Chai Brady
The Society for African Missions were “shocked” to be shortlisted by the UN for their work to tackle desertification in the Sahel region.
Fr Maurice Henry said it was great for the order “to be recognised” beside organisations with massive resources aiming to mitigate the climate crisis.
They were shortlisted along with eight others, but were pipped to the post by MERET (Managing Environmental Resources to Enable Transition) Project of Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia.
The ‘Land for Life Award’ is organised by the UNCCD (UN Convention to Combat Desertification) and the winners were announced on Monday in Ankara, Turkey.
Awareness
The SMA’s Laudato Tree Project placed them in the competition. It is an awareness and fundraising campaign which supports a major initiative to combat desertification in Africa called the ‘Great Green Wall’.
This initiative was launched in 2007 and aims to restore degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world’s poorest regions by planting greenery across the width of the continent. Once complete, the wall is expected be the largest living structure on the planet stretching 8,000 km.