’s government. Now she spends her time planting new trees. But people cut most of them down.
“Deforestation is an important issue in Mali,” she says.
Here’s the difficulty: Imagine you live in rural Mali. You have to eat. You have to cook. Solar power and cooking gas are too expensive. What do you use? Wood!
Mali has lost nearly 7,722 square miles of forests in the last three decades. That’s an area larger than New Jersey.
Many Africans, including Ms. M’bo, work on a project called the Great Green Wall. The project started in 2007. It aims to plant a huge line of trees. We’re talking 5,000 miles of trees. That living wall would act as a barrier to keep the desert out. More trees could absorb water and stop floods.
But scorching weather came to many African countries. Little rain fell. Out of every 100 planned trees, only four are still standing. It would cost around $43 billion to finish the Great Green Wall project.
In Mali, the struggle is worse because people need firewood to live.
Lassana Coulibaly lives in Mali. He spends his days chopping and reselling wood. He buys the wood from people who cut it from a nearby forest.
“This [is] how we make a living on a daily basis,” he says.
Mali faces other troubles too. It produces lots of gold, but most people there are still very poor. In rural areas, people farm. But their work is threatened by bad weather and fighting. Floods struck the area this year. Many people had to leave their homes.
Pray for the people of Mali. Ask God to supply all they need to live well while caring for the planet at the same time.
Someday, God’s people will live in the New Heavens and New Earth. There, no one will lack anything good.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. — Revelation 21:4
