Great Green Wall From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the anti-desertification effort in northern China, s The Great Green Wall or Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (French: Grande Muraille Verte pour le Sahara et le Sahel) is a planned project to plant a wall of trees across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara desert as a means to prevent desertification. It was developed by the African Union to address the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification in the Sahel and the Sahara. Contents • 1 Presentation • 2 History • 3 Partners • 4 Major principles • 5 Sources • 6 External links Presentation From the initial idea of a line of trees from east to west through the African desert, the vision of a Great Green Wall has evolved into that of a mosaic of interventions addressing the challenges facing the people in the Sahel and the Sahara.[1] As a programming tool for rural development, the overall goal of this sub-regional partnership is to strengthen the resilience of the regions people and natural systems with sound ecosystem management, the protection of rural heritage, and the improvement of the living conditions of the local population. Contributing to improved local incomes, the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) will be a global answer to the combined effect of natural resources degradation and drought in rural areas.[2] The Initiative is a partnership that supports the effort of local communities in the sustainable management and use of forests, rangelands and other natural resources in drylands. It also seeks to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as improve food security in the Sahel and the Sahara.[3] History During an expedition to the Sahara in 1952 Richard St. Barbe Baker proposed a ‘Green front’ to act as a front-line of Trees 30 miles deep to contain the desert.[4] The Idea then re-emerged in 2002, at the special summit in NDjamena (Chad) on the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. It was approved by the Conference of Leaders and Heads of States members of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States during their seventh ordinary session held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) in June 1 and 2, 2005.[5] Since 2005, the Great Green Wall concept has developed considerably. Lessons learned from the Algerian Green Dam or the Green Wall of China led to understand the need of an integrated multi-sectorial approach for sustainable results.[6] From a tree planting initiative, the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel has evolved to a development programming tool. In 2007, during the eight ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Governments held on January 29 and 30, 2007 in Addis-Ababa (Ethiopia), African Heads of State and Government endorsed the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative with the objective of tackling the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification in the region.[5] Together, eleven Sahelo-Saharan states (Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Chad) created the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW).[5] The first step towards the Great Green Wall was set with the development of a Harmonized regional strategy for implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative of the Sahara and the Sahel that was adopted in September 2012 by the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN). According to AMCEN, the Great Green Wall is a flagship program that contribute to the goal of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or RIO+20, of a land degradation neutral world.[7] Partners The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative is an African Union program bringing together more than 20 countries from the Sahelo-Saharan region including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, the Gambia and Tunisia.[1] The Initiative is backed by many regional and international organizations, including: The Great Green Wall Of Africa — A 4,000 Mile Defense Against Climate Change April 21st, 2013 by Don Lieber Image: Grand Muraille Verte One of the most unique large-scale international climate change projects is underway in Africa. A 4,000 mile “wall of trees” is being constructed across the east-west axis of the continent as a defense against rapid, expanding desertification of the Sahara. 11 nations — Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti — have agreed to participate in The Great Green Wall initiative (GGW), planting a contiguous “wall of trees” stretching 4,300 miles long and 9 miles wide, across the entire width of the African continent from Djibouti in the east to Senegal on the west. The project was approved by the African Union in 2007, under the umbrella of the Community of the Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD). In 2008, the first trees were planted along the wall’s path. Progress (and reporting) currently varies from nation to nation; the process is still in its infancy and will take several years to complete. Nevertheless, the project is already showing some success: a World Food Program (WFP) report from Senegal details how villages in Widou Thiengoli are now harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables from the dry desert sands, a by-product of the Wall initiative. Some 50,000 acres of trees have already been planted in Senegal, according to press reports. Desertification has emerged as a “major planetary threat” with particularly daunting challenges for Africa. Climate change has led to prolonged periods of drought and other symptoms of desertification, which are being experienced by a growing number of countries. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that two-thirds of the African continent is classified as desert or dry lands. Rainy seasons and other weather patterns — long consistent – are now changing across the region. In Senegal, for example, the rainy season now begins in September — it traditionally started in July. The UN estimates that two-thirds of Africa’s arable land could be lost by 2025 if this trend continues. According to the Great Green Wall website, the goal is to help mitigate the environmental effects of climate change, including the expansion of desertification. The trees will act as a barrier against desert winds, help to hold moisture in the air and soil, reduce erosion, enhance biodiversity, provide new grazing land and be a source of vegetation. The project is also recognized for the role it will play in local agriculture and employment. “People used to go to towns to seek paid work during the lean season, but since the project started, that has changed,” says Papa Sarr, Technical Director of the Senegal National Agency of the Great Green Wall. The Great Green Wall initiative is supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Food Programme, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UN-backed Global Environment Facility (GEF) – the largest public funder of UN environmental projects. The Great Green Wall has received a total of $1.8 billion dollars from the World Bank and another $108 million from the Global Environment Facility. Ulrich Apel, a forestry expert with GEF, said the program could serve as a model for similar projects around the world in areas, such as central Asia, which face similar challenges in adapting to a rapidly changing climate. The Green Wall, said Apel, “is off to a promising start.” Standing near a row of waist-high trees in Widou village – one of Senegal’s Green Wall locations — he said: “In 10 to 15 years this will be a forest. The trees will be big and this region will be completely transformed.” Senegal begins planting the Great Green Wall against climate change Africas proposed 4,000-mile wall of trees stretching from Senegal to Djibouti is designed to stop encroaching desertification Workers water the Widu tree nursery in Senegals Louga region, part of the Great Green Wall, a lush 15km (10 mile) wide strip of different plant species, meant to span the 7,600km from Senegal to Djibouti to halt desertification. Photograph: Seyllou Diallo/AFP/Getty Images Senegals capitol city Dakar sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean on a peninsula. Its at least a thousand miles to the Sahara desert yet the air today is so thick with sand that the tops of buildings disappear in a sandy haze. Its the worst sand storm in a year and people here are worried that climate change will cause these events to be more common. Seasons are shifting across the region. In Senegal the rainy season used to start in July or August but now it doesnt start until September. Decreased rain - along with over grazing of land - is causing an increase in deserts across the Sahel. Roughly 40 per cent of Africa is now affected by desertification and according to the UN, two-thirds of Africas arable land could be lost by 2025 if this trend continues. Senegal is one of 11 countries in the Sahel region of Africa looking towards the same solution to the desertification problem: The Great Green Wall. The goal of the project is to plant a wall of trees, 4,300 miles long and 9 miles wide, across the African continent, from Senegal to Djibouti. African leaders hope the trees will trap the sands of the Sahara and halt the advance of the desert. Papa Sarr is Technical Director for the Great Green Wall in Senegal: We are convinced that once we start to plant the wall of trees dust will decrease in Dakar, he says. Sarr sits in the passenger seat of a four-wheel drive on his way to Widou, a village he hopes will serve as a model for the Great Green Wall in Senegal. The paved roads of Dakar give way to red sand paths of the Shahel; a dry savanna transition zone between the equatorial jungles in the south and the Sahara to the north. Black and white goats meander in front of the truck and flat-topped acacia trees dot the sandy landscape. They are virtually the only vegetation in a region where the dry season can last up to 10 months. Four hours northwest of Dakar, the village of Widou sits next to one section of Senegals Great Green Wall. The acacia trees here are just four years old, waist high and thorny. The trees are surrounded by a firewall and a metal fence to keep out tree-eating goats. All of the trees were chosen carefully. Sarr says, When we design a parcel we look at the local trees and see what can best grow there, we try to copy Nature.AA Two million trees are planted in Senegal each year; but all of them must be planted during the short rainy season. Labourers plant acacia saplings in the sand along with animal manure for fertiliser. Sarr points to a three feet tall tree. This one is Acacia nilotica. It produces Arabic gum used in local medicine and a fruit that can be eaten by animals. For the project to succeed, it was crucial to plant trees that would also provide benefits for people living here. The government has ambitious plans for planting more trees but the Great Green Wall is also a development project, aimed at helping rural people. In the Senegalese Sahel the dominant ethnic group is the Peuhl. Tall and lean, they wear long flowing robes of emerald green and sapphire blue. They look like jewels against the rust coloured sand and brown dry grass. The women have blue tattoos on their chins and wear heavy earrings that stretch their earlobes. Traditionally nomadic, the Peuhl are now helping tend to the trees and planting gardens. One day a week women in the area volunteer to help care for gardens full of carrots, cabbages, tomatoes and even watermelon. Guncier Yarati uses the side of her flipflop to mound the sandy soil around potato plants. I like working here, she says. I like working with my friends, we laugh and play while we work but whats really great is that we have more diverse vegetables. We eat the vegetables ourselves but sell them in the market too. The closest market is about 30 miles away and before the gardens came along, it was a full days trek in a horse-drawn cart to get fresh vegetables. Close by the potatoes, Nime Sumaso pours a jug of water over some carrots. She says, when people came from Dakar and showed us that they could plant vegetables in their communities we saw that this would be a way to help women in our own community and so we knew the Great Green Wall project was important for us. For the Peuhl, work is divided largely based on gender. So, while women mostly (and quickly) see the benefits of the project in their gardens, the men have a different perspective. A mans primary responsibility is to care for the familys large herds of goats and cows. In the early morning white hump-backed cows with giant horns gather around water troughs. The Peuhl depend on their animals for subsistence, and livestock need a lot of water. Scientists say the trees of the Great Green Wall will improve rainfall and recharge the water table. So thats very welcome news for local herdsmen like Alfaca. Planting trees is good for us, he says. Those trees can bring water and water is our future. Water can solve our problem. Everyone involved in the Great Green Wall agrees that the end goal is to help rural communities. But opinions vary on how the project will best manage to do that. African leaders envision the Great Green Wall as a literal wall of trees to keep back the desert. But scientists and development agencies see it more as a metaphorical wall, a mosaic of different projects to alleviate poverty and improve degraded lands. The Great Green Wall has received a total of 1.8 billion dollars from the World Bank and another 108 million dollars from the Global Environment Facility. Jean- Marc Sinnassamy is a programme officer with the Global Environment Facility. We do not finance a tree planting initiative, he says, its more related to agriculture, rural development, food security and sustainable land management than planting trees. The 11 countries involved with the project are committed to making progress but there are many challenges: abject poverty, shifting seasons and political instability are top among them. The entire region is in the middle of a food crisis. The United Nations Food Program estimates that as many as 11 million people in the Sahel do not have enough to eat and Mali recently had a military coup. Senegal is currently the furthest along with the Great Green Wall. Theyve planted roughly 50,000 acres of trees in addition to protecting existing trees. Its been successful so far in Senegal but not everyone believes it can work across the entire Sahel region. Gray Tappan is a geographer with the United States Geological Survey. He says, Theres been a long history of one failure after another in external projects that come in and try to plant trees. Tappan explains that there are many reasons these projects fail. Sometimes projects plant non-native species that cant survive in the dry climate, or local people dont support the project and allow their goats to eat the newly-planted trees. In the village of Widou those concerns dont appear to be an issue but Tappan is skeptical as to whether the Widou model can be emulated through 4,300 miles of varying ecosystems and communities. He believes a better model can be found in Niger. Historically, farmers there removed any trees or bushes that sprouted up in their fields. But following a devastating drought in the 1980s farmers decided to allow the natural vegetation to grow and planted food crops around it. The result was a surplus of food and 12 million acres of trees, an area the size of Costa Rica. Tappan has spent 30 years working in the region and admits he was shocked by the transformation: In 2006 we did a big field trip across Niger and were just blown away by the vastness of this re-greening. Scientists like Tappan believe that type of natural regeneration is much more likely to succeed than planting trees. But political leaders in Senegal are committed to their vision. Djibo Leyti Ka is the Minister of the Environment. Hes in charge of the Great Green Wall project for the entire country. He says, We have a lot of desert from Senegal to Djibouti. A wall of trees will stop the wind. Ka dismisses critics who say it isnt practical. They are crazy! The dust is coming. The sand is going to cover us all and we need to stop it. There are many many environmental projects in Senegal but this is the most important. Back at the Great Green Wall near Widou, Papa Sarr stops to take in the work theyve done so far. The waist high trees are just four years old but he expects big things from them. In 10 to 15 years this will be a forest. The trees will be big and this region will be completely transformed. We are already seeing animals come back that havent been here for years. Mostly deer and many species of wild bird, even jackal, he says. Its unclear if the newly elected president of Senegal, Macky Sall, will have as strong a commitment to the Great Green Wall as his predecessor Abdouley Wade. But for the people living here, tending their cows, watering the garden, and hoping the rains will come, the Great Green Wall holds great potential for positive change in Senegal and this region of Africa for generations to come. Dakar, Senegal The Great Green Wall of Africa 4,700 miles of trees holding back the desert The Great Wall of China was built over a millennium to ward off nomadic raiders. With Africas farmlands threatened by an enemy more pernicious than any Mongolian horde, Senegal is leading a 12-nation cooperative effort to erect a living defense system aptly named the Great Green Wall of Africa. The Sahara is currently the second largest desert in size, only smaller than Antarctica. However, unlike its frozen relative, the Sahara is actually expanding. The United Nations estimates that, by 2025, two thirds of Africas arable land will be covered in Saharan sand, vastly expanding the current 9 million square kilometers. Even if these predictions prove aggressive, the effects of farmland destruction on a continent already hard-pressed for food would be devastating on any level. With this peril in sight, the leaders of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti have banded together on an unprecedented endeavor to stave off impending catastrophe. Once complete, Africas Green Wall will be a manmade forest of drought-resistant trees (principally acacia) stretching across the entire continent. 9 miles wide and 4,750 miles long, the vision for the project is as ambitious as it is necessary. Thus far, only 330 miles of greenery stands guard in Northern Senegal, and has cost the Sengalese government over $6 million since the start of digging in 2008. International organizations have pledged over $3 billion to the monumental defense system. Leaders point out that the Great Green Wall is about more than just protection from windblown sand. The project will bring thousands of jobs to impoverished communities, and has already transformed otherwise unusable land into gardens scattered with tree nurseries. The influx of tourists, scientists, and medical professionals has also brought attention and resources to a neglected region in which aid is scarce and doctors are not readily available to needy populations. 20 February 2014 The Great Green Wall of Africa: Greening the Sahel to Turn Back the Tide of Desertification The Great Green Wall of the Sahel, still in the planning stages, will span Africa from Senegal to Djibouti in order to reverse desertification of the Sahel eco-system, and will look much like this image of a local re-forestation initiative in Chad. (jonikarjalainen) The Great Green Wall is an initiative designed to stop the desertification of the semi-arid Sahel region in Africa. The essential idea is to plant a giant greenbelt of trees that would span Africa from Senegal to Djibouti. It also includes a number of other environmental, economic, and food security development initiatives aimed at addressing challenges resulting from desertification of the Sahel. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), desertification refers to land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas resulting from factors such as human pressure on fragile eco-systems, deforestation and climate change.” Desertification has had and could continue to have a significant negative impact on the rural livelihoods and food security of Sahelian Africans. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, rainfall could decrease by up to 25 percent in North Africa by the end of the 21st century and according to Isaac Held, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “the wet will get wetter and the dry will get dryer.” The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative was approved in 2007 by the African Union and a harmonized regional strategy was established in 2012 by African governments and heads of state. Partnerships continue to be developed and established between stakeholders and action plans and knowledge management systems are being developed for each participating nation. The belt is projected to be approximately 15 kilometers wide by 7,775 kilometers long and pass through a total of 11 countries in the Sahel where the landscape is mostly sandy, scrubby, and dry grasslands. It is designed to be as continuous as possible, with potential re-routing due to various natural obstacles such as bodies of water and rocky areas. The project would include the installation of water retention ponds and the planting of drought-tolerant and ideally native plant species. The trees will slow wind speeds and reduce soil erosion, as well as to encourage increased rainwater filtration into soils. This can improve soil fertility to the benefit of local populations whose livelihoods depend on grazing and agriculture. Wildlife conservation can also benefit from the re-forestation. The green belt would also help to sequester carbon; just one acre of trees planted in an ecosystem like the Sahel could sequester two to three tons of carbon. The belt has been designed to pass through areas where agriculture and livestock farming have long been active according to local traditions, which makes local inhabitants key beneficiaries and stakeholders. According to the French Scientific Committee on Desertification, “economic analysis has shown that assisted natural regeneration, which requires little investment, is the most cost-effective for resource-poor farmers.” The hope is that the initiative would not only reverse desertification but also provide locals in the Sahel with potentially new sources of fuel, food, fodder, resins, building materials, shade, and natural medicines with which they are already familiar. Great Green Wall Initiative Keywords: • Great Green Wall • Sustainable Land Management The Great Green Wall initiative is a pan-African proposal to “green” the continent from west to east in order to battle desertification. It aims at tackling poverty and the degradation of soils in the Sahel-Saharan region, focusing on a strip of land of 15 km (9 mi) wide and 7,100 km (4,400 mi) long from Dakar to Djibouti. Populations in Sahelian Africa are among the poorest and most vulnerable to climatic variability and land degradation. They depend heavily on healthy ecosystems for rainfed agriculture, fisheries, and livestock management to sustain their livelihoods. These constitute the primary sectors of employment in the region and generate at least 40 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in most of the countries. Additionally, the ecosystem provides much needed livelihood products, such as fuelwood and bushmeat. Unfortunately, increasing population pressures on food, fodder, and fuelwood in a vulnerable environment have deteriorating impacts on natural resources, notably vegetation cover. Climate variability along with frequent droughts and poorly managed land and water resources have caused rivers and lakes to dry up and contribute to increased soil erosion. The vision of a great green wall to combat ecological degradation was conceived in 2005 by the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and the idea was strongly supported by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. The vision evolved into an integrated ecosystem management approach in January 2007, when the African Union adopted declaration 137 VIII, approving the “Decision on the Implementation of the Green Wall for the Sahara Initiative”. In June 2010, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan signed a convention in Ndjamena, Chad, to create the Great Green Wall (GGW) Agency and nominate a secretary to further develop the initiative. The participating countries hope that by linking national-level efforts across borders, they will tackle policy, investment, and institutional barriers that exacerbate the effects of climate change and variability, leading to desertification and deterioration of the environment and natural resources and the risk of conflicts between communities. International Colloquiums are held to discuss possible barriers as well as share available knowledge on the vegetal species, systems of development, and GGW monitoring updates1. The GEF emulates the spirit of collaboration by allowing participating GGW countries to prioritize which projects they want to implement, in conjunction with GEF agencies and their partners. They may “develop one or several projects in the context of this program and assign some or all of their financial allocations to the Great Green Wall[1]”. Progress is apparent especially in the Zinder region of Niger, where tree density has significantly improved since the mid-1980s. GEF CEO Monique Barbut attributes the success to working with farmers to find technical solutions, particularly long-term land and financial solutions, in order to save the trees. This form of natural regeneration benefits local communities and the global environment alike by increasing crop yield, improving soil fertility, reducing land erosion, improving fodder availability, diversifying income, cutting wood collection time for women, strengthening resilience to climate change, increasing biodiversity, and much more. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has granted $100.8 million[2] to the GGW participating countries to expand sustainable land and water management (SLWM) and adaptation in targeted landscapes and in climate vulnerable areas in West African and Sahelian countries. Each country will design a project based on national-level priorities for GEF and LDCF resources. The projects will support the following activities • Expand investment in SLWM technologies to help communities adapt production systems to climate variability, generate income and livelihoods, secure global public goods (such as retention of greenhouse gases, nitrogen fixation, groundwater recharge and biodiversity), and reduce impacts from erosion, drought, and flooding. • Improve land-use planning, such as at watershed scale (i.e. Nigeria) or local levels (i.e. grazing reserves). • Improve and apply the information base: climate and water monitoring network improvements, ICT (information communication technology) innovations, institutional cooperation within and across countries, and evidence based policy development. ________________________________________ [1] Monique Barbut, GEF CEO [2] The program is financed by the GEF Trust fund ($81.3 million) by resources from Land Degradation, Biodiversity, Climate Change allocations and the Sustainable Forest Management Forest and REDD+ Incentive Program, and by the Low Development Countries Fund for Adaptation ($19.5 million). Great Green Wall From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the anti-desertification effort in northern China, s The Great Green Wall or Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (French: Grande Muraille Verte pour le Sahara et le Sahel) is a planned project to plant a wall of trees across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara desert as a means to prevent desertification. It was developed by the African Union to address the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification in the Sahel and the Sahara. Contents • 1 Presentation • 2 History • 3 Partners • 4 Major principles • 5 Sources • 6 External links Presentation From the initial idea of a line of trees from east to west through the African desert, the vision of a Great Green Wall has evolved into that of a mosaic of interventions addressing the challenges facing the people in the Sahel and the Sahara.[1] As a programming tool for rural development, the overall goal of this sub-regional partnership is to strengthen the resilience of the regions people and natural systems with sound ecosystem management, the protection of rural heritage, and the improvement of the living conditions of the local population. Contributing to improved local incomes, the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) will be a global answer to the combined effect of natural resources degradation and drought in rural areas.[2] The Initiative is a partnership that supports the effort of local communities in the sustainable management and use of forests, rangelands and other natural resources in drylands. It also seeks to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as improve food security in the Sahel and the Sahara.[3] History During an expedition to the Sahara in 1952 Richard St. Barbe Baker proposed a ‘Green front’ to act as a front-line of Trees 30 miles deep to contain the desert.[4] The Idea then re-emerged in 2002, at the special summit in NDjamena (Chad) on the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. It was approved by the Conference of Leaders and Heads of States members of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States during their seventh ordinary session held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) in June 1 and 2, 2005.[5] Since 2005, the Great Green Wall concept has developed considerably. Lessons learned from the Algerian Green Dam or the Green Wall of China led to understand the need of an integrated multi-sectorial approach for sustainable results.[6] From a tree planting initiative, the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel has evolved to a development programming tool. In 2007, during the eight ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Governments held on January 29 and 30, 2007 in Addis-Ababa (Ethiopia), African Heads of State and Government endorsed the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative with the objective of tackling the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification in the region.[5] Together, eleven Sahelo-Saharan states (Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Chad) created the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW).[5] The first step towards the Great Green Wall was set with the development of a Harmonized regional strategy for implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative of the Sahara and the Sahel that was adopted in September 2012 by the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN). According to AMCEN, the Great Green Wall is a flagship program that contribute to the goal of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or RIO+20, of a land degradation neutral world.[7] Partners The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative is an African Union program bringing together more than 20 countries from the Sahelo-Saharan region including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, the Gambia and Tunisia.[1] The Initiative is backed by many regional and international organizations, including: The Great Green Wall Of Africa — A 4,000 Mile Defense Against Climate Change April 21st, 2013 by Don Lieber Image: Grand Muraille Verte One of the most unique large-scale international climate change projects is underway in Africa. A 4,000 mile “wall of trees” is being constructed across the east-west axis of the continent as a defense against rapid, expanding desertification of the Sahara. 11 nations — Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti — have agreed to participate in The Great Green Wall initiative (GGW), planting a contiguous “wall of trees” stretching 4,300 miles long and 9 miles wide, across the entire width of the African continent from Djibouti in the east to Senegal on the west. The project was approved by the African Union in 2007, under the umbrella of the Community of the Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD). In 2008, the first trees were planted along the wall’s path. Progress (and reporting) currently varies from nation to nation; the process is still in its infancy and will take several years to complete. Nevertheless, the project is already showing some success: a World Food Program (WFP) report from Senegal details how villages in Widou Thiengoli are now harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables from the dry desert sands, a by-product of the Wall initiative. Some 50,000 acres of trees have already been planted in Senegal, according to press reports. Desertification has emerged as a “major planetary threat” with particularly daunting challenges for Africa. Climate change has led to prolonged periods of drought and other symptoms of desertification, which are being experienced by a growing number of countries. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that two-thirds of the African continent is classified as desert or dry lands. Rainy seasons and other weather patterns — long consistent – are now changing across the region. In Senegal, for example, the rainy season now begins in September — it traditionally started in July. The UN estimates that two-thirds of Africa’s arable land could be lost by 2025 if this trend continues. According to the Great Green Wall website, the goal is to help mitigate the environmental effects of climate change, including the expansion of desertification. The trees will act as a barrier against desert winds, help to hold moisture in the air and soil, reduce erosion, enhance biodiversity, provide new grazing land and be a source of vegetation. The project is also recognized for the role it will play in local agriculture and employment. “People used to go to towns to seek paid work during the lean season, but since the project started, that has changed,” says Papa Sarr, Technical Director of the Senegal National Agency of the Great Green Wall. The Great Green Wall initiative is supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Food Programme, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UN-backed Global Environment Facility (GEF) – the largest public funder of UN environmental projects. The Great Green Wall has received a total of $1.8 billion dollars from the World Bank and another $108 million from the Global Environment Facility. Ulrich Apel, a forestry expert with GEF, said the program could serve as a model for similar projects around the world in areas, such as central Asia, which face similar challenges in adapting to a rapidly changing climate. The Green Wall, said Apel, “is off to a promising start.” Standing near a row of waist-high trees in Widou village – one of Senegal’s Green Wall locations — he said: “In 10 to 15 years this will be a forest. The trees will be big and this region will be completely transformed.” Senegal begins planting the Great Green Wall against climate change Africas proposed 4,000-mile wall of trees stretching from Senegal to Djibouti is designed to stop encroaching desertification Workers water the Widu tree nursery in Senegals Louga region, part of the Great Green Wall, a lush 15km (10 mile) wide strip of different plant species, meant to span the 7,600km from Senegal to Djibouti to halt desertification. Photograph: Seyllou Diallo/AFP/Getty Images Senegals capitol city Dakar sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean on a peninsula. Its at least a thousand miles to the Sahara desert yet the air today is so thick with sand that the tops of buildings disappear in a sandy haze. Its the worst sand storm in a year and people here are worried that climate change will cause these events to be more common. Seasons are shifting across the region. In Senegal the rainy season used to start in July or August but now it doesnt start until September. Decreased rain - along with over grazing of land - is causing an increase in deserts across the Sahel. Roughly 40 per cent of Africa is now affected by desertification and according to the UN, two-thirds of Africas arable land could be lost by 2025 if this trend continues. Senegal is one of 11 countries in the Sahel region of Africa looking towards the same solution to the desertification problem: The Great Green Wall. The goal of the project is to plant a wall of trees, 4,300 miles long and 9 miles wide, across the African continent, from Senegal to Djibouti. African leaders hope the trees will trap the sands of the Sahara and halt the advance of the desert. Papa Sarr is Technical Director for the Great Green Wall in Senegal: We are convinced that once we start to plant the wall of trees dust will decrease in Dakar, he says. Sarr sits in the passenger seat of a four-wheel drive on his way to Widou, a village he hopes will serve as a model for the Great Green Wall in Senegal. The paved roads of Dakar give way to red sand paths of the Shahel; a dry savanna transition zone between the equatorial jungles in the south and the Sahara to the north. Black and white goats meander in front of the truck and flat-topped acacia trees dot the sandy landscape. They are virtually the only vegetation in a region where the dry season can last up to 10 months. Four hours northwest of Dakar, the village of Widou sits next to one section of Senegals Great Green Wall. The acacia trees here are just four years old, waist high and thorny. The trees are surrounded by a firewall and a metal fence to keep out tree-eating goats. All of the trees were chosen carefully. Sarr says, When we design a parcel we look at the local trees and see what can best grow there, we try to copy Nature.AA Two million trees are planted in Senegal each year; but all of them must be planted during the short rainy season. Labourers plant acacia saplings in the sand along with animal manure for fertiliser. Sarr points to a three feet tall tree. This one is Acacia nilotica. It produces Arabic gum used in local medicine and a fruit that can be eaten by animals. For the project to succeed, it was crucial to plant trees that would also provide benefits for people living here. The government has ambitious plans for planting more trees but the Great Green Wall is also a development project, aimed at helping rural people. In the Senegalese Sahel the dominant ethnic group is the Peuhl. Tall and lean, they wear long flowing robes of emerald green and sapphire blue. They look like jewels against the rust coloured sand and brown dry grass. The women have blue tattoos on their chins and wear heavy earrings that stretch their earlobes. Traditionally nomadic, the Peuhl are now helping tend to the trees and planting gardens. One day a week women in the area volunteer to help care for gardens full of carrots, cabbages, tomatoes and even watermelon. Guncier Yarati uses the side of her flipflop to mound the sandy soil around potato plants. I like working here, she says. I like working with my friends, we laugh and play while we work but whats really great is that we have more diverse vegetables. We eat the vegetables ourselves but sell them in the market too. The closest market is about 30 miles away and before the gardens came along, it was a full days trek in a horse-drawn cart to get fresh vegetables. Close by the potatoes, Nime Sumaso pours a jug of water over some carrots. She says, when people came from Dakar and showed us that they could plant vegetables in their communities we saw that this would be a way to help women in our own community and so we knew the Great Green Wall project was important for us. For the Peuhl, work is divided largely based on gender. So, while women mostly (and quickly) see the benefits of the project in their gardens, the men have a different perspective. A mans primary responsibility is to care for the familys large herds of goats and cows. In the early morning white hump-backed cows with giant horns gather around water troughs. The Peuhl depend on their animals for subsistence, and livestock need a lot of water. Scientists say the trees of the Great Green Wall will improve rainfall and recharge the water table. So thats very welcome news for local herdsmen like Alfaca. Planting trees is good for us, he says. Those trees can bring water and water is our future. Water can solve our problem. Everyone involved in the Great Green Wall agrees that the end goal is to help rural communities. But opinions vary on how the project will best manage to do that. African leaders envision the Great Green Wall as a literal wall of trees to keep back the desert. But scientists and development agencies see it more as a metaphorical wall, a mosaic of different projects to alleviate poverty and improve degraded lands. The Great Green Wall has received a total of 1.8 billion dollars from the World Bank and another 108 million dollars from the Global Environment Facility. Jean- Marc Sinnassamy is a programme officer with the Global Environment Facility. We do not finance a tree planting initiative, he says, its more related to agriculture, rural development, food security and sustainable land management than planting trees. The 11 countries involved with the project are committed to making progress but there are many challenges: abject poverty, shifting seasons and political instability are top among them. The entire region is in the middle of a food crisis. The United Nations Food Program estimates that as many as 11 million people in the Sahel do not have enough to eat and Mali recently had a military coup. Senegal is currently the furthest along with the Great Green Wall. Theyve planted roughly 50,000 acres of trees in addition to protecting existing trees. Its been successful so far in Senegal but not everyone believes it can work across the entire Sahel region. Gray Tappan is a geographer with the United States Geological Survey. He says, Theres been a long history of one failure after another in external projects that come in and try to plant trees. Tappan explains that there are many reasons these projects fail. Sometimes projects plant non-native species that cant survive in the dry climate, or local people dont support the project and allow their goats to eat the newly-planted trees. In the village of Widou those concerns dont appear to be an issue but Tappan is skeptical as to whether the Widou model can be emulated through 4,300 miles of varying ecosystems and communities. He believes a better model can be found in Niger. Historically, farmers there removed any trees or bushes that sprouted up in their fields. But following a devastating drought in the 1980s farmers decided to allow the natural vegetation to grow and planted food crops around it. The result was a surplus of food and 12 million acres of trees, an area the size of Costa Rica. Tappan has spent 30 years working in the region and admits he was shocked by the transformation: In 2006 we did a big field trip across Niger and were just blown away by the vastness of this re-greening. Scientists like Tappan believe that type of natural regeneration is much more likely to succeed than planting trees. But political leaders in Senegal are committed to their vision. Djibo Leyti Ka is the Minister of the Environment. Hes in charge of the Great Green Wall project for the entire country. He says, We have a lot of desert from Senegal to Djibouti. A wall of trees will stop the wind. Ka dismisses critics who say it isnt practical. They are crazy! The dust is coming. The sand is going to cover us all and we need to stop it. There are many many environmental projects in Senegal but this is the most important. Back at the Great Green Wall near Widou, Papa Sarr stops to take in the work theyve done so far. The waist high trees are just four years old but he expects big things from them. In 10 to 15 years this will be a forest. The trees will be big and this region will be completely transformed. We are already seeing animals come back that havent been here for years. Mostly deer and many species of wild bird, even jackal, he says. Its unclear if the newly elected president of Senegal, Macky Sall, will have as strong a commitment to the Great Green Wall as his predecessor Abdouley Wade. But for the people living here, tending their cows, watering the garden, and hoping the rains will come, the Great Green Wall holds great potential for positive change in Senegal and this region of Africa for generations to come. Dakar, Senegal The Great Green Wall of Africa 4,700 miles of trees holding back the desert The Great Wall of China was built over a millennium to ward off nomadic raiders. With Africas farmlands threatened by an enemy more pernicious than any Mongolian horde, Senegal is leading a 12-nation cooperative effort to erect a living defense system aptly named the Great Green Wall of Africa. The Sahara is currently the second largest desert in size, only smaller than Antarctica. However, unlike its frozen relative, the Sahara is actually expanding. The United Nations estimates that, by 2025, two thirds of Africas arable land will be covered in Saharan sand, vastly expanding the current 9 million square kilometers. Even if these predictions prove aggressive, the effects of farmland destruction on a continent already hard-pressed for food would be devastating on any level. With this peril in sight, the leaders of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti have banded together on an unprecedented endeavor to stave off impending catastrophe. Once complete, Africas Green Wall will be a manmade forest of drought-resistant trees (principally acacia) stretching across the entire continent. 9 miles wide and 4,750 miles long, the vision for the project is as ambitious as it is necessary. Thus far, only 330 miles of greenery stands guard in Northern Senegal, and has cost the Sengalese government over $6 million since the start of digging in 2008. International organizations have pledged over $3 billion to the monumental defense system. Leaders point out that the Great Green Wall is about more than just protection from windblown sand. The project will bring thousands of jobs to impoverished communities, and has already transformed otherwise unusable land into gardens scattered with tree nurseries. The influx of tourists, scientists, and medical professionals has also brought attention and resources to a neglected region in which aid is scarce and doctors are not readily available to needy populations. 20 February 2014 The Great Green Wall of Africa: Greening the Sahel to Turn Back the Tide of Desertification The Great Green Wall of the Sahel, still in the planning stages, will span Africa from Senegal to Djibouti in order to reverse desertification of the Sahel eco-system, and will look much like this image of a local re-forestation initiative in Chad. (jonikarjalainen) The Great Green Wall is an initiative designed to stop the desertification of the semi-arid Sahel region in Africa. The essential idea is to plant a giant greenbelt of trees that would span Africa from Senegal to Djibouti. It also includes a number of other environmental, economic, and food security development initiatives aimed at addressing challenges resulting from desertification of the Sahel. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), desertification refers to land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas resulting from factors such as human pressure on fragile eco-systems, deforestation and climate change.” Desertification has had and could continue to have a significant negative impact on the rural livelihoods and food security of Sahelian Africans. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, rainfall could decrease by up to 25 percent in North Africa by the end of the 21st century and according to Isaac Held, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “the wet will get wetter and the dry will get dryer.” The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative was approved in 2007 by the African Union and a harmonized regional strategy was established in 2012 by African governments and heads of state. Partnerships continue to be developed and established between stakeholders and action plans and knowledge management systems are being developed for each participating nation. The belt is projected to be approximately 15 kilometers wide by 7,775 kilometers long and pass through a total of 11 countries in the Sahel where the landscape is mostly sandy, scrubby, and dry grasslands. It is designed to be as continuous as possible, with potential re-routing due to various natural obstacles such as bodies of water and rocky areas. The project would include the installation of water retention ponds and the planting of drought-tolerant and ideally native plant species. The trees will slow wind speeds and reduce soil erosion, as well as to encourage increased rainwater filtration into soils. This can improve soil fertility to the benefit of local populations whose livelihoods depend on grazing and agriculture. Wildlife conservation can also benefit from the re-forestation. The green belt would also help to sequester carbon; just one acre of trees planted in an ecosystem like the Sahel could sequester two to three tons of carbon. The belt has been designed to pass through areas where agriculture and livestock farming have long been active according to local traditions, which makes local inhabitants key beneficiaries and stakeholders. According to the French Scientific Committee on Desertification, “economic analysis has shown that assisted natural regeneration, which requires little investment, is the most cost-effective for resource-poor farmers.” The hope is that the initiative would not only reverse desertification but also provide locals in the Sahel with potentially new sources of fuel, food, fodder, resins, building materials, shade, and natural medicines with which they are already familiar. Great Green Wall Initiative Keywords: • Great Green Wall • Sustainable Land Management The Great Green Wall initiative is a pan-African proposal to “green” the continent from west to east in order to battle desertification. It aims at tackling poverty and the degradation of soils in the Sahel-Saharan region, focusing on a strip of land of 15 km (9 mi) wide and 7,100 km (4,400 mi) long from Dakar to Djibouti. Populations in Sahelian Africa are among the poorest and most vulnerable to climatic variability and land degradation. They depend heavily on healthy ecosystems for rainfed agriculture, fisheries, and livestock management to sustain their livelihoods. These constitute the primary sectors of employment in the region and generate at least 40 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in most of the countries. Additionally, the ecosystem provides much needed livelihood products, such as fuelwood and bushmeat. Unfortunately, increasing population pressures on food, fodder, and fuelwood in a vulnerable environment have deteriorating impacts on natural resources, notably vegetation cover. Climate variability along with frequent droughts and poorly managed land and water resources have caused rivers and lakes to dry up and contribute to increased soil erosion. The vision of a great green wall to combat ecological degradation was conceived in 2005 by the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and the idea was strongly supported by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. The vision evolved into an integrated ecosystem management approach in January 2007, when the African Union adopted declaration 137 VIII, approving the “Decision on the Implementation of the Green Wall for the Sahara Initiative”. In June 2010, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan signed a convention in Ndjamena, Chad, to create the Great Green Wall (GGW) Agency and nominate a secretary to further develop the initiative. The participating countries hope that by linking national-level efforts across borders, they will tackle policy, investment, and institutional barriers that exacerbate the effects of climate change and variability, leading to desertification and deterioration of the environment and natural resources and the risk of conflicts between communities. International Colloquiums are held to discuss possible barriers as well as share available knowledge on the vegetal species, systems of development, and GGW monitoring updates1. The GEF emulates the spirit of collaboration by allowing participating GGW countries to prioritize which projects they want to implement, in conjunction with GEF agencies and their partners. They may “develop one or several projects in the context of this program and assign some or all of their financial allocations to the Great Green Wall[1]”. Progress is apparent especially in the Zinder region of Niger, where tree density has significantly improved since the mid-1980s. GEF CEO Monique Barbut attributes the success to working with farmers to find technical solutions, particularly long-term land and financial solutions, in order to save the trees. This form of natural regeneration benefits local communities and the global environment alike by increasing crop yield, improving soil fertility, reducing land erosion, improving fodder availability, diversifying income, cutting wood collection time for women, strengthening resilience to climate change, increasing biodiversity, and much more. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has granted $100.8 million[2] to the GGW participating countries to expand sustainable land and water management (SLWM) and adaptation in targeted landscapes and in climate vulnerable areas in West African and Sahelian countries. Each country will design a project based on national-level priorities for GEF and LDCF resources. The projects will support the following activities • Expand investment in SLWM technologies to help communities adapt production systems to climate variability, generate income and livelihoods, secure global public goods (such as retention of greenhouse gases, nitrogen fixation, groundwater recharge and biodiversity), and reduce impacts from erosion, drought, and flooding. • Improve land-use planning, such as at watershed scale (i.e. Nigeria) or local levels (i.e. grazing reserves). • Improve and apply the information base: climate and water monitoring network improvements, ICT (information communication technology) innovations, institutional cooperation within and across countries, and evidence based policy development. ________________________________________ [1] Monique Barbut, GEF CEO [2] The program is financed by the GEF Trust fund ($81.3 million) by resources from Land Degradation, Biodiversity, Climate Change allocations and the Sustainable Forest Management Forest and REDD+ Incentive Program, and by the Low Development Countries Fund for Adaptation ($19.5 million).
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:58:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015