The Green Wall of Africa


The Green Wall Initiative of Africa. Picture from: National Geographic


What is the Green Wall Initiative?

In recent years, Northern Africa in particular has seen a decline in the quality of arable land notably due to climate change and poor land management. Desertification, land degradation and drought along with climate change and extreme weather events has a drastic impact on the food security and livelihoods of communities living in the Sahel region of Northern Africa. The Green Wall for the Saharan and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) was proposed in 2005 with the objective of growing 8000 km long line of trees and plants across the entire Sahel from Senegal to Djibouti crossing 12 African nations to try and halt desertification The objectives are: "By 2030 restore 50 million hectares of land, sequest 250 million tons of carbon; support 300 million people in communities along the Sahel and provide access for 10 million smallholder farmers to climate resilient agricultural technologies." (Climate Initiative Platform, 2020). This would improve the resilience of both ecosystems and communities along the Sahel-Saharan zone to climate change through land resource management, sustainable development and living improvements (Berrahmouni et al, 2014). 


Desertification of the Sahel

Since the 1960's the Sahel has been experiencing extreme droughts that have been related to climate change and anthropogenic pressures. These droughts have caused large losses of livestock and famines such as the 2011 famine caused by an extreme drought that threatened the lives of 9.5 million people in the Sahel. Communities in the Sahel rely on livestock as their main source of income, which has effects on the herbaceous layer of grasslands and reduces the productivity of the grassland thus, increasing the ecosystem's vulnerability to drought (Hein and Ridder, 2006). Severe overuse of the soils by people and livestock coupled with the effects of climate change on precipitation patterns has resulted in desertification in the Sahel as the Sahara grown southwards at a rate of 0.6km/year. If this process continues, it will have devastating effects on an estimated 500 millions people who rely on the Sahel grasslands for survival (Morrison, 2016)


Can Reforestation Halt Desertification?

Theoretically, having an 8000 km defence line of trees could help to restore land balance and ecosystem, however, the survival of the trees depend on precipitation and care. It is estimated that 80% of the trees planted in the Sahel since the 1980's have died from a lack of stable water resources. Many argue that while the idea of the Great Green Wall was good, it is not realistic as many of the trees are not planted anywhere near villages that could provide care for saplings. In addition, continued overuse of the land over decades could not simply be reverted by planting a few trees. 

    However, the idea of the Green Wall gave way to a much more efficient technique of re-greening the Sahel through the direct involvement of local communities. Through the use of indigenous land management, local farms began to see trees emerging naturally through their water harvesting techniques. The idea of the Green Wall has evolved into what the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) calls: "Africa's flagship initiative to combat land degradation, desertification and drought." an initiative that breaks down planting 8000 km of trees into smaller, more manageable steps of turning a physical wall into a metaphorical mosaic of land use while engaging with the local communities. 


The Future of the Sahel

While it can be expected that climate change will have a continued effect in the Sahel in the years to come, by raising awareness about the Green Wall initiative and helping locals return to indigenous modification of traditional agriculture, the desertification can be slowed. Reforesting the landscape helps the ecosystem retain moisture and has a direct positive impact on local farming and famine as observed in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali the past 20 years. Thus, by planting trees efficiently and through equitable resource sharing, the effects of climate change could be lessened for local communities in the Sahel.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brave Blue World - A Netflix Documentary

Image
The new Netflix documentary " Brave Blue World - Racing to Solve our Water Crisis" explores the innovating technologies and sciences that have the potential  to help solving the world's  water crisis. It focuses its story line on multiple countries across Africa and discusses the innovative ways to provide safe water and sanitation facilities to the global population in a changing world. There is an emphasis on how environmental change is altering the way people access clean freshwater and many of the case studies discussed are in African nations.  The documentary aims to make the viewers question their beliefs on fresh water access by asking questions such as: is water a global issues? Is water a scarce resources? Is technology the solution to accessing clean water? The production team visited sites across the world and met with pioneers that are employing original techniques to solve water issues within their communities.  Beth Koigi, the founder of Majik Water  spend
Read more

Introduction

Image
Cover image courtesy of: NCM In this blog, my aim will be to explore the relationship between water and environmental change on the African continent.  The focus of this blog will be about how deforestation and land use change is affecting the hydrological cycle in the world with a direct focus on Africa and the Congo Basin. Moreover the relationship between water and Africa will be explored on a large scale to understand why water has always been an issue in Africa and highlight how the changing environment is deepening these issues.  The reason I want to explore this subject of environmental change and water is that "Water is the primary medium through which people in Africa will experience climate change impacts" ( Taylor, 2001:1 ). Through this, my blog will dive into issues such as how deforestation affects the global hydrological cycle, land use change and extreme weather events to further understand how water is linked to economic, social and political issues in Africa
Read more

Impacts of the Congo basin deforestation on the African monsoon patterns

Image
The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa spanning across six countries. It is one of the three main rainforests worldwide and plays a key role in regulating monsoon patterns across much of Africa. There are about 10,000 species of tropical plants in the Congo Basin and approximately 30% are endemic to the area. Additionally many endangered animals call the Congo home from mountain gorilla, chimpanzees and forest elephants. The Congo rainforest has been inhabited by humans for over 50,000 years and is key to providing them with shelter, food and freshwater. Increasing rates of deforestation is threatening this fragile ecosystem and not only is the biodiversity within under threat, but the entire hydrological cycle of Africa as well.  Picture courtesy of: Planet.com  representing the  Congo Basin in green The Congo basin is highly dependent on precipitation as there are few low intensity aquifers in the region to sustain farming and human activity. Much of the economic activities re
Read more