One area of concern is the Sahel, a vast semi-arid area south of the Sahara desert.
Developers also broke ground last month on renovations to the Sahara hotel-casino that closed in 2011.
Perhaps the sun over the Sahara could indeed be the future super generator of our electricity.
South of the Sahara, the separate experiences of both economic reform and democracy have been mixed.
And his organization, born under the stars of the Sahara, continues its work into its second decade.
Huge swathes of the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert have been rendered off-limits to foreigners.
Almost two years ago, I visited Burkina Faso in West Africa, just south of the Sahara desert.
The rate of poverty in the Sahara region has been reduced from 29.4% in 1975 to 6.2%.
Scientists estimate that a billion tons of dust from the Sahara are lifted into the atmosphere each year.
The Sahara Group has businesses ranging from finance, housing, manufacturing and the media.
What's certain is that the Sahara is one of the hardest places on earth for an outsider to understand.
Nonetheless, South Africa probably has the most potent army south of the Sahara.
For experienced ultra-runners the challenge of self-sufficient running in the extreme heat of the Sahara is too good to ignore.
Indeed, over much of the Sahara, rainfall is so slight and irregular as to make any average figure almost meaningless.
Subrata Roy Sahara, chairman of the Sahara Group, said the hotel was a part of the group's "major expansion plans".
It is now almost extinct, and another - the scimitar-horned oryx of the Sahara - is on the endangered list.
Many deserted and began the long difficult journey home across the Sahara and arid mountain ranges, avoiding checkpoints as they went.
As for economic and social development, the Sahara region has recorded higher development rates compared with many other regions in Morocco.
They say they crossed the Sahara on foot, but many cruise the camp decked in gold chains, designer clothes and mobile phones.
The Sahel is the area along the southern edge of the Sahara.
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In the area south of the Sahara, which is where most Africans live, mosquitoes are too plentiful and too tough to wipe out.
Nearly 2, 000 army personnel from Chad and Niger, with experience of fighting in the Sahara desert, are already helping consolidate the recent gains.
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Further on, the road gives way to sand, then dune mountains reminiscent of the Sahara - except these end in a wide, pristine beach.
In 1999, after his second solo expedition across the Sahara, he realized he had to do something to help the people affected by desertification.
He was equally unhappy about the annual Paris-Dakar motor rally in which dozens of rugged vehicles roar through the Sahara, churning up the sands.
So far, 22 foreign missions have visited the Sahara, the latest a group of foreign journalists dispatched by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).
The crisis started after hostage-takers attacked a gas plant at Tigantourine, near In Amenas, in the Sahara desert on Wednesday 16 January, Algerian officials said.
Besides the Argan tree's various human uses, UNESCO notes, it has had an historical role as a buffer against northern expansion of the Sahara desert.
The Tuareg are nomadic tribesmen in the Sahara and Sahel regions.
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