The great green wall of Africa

Djibouti, Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal

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Related organizations

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Problems

Land degradation and drought

The Sahel is one of the world’s most vulnerable drought hazard regions. It is a semi-arid belt of land that stretches across Africa, from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east. It is home to more than 500 million people, many of whom survive on agriculture and pastoralism.

The main problem in the Sahel is land degradation, which is the loss of productivity and biodiversity of the land due to human and natural factors. Land degradation leads to desertification, expanding desert-like conditions into previously fertile areas. Desertification reduces the availability of water, food, and other essential services that the people and the environment depend on.

Droughts are becoming intense, and temperatures rising 1.5 faster compared to the rest of the world. On the other hand, climate change is causing heavy rainfall and thunderstorms. Due to dry land that cannot absorb rising waters, floods are common in this region.

In the Sahel, more than elsewhere, these natural disasters are degrading the natural resources essential to the agropastoral livelihoods that underpin the economy in much of the area. Two in three people in the Sahel countries live from agriculture and livestock.

Solutions

How the great green wall of Africa is restoring land, sequestering carbon, and improving lives

The African Union launched The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel (GGW) to address this complex and urgent challenge. The GGW is a visionary project that aims to transform the lives of millions of people by creating a mosaic of green and productive landscapes across one of the world’s poorest regions.

The initiative, launched in 2007, involves 11 countries in the Sahel and Sahara region, from Djibouti to Senegal. The goal is to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon, and create 10 million jobs by 2030.

The Wall promises to be a compelling solution to the many urgent threats facing the African Continent and the global community – notably climate change, drought, famine, conflict, and migration.

Once complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, Three times the size of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Green Wall of Africa is more than just an environmental project. It is also a social and economic one, as it seeks to improve food security, reduce poverty, empower women and youth, and foster peace and stability in the region.

The project is supported by various partners, including the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank, and other international and regional organizations.

The Great Green Wall of Africa has already achieved some remarkable results. According to a recent report by the UNCCD, the project has restored 18 million hectares (45 million acres) of land, sequestered 36 million tons of carbon dioxide, and supported 350 million people in rural areas. The project has also contributed to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as no poverty, zero hunger, climate action, and life on land.

In Senegal, more than 12 million trees have been planted along a 545 km stretch of land, creating a green belt that protects crops from wind erosion and sand encroachment.

In Niger, farmers have adopted a traditional agroforestry technique called farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), which involves protecting and pruning native trees that sprout from stumps or seeds in cultivated fields. This has increased tree density from four to 40 trees per hectare on about five million hectares of land.

The Great Green Wall also has a set of ambitious targets that guide its implementation and evaluation. These targets are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the African Union Agenda 2063.

Some of these targets include restoring 50% of degraded lands by 2030; reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2030; increasing food security by 20% by 2030; reducing poverty by 10% by 2030; enhancing resilience to climate change by 30% by 2030; and creating a green economy that generates $1 billion per year by 2030.

The Great Green Wall is a land restoration project and a cultural and social movement that brings together people from different countries, backgrounds, and beliefs. The initiative celebrates the African continent's diversity and richness while fostering a sense of solidarity and common purpose among its inhabitants. The Great Green Wall is a gift to Africa and the world, as it contributes to global efforts to combat climate change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Source: https://thegreatgreenwall.org/

Gallery

The Great Green Wall initiative created close to 120 000 farming jobs.

Senegalese villagers working in a tree nursery forming part of the Great Green Wall.

Land degradation in the Sahel has its roots in both human activities and natural climate cycles.

Timelines

2022

March 20

Great Green Wall Day was the final day at the Rio Conventions Pavilion at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

2021

January 05

The project received a boost at the One Planet Summit, where its partners pledged USD 14.3 billion to launch the Great Green Wall Accelerator, facilitating collaboration and coordination among donors and stakeholders across 11 countries.[24] In September 2021, the French Development Agency estimated that 20 million hectares (49 million acres) have been restored and 350,000 jobs created.

2020

A report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification reveals that the Great Green Wall has restored 18 million hectares (45 million acres) of land, sequestered 36 million tons of carbon dioxide, and supported 350 million people in rural areas.

2011

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank, and other partners convene country leaders at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification headquarters in Bonn, Germany, to develop a program under the Great Green Wall initiative.

2007

The GGW initiative was conceived in 2007 in response to widespread land degradation and extreme poverty linked to recurrent and severe droughts in the Sahel. The Sahel is located on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, stretching from the Atlantic Coast of West Africa to the Red Sea in the East. The response designed – the Great Green Wall Initiative – was to restore degraded lands across a 15 km wide and nearly 8,000 km long area covering around 153 million hectares of the Sahel. This is the intervention zone demarcated specifically under the GGW.

2002

The idea of a Great Green Wall re-emerges at a special summit in N’Djamena, Chad, on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.