The Great Green Wall of Africa: A Transformative Reforestation Initiative
The Sahara desert is the planet’s largest arid expanse and it continues to grow. Each year, roughly 1.5 million hectares are pushed southward, an area larger than the state of Toledo. Over the last century, the desert has expanded by about 10 percent, driven in part by climate change. The response to this threat is a bold, hopeful effort known as the Great Green Wall, a banner project aimed at restoring forests and soils across the Sahel.
Two early pioneers helped set the course for this ambitious restoration agenda. Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2004, launched the Green Belt Movement, a women-led effort that has planted more than 40 million trees across several African nations. Tunisian entrepreneur Sarah Toumi sparked another initiative, Acacia for Everyone, which has planted more than 650,000 trees in her homeland. These efforts are linked to the Great Green Wall, a corridor of vegetation spanning nearly 7,700 kilometers and up to 15 kilometers wide, stretching from Senegal to Eritrea in the Sahel’s driest zones, with the aim of halting the desert’s southward advance.
Progress and targets
To date, roughly 18 million hectares of degraded land have been restored, a reach that doubles the scale of regions like Castilla y León in Spain. The plan now envisions restoring about 100 million hectares in the coming years, a figure that would be twice the area of Spain. It stands as the largest reforestation and agroforestry effort in history, designed to restore landscapes, protect biodiversity, and improve the livelihoods of communities in the Sahel.
The project has earned recognition as a landmark environmental and development endeavor. It is described as the world’s largest forestry operation and a major rural development program designed to shield both people and ecosystems from the escalating climate crisis and ecosystem degradation.
The Great Green Wall aims to deliver a dense mosaic of green across eleven Sahelian countries—Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Sudan, and Eritrea—creating resilient landscapes that support food and water security, wildlife habitat, and local economies. Its success hinges on restoring forests and soils while enabling communities to benefit from sustainable land management.
Ten million jobs
The initiative, launched by the African Union in 2007, began as a tree-planting campaign but evolved into a comprehensive rural development strategy. It is built to address the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution by offering people new livelihoods and more stable ecosystems.
The objective now is to restore 100 million hectares and generate 10 million jobs by 2030. This scale supports food and water security, protects habitats, and offers durable livelihoods to communities in drought-prone regions.
The broader impact
Experts emphasize that restoration efforts can transform vulnerable areas, including those affected by conflict, by restoring ecosystem services and livelihoods. The involvement of local communities and governments is central to sustaining benefits such as soil health, microclimate stabilization, and resilience against extreme weather. The United Nations Environment Programme notes that restoration yields tangible benefits for landscapes facing climate threats, with improvements to soils, biodiversity, and water cycles.
Vulnerable communities across the Sahel—from Senegal to Ethiopia—stand to gain from the Great Green Wall through sustainable development initiatives and climate change mitigation. The project also protects traditional farming techniques and species that vanished from the Sahel due to desertification. In Burkina Faso, for example, women farmers in Kollo have embraced moringa, a resilient tree whose leaves and seeds offer nutritional value and therapeutic properties. Local cooperatives formed around processing and selling moringa products such as soaps, cookies, and cakes, creating small businesses and income streams.
Traditional farming techniques
Kollo farmers revived ancient methods to reclaim degraded lands. They use crescent-shaped pits, often called zai wells or half-moons, to capture rainfall and channel it to young plants. A related approach is assisted natural regeneration, which protects trees and other vegetation from grazing and logging, allowing natural growth and recovery. Shaded areas then become suitable for cultivation or beekeeping, improving livelihoods and biodiversity in tandem.
Both men and women participate in agroforestry training and other income-boosting activities. The Great Green Wall demonstrates that addressing climate change, preserving biodiversity, and reducing pollution can go hand in hand with economic opportunity and community resilience.
The project’s funding totals around 3.7 billion euros, a commitment made at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit. Financing comes from a mix of public and private actors, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Union, and United Nations agencies focused on agriculture, conservation, and development. A 2021 study examined optimal land restoration strategies in the Sahel, highlighting a strong return on investment and the time needed to reach social and ecological balance across scenarios [Citation: Nature, 2021].
The Great Green Wall faces challenges, including violent conflicts that disrupt restoration activities and limit access to degraded lands. Yet, researchers have identified zones where restoration remains economically viable and ecologically sustainable, underscoring the importance of local stewardship, ongoing monitoring, and adaptive management. The initiative also points to ecological co-benefits such as reduced wind erosion, improved pollination, and potential increases in crop yields that help communities weather climate shocks.
In sum, the Great Green Wall represents a bold, multi-faceted effort to reverse desertification, strengthen regional resilience, and create lasting livelihoods across the Sahel. It stands as a living example of how restoration, innovation, and community action can confront climate disruption with measurable, property-wide benefits.
Further reading and references on the Great Green Wall are available through scientific and development publications that document ongoing progress and lessons learned from this wide-ranging initiative.