Africa’s Great Green Wall

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• Africa’s Great Green Wall (GGW) programme to combat desertification in the Sahel region has an important contribution towards combating climate change: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Study. 

About

• Study Highlights: 
  • The study showed that for every dollar invested into land restoration yields across the African continent from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, investors can expect an average return of $1.20, with outcomes ranging between $1.10 and $4.40.
  • Also showed how violent conflicts can threaten the success of the programme.
• Sahel region: 
  • Extends south of the Sahara from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east of Africa.
  • Vast areas of the formerly fertile region are now virtually uncultivated due to droughts, poor agricultural cultivation methods as well as land overuse due to the growing demand for food and firewood.

• PROGREEN: 
  • A World Bank global fund dedicated to boosting countries’ efforts to address landscape degradation, will also invest $14.5 million in five countries in the Sahel region: Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
• Great Green Wall (GGW) Programme: 
  • It was launched in 2007 by the African Union. 
  • Initial idea for the GGW: A band of trees about 8,000 kilometers long and 8 kilometers wide, stretching across Africa from east to west.
  • The GGW programme aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded ecosystems across 11 countries in the region.
    • It aims to promote sustainable development and climate change mitigation.
    • By 2030, the GGW aims to sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon, restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land and create 10 million jobs for the world’s poorest people.
  • Countries selected as intervention zones for the Great Green Wall are: 
    • Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.

Issues

• Lack of financial resources: But this ambitious goal is far from being achieved partly because of the lack of financial resources.
  • An investment of $44 billion, according to the study, is needed to fund all proposed land restoration activities. This can help restore 28 million hectares of land.
  • The study analysis used field and satellite data to track the land degradation from 2001-2018.
• Total area: According to the study, the total area the Great Green Wall (GGW) programme encompasses remains limited, with only 4 million hectares out of a targeted 100 million.
• Growing number of violent conflicts: The study highlighted activities and locations where land restoration is both economically attractive and ecologically sustainable.
  • even after accounting for lower survival rates of planted trees and grasses, the persistence of land degradation drivers and the growing number of violent conflicts hindering land restoration in the Sahel.
• Need to speed up: The GGW countries, according to a UN report released September 2020, need to speed up the current pace of land restoration to an average of 8.2 million hectares every year.

Significance

• Analysis and economic benefits: The researchers divided the Sahel region into 40 million plots of 25 hectares each.
  • They analysed what land restoration measures would be possible and how much they would cost for every plot.
  • They compared this calculation with economic benefits that could be achieved.
• Budgets and funding: In a post-novel novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) world, as Sahelian countries struggle with budgets and funding, the grant would help meet financial requirements and fast track achievement of its goals.
• It also addresses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 1 (No poverty), 2 (No hunger), 13 (Climate action), 15 (Life on land) and 17 (Partnerships)) in the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations.
• Rural communities at the heart of restoration: It places rural communities at the heart of restoration and scaling up to meet massive environmental and socio-economic needs.
• The use of local biodiversity: in restoration generates a variety of non-timber forest products, essential to support income generation, economic growth and the sustainable management of natural resources.
• Promoting south-south cooperation: The program aims to build local capacity and put in place monitoring and evaluation systems to track progress and impact, while sharing information and promoting south-south cooperation to build on lessons learned.

Source: DTE