A living wall of 8,000 kilometers aims to stop the largest desert in the world

(CNN) – The largest desert in the world is growing. In the last century, the Sahara desert has expanded more than 10%, now covering an area of ​​more than 8.6 million square kilometers and encompassing 11 countries in North Africa.

The Sahel region, a semi-arid belt that acts as a buffer zone just south of the desert, is the hardest hit. Water, already scarce, is increasingly so. The quality of the soil deteriorates and the lack of vegetation causes food insecurity. The UN estimates that some 135 million people that depend on these eroded lands are in danger.

But an ambitious plan, launched by the African Union in 2007, could help curb the hot sands of the Sahara desert and protect Sahel communities.

In the next decade, the Great Green Wall initiative hopes to restore 100 million hectares of land between Senegal in the west and Djibouti in the east, creating a 15-kilometer mosaic of trees, vegetation, grasslands and plants. wide and 8,000 kilometers long.

Having had to deal with insufficient and uncertain funding, the project got a big boost in January: $ 14 billion in new funding from France, the World Bank and other donors, contributing nearly half of the $ 33 billion the UN estimates needed to reach the 2030 goal.

If fully completed, the wall will be more than three times the length of the Great Barrier Reef, currently the largest living structure on Earth.

Progress to stop the Sahara with the Great Green Wall

Nine years before the deadline, there is still a long way to go. To date they have been restored 4 million hectares of land, only 4% of the global target, although this figure increases to almost 20 million hectares if the areas outside the official areas of the Great Green Wall are counted.

Countries have tried various preservation measures, including reforestation, agroforestry, terracing, and stabilization of desert dunes (a technique that prevents sand movement long enough for natural vegetation to establish). They are also taking steps to protect the water supply by drilling wells and building irrigation systems.

According to reports, Ethiopia It is the country that has restored the most to date, producing 5,500 million plants and seedlings, and more than 150,000 hectares of reforested land and 700,000 hectares of terraces, which together represent an area more than five times the london size.

“It has taken us more than a decade to establish the countries and all the strategies,” says Elvis Paul Tangem, coordinator of the Great Green Wall initiative at the African Union Commission. “But now we have laid the foundations, we saw what has worked and what has not, and we are on our way to achieving our goals.”

Among the biggest lessons learned is the importance of community collaboration, says Tangem. “We went back to the front-line communities and looked exactly at their needs, and the indigenous knowledge and practices that have been around for centuries,” he adds.

The value of communities

Sarah Toumi, a French-Tunisian ecologist who has been involved in the recent fundraiser for the initiative, agrees that such an ambitious project will only be possible if local residents fully support it.

“It is very easy to plant a tree, but it is not easy to grow it,” he tells CNN. “It is expensive in arid areas: you have to water it, you have to take care of it, you have to prevent animals from eating it.”

Toumi speaks from his own experience after founding an organization called Acacias para Todos, whose goal is to recover the lands affected by desertification in Tunisia. The organization has already planted more than 700,000 acacias in the region, he says.

Involving communities in the initiative and demonstrating the value of restoration has been vital to the sustainability of the project. Toumi’s organization helps teach farmers to harvest the plant’s leaves, fruit, and gum so they can live off it.

In addition to the Great Green Wall’s goal of restoring the land, there is also 10 million jobs in rural areas. Up to now 335,000 have been created, and the cultivation of fruits and forest products has generated US $ 90 million, according to the UN.

“It’s about creating sustainable livelihoods for people … so they can live in peace in their ecosystems and preserve their traditions and conserve their landscapes,” says Toumi.

Promote peace

As the population grows rapidly in the region, land reclamation combined with job creation is increasingly urgent. Across the African continent, more than half of the 375 million young people who will enter the labor market in the next 15 years will live in rural areas.

If there is no work for someone in your community due to desertification and land degradation, they are likely to emigrate, which could trigger political instability around the world, says Monique Barbut, former executive secretary of the United Nations Convention. of the Fight against Desertification and special envoy for the biodiversity of the President of France.

By involving 11 countries, the Great Green Wall initiative could help unite African leaders, he adds, “(bringing) life back to that region of the world, which will help us stabilize that part of Africa for political reasons.” .

Tangem agrees, noting “the strong link between natural resource management and political stability in the region.” Once completed, the Great Green Wall could help provide a nature-based solution with a global impact.