The world continues to see with hope the advance of the Great Green Wall, that project of eleven African countries that is now turning 20 years old and that seeks to build a vegetation corridor to stop the advance of the Sahara Desert towards the south, restore 100 million hectares of degraded lands, capture 250 million tons of carbon, create 10 million green jobs by 2030, and offer new economic opportunities in a region marked by structural poverty and environmental crises.
This initiative, launched in 2007, is driven by Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan, who joined together to combat land degradation and reintroduce native flora to the landscape. These countries constitute the so-called Sahel, the eco-climatic and biogeographic zone of North Africa that makes a transition between the Sahara Desert (to the north) and the Sudanese savanna (to the south). It extends from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west.
More than 9,000 species of plants and animals in danger of extinction
Therefore, if it is completed, in addition to the immeasurable positive effect on that continent and the world, it will be a new wonder of the world. The data offered by a National Geographic article show the importance and need to recover that African belt, where, in recent years, the arable quality of the land has deteriorated due to climate change and poor land management. Land degradation is caused by natural and human-related factors, including unsustainable agricultural practices, overgrazing, and climate change.
This land degradation contributes to the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity. As a result, more than 9,000 species of plants and animals are considered endangered. Land degradation also poses serious threats to agricultural productivity, food security, and quality of life. Nowhere is the threat of land degradation more urgent than in the Sahel, where millions of people live on land that is being degraded, warns National Geographic.
But there are more serious effects of desertification (the most extreme form of land degradation) of the Sahel. “Without measures to combat it, it will continue to cause the migration of people out of the Sahel. In 2020 alone, more than 2.5 million people in the Sahel region were displaced,” the article adds.
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) maintains that this ambitious project is being implemented in 22 African countries and will revitalize thousands of communities across the continent. It brings together African countries and international partners under the leadership of the African Union Commission and the Pan-African Great Green Wall Agency. More than $14 billion has been raised and committed to support this transformative initiative.
A “wall” of trees, grasslands and vegetation
It also promotes the “Cultivating a Wonder of the World” campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the Great Green Wall, and inspire a global grassroots movement to make this urgent dream, led by Africa, a reality by 2030. It focuses on the idea that the Great Green Wall is a symbol of hope that addresses challenges ranging from climate change to food security, migration and resource conflicts. It is a concrete example of how humans and nature collaborate to create a unique legacy: a new wonder of the world for future generations.
National Geographic states in more detail that the fundamental thing for this initiative is to plant and cultivate a “wall” of trees, grasslands and vegetation to stop desertification, create new employment opportunities for people in the Sahel region, increase food security and positively impact the environment by absorbing carbon that would otherwise go into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Much of the project’s initial funding came from international and North Atlantic-based organizations such as the World Bank and the European Union (EU).
Additionally, the initiative uses an “integrated landscape approach” that allows each country to address land degradation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity and forestry within its local context. For example, an organization called SOS Sahel is carrying out a Great Green Wall program to increase the production of fonio, an important grain for local culture, in order to combat food insecurity and create jobs, especially for women.
But progress, so far, has been described as modest. That is why UNCCD together with others developed a new plan called the Great Green Wall Accelerator. The objectives of this plan were to create a tracking system to better monitor progress towards the 2030 goals, analyze which projects within the initiative were performing better than others, and generate greater cooperation and participation between member countries. There are more funds from donors, and the initiative has also spread to more countries, with 22 Sahel governments committed to it. The world is still waiting for this prodigy.
The UN Special Coordinator for Development in the Sahel and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have warned that without urgent investment in climate mitigation and adaptation, Sahel countries risk falling into decades of conflict and displacement, which will be worsened by rising temperatures, resource scarcity and food insecurity.