English C1 CAE

In Africa, scientists (0) ARE hard at work (1) ............ land once rich with biodiversity and vegetation. Eleven countries in the Sahel-Sahara region have (2) ............ to combat land degradation and bring back native plant life to the landscape. In recent years, northern Africa has seen the quality of arable land decline (3) ............ due to climate change and poor land management. Uniting under the banner of the Great Green Wall initiative, national and regional leaders hope to (4) ............ this trend. The project has since (5) ............ to include countries in both northern and western Africa. Land degradation typically stems from both human-related and natural factors; overfarming, overgrazing, climate change, and extreme weather are the most (6) ............ causes. Beyond affecting land and the natural environment, this also poses serious (7) ............ to agricultural productivity, food security, and quality of life. Nowhere is this issue more urgent than in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 500 million people live on land undergoing desertification, the most (8) ............ form of land degradation.