What a Wonderful World-Earth Day.

I see trees of green, red roses, too.  I see them bloom for me and your and I think to myself what a wonderful world it is—April 22, 2015 Earth Day, as we observe this important day we must think about the trials facing Africa.  Africa is literally an enormous piece of the picture—one-fifth of the planet—that cannot be disregarded. Although the challenges are great, so is the prospective.

v  The continent of Africa represents 20 percent of the Earth’s land mass.

v  Two-thirds of Africa is arid or semi-arid, and 300 of the 800 million people in Sub Saharan Africa live in a water-scarce environment.

v  During the decade ending in 2010, Africa had the second highest rate of deforestation of any region in the world.

v  One-third of the known species threatened with extinction is found in Sub Saharan Africa.

v  Some 520 million Africans rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, most of them subsistence farmers.

When we think about Earth Day, many considerations should be addresses, Africa looms large, but its answers must start small.

Planting a living fence of  Jujube trees around a plot of eroded farmland, provides  a garden within protection from grazing animals and dry winds, as well as produces hundreds of pounds of fruit to eat and sell.

Many groups in Kenya have developed sustainable solutions for preserving endangered lions through community education and partnership. One being local men and women—many raised to be lion hunters—are educated, trained, and employed as lion monitors. They are part of a network of community informants who observe lion populations in order to reduce human-lion conflict. In just one year, they have successfully reduced human-lion conflict by 50 percent.

Throughout Africa, agriculture is key to economic growth.  Most farms are small plots of land, and most farmers are women who face obstacles including a lack of technology, increasingly variable rains, and crop-destroying diseases. But these women farmers are more adept at using mirco-loans to finance small agricultural businesses. Home and school vertical vegetable gardens, which supply dietary nutrients that are not available from staple crops, are increasing in number. These gardens offer diverse agricultural landscapes that incorporate ecosystems that preserve watersheds and wild biodiversity.