Fight against desertification: a green wall in Africa

A green wall against the advancing desert, a barrier of trees against inequalities and in support of women’s rights. An important congress, the Taklimakan Desert Forum, was recently held in China, in which over 180 researchers gathered to study how to effectively prevent soil degradation and desertification, particularly in the Sahara desert, in China itself and throughout Africa. The answer that the experts have given themselves, in addition to the necessary commitment on all fronts to curb emissions and the climate crisis, is the need to insist on the idea of ​​”green walls”.

Precisely in China, several projects have been launched since the end of the seventies – one above all the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program of 1978 – which aim to combat desertification: trees, green corridors and restoration of territories in the north of the country, to counteract soil erosion, the effects of drought, sandstorms and the advance of the desert.

According to the Chinese, who will complete the project by 2050, it’s working: desertification can be stemmed and that’s why now, with the same skills, we aim to accelerate – also with cooperation and the help of the Chinese lesson – what is the great African project of Great Green Wall.

The Great Green Wall of Africa – it is worth remembering it on 17 June which is the World Day for the fight against desertification and drought – is today the most impressive project in the world to stem the advance of the desert, especially in the areas of the Sahel . It’s sort of green natural barrier across the width of the entire African continent, 8,000 km of forests across 11 states and which, by 2030, aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, sequester 250 million tons of CO₂ and create jobs.

Various local communities, national governments and businesses, NGOs and systems such as the “Great Green Wall Accelerator” launched during the One Planet Summit 2021 by Emmanuel Macron, are pushing for the Wall to advance. The idea is well liked by everyone, but the problem is that implementation continues to be too slow: in 2020, it is estimated that just 5% were completely completed and today other figures speak of about 18% of the completed works, even if they vary a lot from country to country.

On a planet where, the United Nations reminds us, the number and duration of drought events has increased by almost 30% (since 2000)where 2.3 billion people are exposed to water scarcity and desertification already in the next decade could force 50 million people to leave their homes, it is therefore increasingly clear that an acceleration in projects and commitments is needed for the restoration of territories.

Could this acceleration pass through faster development of the Great Green Wall? The UN are convinced that despite the delays, the work will be able to help the lives of millions of people, but an increasingly African-led movement will be needed, with the collaboration of experts (China is a candidate in this) and an action aimed at all levels, as well as strengthened institutional arrangements to achieve i $33 billion needed to restore 100 million hectares of land.

Despite the name, the United Nations are also convinced that the wall will serve to break down inequalities: especially social inequalities and women’s rights in rural communities by promoting stronger female leadership and decision-making power in sustainable land management.

“Women are major players in global efforts to reduce and reverse land degradation. However, in the vast majority of countries, women have unequal and limited access to and control over land. We cannot achieve land degradation neutrality without ‘gender equality and we can’t exclude half the population from land management decisions because of their gender,’ she recalled Ibrahim Thiawexecutive secretary of the UNCCD (UN Convention Against Desertification).

Today, nearly half of the global agricultural workforce are women, yet less than one in five landowners in the world are women. Furthermore, the right of women to inherit their husband’s property continues to be denied in over 100 countries around the world.

When water is scarce and the desert advances, in many populations it is women who go to the wells or reservoirs, and they are often the most affected by drought. For this it is time for “the launch of an ambitious land rights agenda of women” reminded by the UN that will promote the theme in a large conference organized for Desertification Day 2023, with the hashtag #HerLand.

One of the protagonists of this event will be the French Malian singer Inna Modyaalready engaged today precisely against desertification and for the development of the green wall, as well as for women’s rights.

For Modja “the fight against desertification is also a fight for women’s rights”. The singer, who is also ambassador for the UN Convention on desertification, in fact recounts her commitment to Code Green, a platform for bringing together different actors in the same battle.

For her, he told Young Africait is “essential that we all feel concerned. I realized that climate change is one of the aggravating factors of the vulnerability of women and girls, who are its first victims. I grew up in the Sahel, I saw crops disappear, women forced to travel long distances to fetch water while their education was forced to reduce for a matter of time. Engaging in the fight against desertification is therefore essential”.

As an artist and activist, Inna is also at the center of a documentary film on The Great Green Wall, to show how people live and are engaging along the great wall of trees from Senegal to Djibouti.

She says she is convinced that the success of the work will essentially depend on the African populations. “In some countries they are very involved, especially through women. In others less so, because the public authorities believe they have priorities other than the fight against climate change, as is the case in my own Mali. Still, I am convinced that if the effort for this project were unitary, we will stop the advance of the desert and we could provide millions of women and not only with the possibility of changing their lives. We must restore the earth by giving people the means to live on it with dignity, this is the great challenge we now face ” .