The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) trained 3,000 Somalis on ways of earning a livelihood from the harmful prosopis tree.
Prosopis tree is one of the most disliked species in the Horn of Africa region.
Not only does it deplete water sources but it also takes over large swathes of land while competing with other trees.
“In Somalia, this invasive species is hated for its ability to reduce grazing and farming land,” said Stella Keino, FAO’s Natural Resource Management Associate.
She also said, “It also depletes water, which agropastoral and pastoral communities need.”
Sweden, Italy, and Denmark funded a program with the help of the United Nations Joint Program on Youth Employment.
The program sought to train over 3,000 Somalis on the benefits of this species through Cash-4-Work, which include developing small business ideas from prosopis tree.