Climate change and biodiversity loss: construction of the “Great Green Wall” started in the Sahel

ROME – The so-called Great Green Wall is an initiative designed as part of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) to help people and nature cope with the growing impact of the climate emergency and ecosystem degradation vital. Furthermore, to prevent the Sahara desert from extending even further towards regions that are already among the poorest in the world.

The Great Green Wall. Launched byAfrican Union In 2007, the idea of ​​the Great Green Wall went from being an ambitious but simple tree planting campaign to a real rural development initiative, capable of beautifying the landscape and improving the quality of life of millions of people. Almost eighteen million hectares of degraded land have been restored to date. By 2030, the Great Green Wall project aims to restore one hundred million hectares of land, dispose of 250 million tons of carbon and create ten million jobs. The strengthening of forests can provide food and water security, healthy habitats for the reproduction of plants and wild animals and indirectly serve to curb migrations, which today are also accelerated by drought and consequent poverty.

Restoring Ecosystems in the decade 2021-2030. Aware of the need to reverse the course of ecosystem degradation throughout the world, the United Nations General Assembly with resolution 73/284 proclaimed the period 2021-2030 as the decade dedicated to the restoration of ecosystems. And he has drawn up a list of ten principles that aim to help and direct countries towards the achievement of the objectives. The Great Green Wall initiative was selected as an example of how landscape restoration can help address three global crises simultaneously: climate change and biodiversity loss, pollution and the waste crisis.

The virtuous examples. The Great Green Wall is a project that will benefit, in the long run, the people who live in that large strip of land that goes from Senegal, in the west, to Ethiopia, in the east. But the initiative that the United Nations Environment Agency has highlighted in recent months as a virtuous example concerns Niger.

The half moons of Niger. Kollo is a small village in Niger where theFood and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and theEnvironment Agency (UNEP extension) together with local government and donor countries, including France and Germany, are helping the community restore forests and soils. In Kollo, farmers have used agricultural techniques to recover degraded land and prevent desertification. In practice they have dug holes or ditches in the shape of half moons that capture rainwater and direct it towards growing plants. In other places they have fenced off entire areas to protect the trees and vegetation from grazing animals and loggers. Once the trees grow they create, among other things, shaded areas that are ideal for keeping bees or for diversifying crops.

Kollo’s women. The project has allowed the women of the village to recover land where they can grow moringa trees, a kind of miraculous plant whose pods can be cooked as a vegetable, or they can be dried and ground, transformed into oil and even used to filter the waterfall. A small cooperative has been established in Kollo where women prepare and sell products based on moringa seeds, including soaps, cakes and biscuits. “Moringa has commercial value and supports many families, it has really changed the lives of farmers,” Salamatou Souley, mayor of Kollo, told UNEP.

The voice of a farmer. “This land was completely barren and bare,” Kollo farmer Djibo Dandakoye told UNEP. “The trees and the grass that is growing are the result of hard work, but now we are finally reaping the fruits”.