Baobab & Marula – New Solutions to Global Warming and Food Security

Edited by

Arinola Adefila
Ahmad Cheikhyoussef
Kenneth Fafa Egbadzor
Risto Isomäki
Joyce Lepetu
Annika Saarto

Two iconic African trees may have more importance in preventing disastrous global warming than any other species growing on our home planet.  

While global warming is accelerating, the green transition is being replaced by a new armament race in Europe and USA.  At the same time, Amazonian rainforests and the boreal forest zone are turning from carbon sinks to new sources of carbon dioxide. 

Luckily, two incredible African trees might still save us from a climate chaos. 

Baobab (Adansonia digitata) and marula (Sclerocarya spp) can become large trees even in arid conditions where nothing else grows well. Baobab and marula cannot burn in forest fires, and they are resistant to most insect pests and plant diseases.

Largest baobabs measured by French and British during the colonial period were 18 or 20 meters in diameter. A few baobabs and marulas could be planted per hectare on vast areas without changing the prevailing land-use patterns. This would,  within half a century, absorb a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Still much more carbon dioxide could be absorbed and sequestered if baobabs and marulas would be planted more densely and the stands would then be thinned and the wood stored in a way that would prevent it from decomposing.

Planting of a few billion marula and baobab trees would also benefit food security. Nutritive value of baobab fruit is two times higher than that of avocado and a middle-sized marula typically produces half a ton of fruit in a year. One half of the fruit is edible, and the other half consists of stones whose energy value is close to that of coal.

In the articles of Baobab & Marula many of the world’s leading baobab and marula researchers outline what is known about these two extremely important trees and what could be achieved by their large-scale planting and domestication. The articles explain what is currently known about the nutritional and health impacts of baobab- or marula-based products. They provide an outlook on the vast cultural significance of the two species and assess their economic potential.  Above all they highlight what should urgently be done to conserve the genetic variety of baobab and marula for the future generations.

Baobab & Marula – New Solutions to Global Warming and Food Security is a joint effort by Into Publishing and the Baorula Network.

The Baorula Network is an informal coalition of African and European universities, research centers, non-governmental organizations and environmental activists interested in promoting the large-scale planting of baobab and marula – and other neglected African tree species – as an important partial solution to the world’s pressing problems.