[Someone]

If you believe “its human nature to turn all but the sturdiest surroundings into a war-torn desert”, all hope is lost, indeed.

If, on the other hand, you believe people can learn, or if you believe people can’t learn, but are driven by money, this project has a chance. As the article says, this forest brings jobs. Also, stopping the Sahara from growing protects arable land. So, I think he idea is that profit will protect this wall.

The project has a site (https://www.greatgreenwall.org/), by the way. It has more (likely biased to some degree) information on the project.