The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel, better known as the Great Green Wall (GMV), is the flagship initiative of the African continent to combat the effects of climate change and desertification.
Developed by the African Union, this initiative aims to transform the lives of millions of people by creating a mosaic of green and productive ecosystems in North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. Originally designed as a 15 km wide corridor traversing the entire African continent for 7,800 km across 12 countries, this wall is to connect Dakar (Senegal) to Djibouti; this will represent about 80 000 km2, or 8 million hectares of forest, about twice the size of Switzerland.
The historic initiative, formally launched in January 2007, is transformed into a set of interventions aimed at addressing the challenges facing the people of the Sahel and the Sahara.
The project, presented in 2002, is criticized for its strategy and usefulness.
Protect fields and villages from wind and erosion. The plant wall is a dust filter that limits the inhalation of dust by populations and therefore the resulting diseases,
A supply of nutrients in an almost dead soil; The dead leaves create a litter that protects and regenerates the soil of the fields when they fall. Trees also help the soil increase its ability to retain water.
Increased humidity and local precipitation by evapotranspiration of planted trees.
A reserve of quality fodder for livestock, because grass grows better in the shade of trees.
Since the initial idea of a wall crossing the African desert from east to west to stop the advance of the desert, the vision of the Great Green Wall has gradually transformed into a mosaic of interventions to meet the challenges to which are facing the peoples of the world. Sahel and Sahara.
As a programming tool for rural development, this subregional partnership has the overall objective of strengthening the resilience of the region's natural populations and systems through sound ecosystem management, the protection of rural heritage and improving the living conditions of local communities.
By contributing to the improvement of the incomes of local populations, the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel thus responds to the combined effects of the degradation of natural resources and droughts in rural areas. The initiative is a partnership that supports the efforts of local communities in the management and sustainable use of forests, pastures and all natural resources.
Resources in arid zones. The Great Green Wall also helps to mitigate climate change, adapting to its effects and improving food security in the Sahel and Sahara.
Historical
The idea of a green wall appeared in 2002 at the Extraordinary Summit in N'Djamena (Chad) on the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. This idea was approved at the seventh session of the Conference of African Leaders and Heads of Government of the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 1 and 2 June 2005.
Since then, the concept of Great Green Wall has evolved a lot. Lessons learned from the Algerian Green Dam or the Chinese Wall have shed light on the need for a multi-sectoral approach to achieve sustainable results. Since a tree-planting initiative, the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel has thus become a programming tool for development.
At the 8th Session of African Leaders and Heads of Government held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on January 29 and 30, 2007, leaders and governments endorsed the Great Green Wall initiative for the Sahara and Sahel aimed at combat the social, economic and environmental impacts of desertification in the region.
Together, eleven Sahelo-Saharan states (Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Chad) have created the Pan African Agency for the Great Green Wall (APGMV).
In order to share a common vision, a harmonized regional strategy for the implementation of the Great Green Wall initiative for the Sahara and the Sahel was adopted in September 2012 by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN).
At the meeting, the ministers declared that the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel was a flagship program of the African Union aimed at contributing to the goal of a "world where land degradation would be zero" adopted at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development RIO + 204.
The partners
The Great Green Wall Initiative for the Sahara and the Sahel is an African Union program involving more than 20 countries in the Sahel-Saharan region, including:
Algeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Cape Verde and Green, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Gambia and Tunisia.
This initiative is supported by many regional and international organizations, including:
The Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall,
The Wilson Pond Conservation Area (Canada)
The Association for the Promotion of Education and Training Abroad (APEFE),
The Intergovernmental Authority for Development in East Africa (IGAD),
The World Bank,
The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF),
The MDG Center for West and Central Africa (WCO-WCA),
The Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS),
The African Union Commission (AUC),
The Community of Sahelo-Saharan States (CEN-SAD),
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
The African Forest Forum (FFA),
The Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (GM-UNCCD),
The Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS),
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
The Pan African Agricultural Producers Organization (PAFO),
The Global Panorama of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT),
United Nations Development Program - Center for Dryland Development (UNDP-SDC),
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP),
The United Nations Environment Program - World Conservation Monitoring Center for the Conservation of Nature (UNEP-WCMC),
The Walloon Region of Belgium
The Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD),
The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU),
The European Union (EU),
Wallonia-Brussels International,
The association Sûkyô Mahikari, through its group of young people, also contributes a lot to the realization of the Great Green Wall. Every year it organizes international reforestation camps in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso where several hundred hectares are reforested.
Principles
The principles of this partnership have been defined in many discussions between the African Union Commission (AUC) and the CEN-SAD Secretariat. The initiative is seen as a mosaic of integrated actions aimed at solving problems that "affect the lives and livelihoods of the people of the Sahel and Sahara". The Initiative is not limited to a reforestation initiative, it is a programming tool for rural development. The geographical scope of the Great Green Wall is defined as the periphery of the Sahara, north and south, including Saharan oases and enclaves such as Cape Verde.
By establishing a framework for enhancing synergies and cooperation, the Great Green Wall reinforces existing mechanisms such as the Global Agricultural Development Program, the NEPAD CAADP Environmental Program, the subregional, regional and national action programs, the fight against desertification. To ensure the success of this initiative, the harmonized regional strategy stresses the importance of stakeholder partnerships (at national, regional and sub-regional levels), as well as the need to integrate it into national, regional and international programs. Existing interregional opportunities, increased opportunities to share lessons learned and best practices (including through South-South cooperation and technology transfer), and encourage local stakeholder participation to ensure sustainability of actions.
Implementation
For planting, we speak of assisted natural regeneration (ANR) because the current density of the flora is often insufficient to hope for a natural regeneration
spontaneous. RNA is done either by planting seedlings, sowing, or simply keeping the seedlings on the plots.
In some very dry regions, such as Mali, the plantations are optimized by furrows or by the ancient technique of Zaï, which makes it possible to better concentrate the water on the young plants. Essences used for reforestation
Pre-existing plants are used locally, they resist very low local rainfall (200 mm / year in 2015 against 400 mm / year on average in the 60s) and are of economic interest. The management of nurseries and multipurpose gardens (vegetable gardens) is entrusted to women, which creates jobs and food production at the local level.
The Senegal
In Senegal, the Great Wall is 545 km long and 15 km wide, or 8,175 km2 or 817,500 hectares; and even if, considering the human activities, only 45% of the territory must be reforested, it remained in November 2015 about 340 000 hectares to be restored efficiently. At the current rate of 5,000 hectares reforested each year, a little more than a decade seems still necessary to achieve the goal.
Reforestation is carried out during the rainy season on 600-hectare plots where trees are planted in areas protected by wire fences from Peul cattle herders (now sedentary). Once the trees are installed, the fences can be removed and the livestock can graze in the shade of the trees. The villages are also converted into multipurpose gardens run by cooperatives to produce fresh fruits and vegetables.
A few years after planting, there is an improvement in the biodiversity of flora and fauna with the return of certain wild animals (foxes, ostriches and other birds).
Rainwater retention ponds have also been created for livestock watering.
The most commonly planted species are:
Acacia Senegalia senegal, or white gum for the production of gum arabic
Acacia Vachellia Seyal
Acacia False Eraser (Acacia tortilis)
Acacia Vachellia nilotica, or red gum
Desert Date Tree (Balanites aegyptiaca)
Boscia senegalensis
Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba)
Combretum glutinosum, effective against cough
Marula, for the production of alcohol
Desertification of the Sahel and Eastern Sudan
Main article: Natural history of the Sahara
Natural desertification
Evolution of vegetation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Since prehistoric times, the Sahara has experienced natural phases of expansion and recession, but the phenomenon of extension has developed due to peripheral population growth and climate change. Since 1900, the Sahara has progressed to the south of 250 km and this on a front which makes more than 6 000. Thus the steppe of the Sahel knows a relatively brutal drying up.
The effects of human activity
According to the 2008 report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), forest conservation efforts in the Sahel countries are very low compared to the deforestation process. 'hectares of forest in the Sahel belt are lost every year.'
Human activities, such as crops, grazing, deforestation and construction, accumulate and lead to the impoverishment, damage and especially the destabilization of the topsoil of arable land.
Controversies about the project
Project effectiveness and impact for local communities
Wally Maene, a member of Timberwatch, fears that indigenous communities will be threatened: "Developing plantations would also mean moving people living on land destined for the Great Green Wall and reducing the already scarce water resources." On the contrary, for Professor Abdoulaye Dia, Executive Secretary of the Panafrican Agency for the Green Wall, "it is not a curtain of trees that we must constantly replant, the aim is rather to mitigate the effects of desertification. by integrated development This means that in addition to plants, we will create a set of agro-sylvo-pastoral activities generating income Maene believes that local communities will not be properly informed about the project and will serve in reality cheap labor.
Pierre Ozer, PhD in Geography at the University of Liège, said: "It's an ideological concept that does not make sense, a political vision that will not follow.We want to make a wall to stop the desert? the desert does not just move that way, kilometer by kilometer. "He thinks that the inhabitants of these regions are too dependent on biomass to respect a new forest. For UCL geologist Eric Lambin, "The concept of the Green Wall has kept its name a little naive, but it has managed to become, on a regional scale, a relatively coordinated set of local programs to better manage the environment. . I have seen relatively degraded lands, but also many local initiatives, better management of resources and a desire to restore the ecosystem. For the representative of an indigenous peoples' organization whose integrated regional information networks have remained anonymous, "the Great Green" could interfere with the migratory circuits of pastoral communities; rather, it should incorporate ancestral land management systems. It would be better to protect what already exists in the area, stop cutting trees in valleys and oases, repair the damage caused by climate change, educate communities about REDD and replace lost livestock. . I think the project is good, but too ambitious.
Initiatives of this type have already been conducted and have led to failure, as in Algeria with the "green dam", other successes such as green belts built on the outskirts of urban areas of Mauritania and Niger where according to the CSFD, "the scale of this regeneration is estimated at 4 million hectares (15 to 20 times more trees in 2005 than in 1975)." and at the Great Green Wall of China, a project that extends from 1978 to 2074 with the creation of a forest of 4500 km long and 100 km wide against the sands of the Gobi Desert, gigantic project but qualified as very vulnerable by The Guardian.
"The road passes in rather unstable places (Mauritania, Niger, Chad, Sudan) and in the orange and red zones in terms of security and terrorist risks, so scientists are not allowed to go there, especially foreigners. " However, says the European Union "We support this initiative because it tackles the root causes [of problems in this region] and can, through cross-border projects, contribute to conflict prevention.
Canada in Africa
From 1960 to 2003, from 2003 to 2015 and from 2015 to 2019 in a progressive manner, in addition to all the works translated from all over the world and studies carried out by several universities, the first participation of the University Ottawa and Laval since 1960 on Wilson Pond, which was one of the first questions about climate change, mainly because of its geographical location and all the potential plant varieties
in favor of global warming, which was already beginning to be felt.
Canada is also participating because of the variety of peatlands it can offer.
The Wilson Pond Bog, thanks to its geographical position, offers one of the richest sources of wild species available on the planet for wetland plants, mainly because of the freezing and thawing, that offers the harsh Canadian climate.
Some plants must be frozen for a period of time to regenerate, otherwise they will die and never be resurrected after their annual hibernation and the species will gradually disappear from the area.
Another factor, the birds that can be found in this region are not native birds, these species come from the region such as that of West Virginia, this factor is proved by the combination of migrations of several species. More and more birds are migrating north due to lack of space and food, attributed to global warming and the presence of human activities.
Bird droppings contain seeds from all over, because of their mode of transportation, guiding them to pristine wilderness areas, such as the Wilson Pond Preservation Area.
China and its knowledge
Mr. Dénommée has translated numerous books, studies and projects on this subject over the last 25 years, mainly on the genetic memory of seeds and the power of water retention, as well as on the muscle memory of the root system.
The creation of hybrid plants that would allow better water retention in man-reproduced wetlands in the most disused and arid regions of the world, requires the most robust plants to create the best solution in the world. a geoengineering project of this size.
The Champlain Sea and its fjords
South Durham, 12,000 years ago, was on the shepherds of the Champlain Sea.
The sea, its fjords and beaches were all located in our region.
There were several fjords where the plateau of Pond Wilson is today.
In the late 1980s, Mr. Dénommée and some of his comrades were already discussing plans for mud extraction and organic waste.
This led him to research in environmental engineering, biology, sustainable development, the participation of geo-engineering research and development projects on a global scale.
As a result, he has also been involved in the reforestation of the great plateau of China and the Gobi Desert.
Mr. Dénommée is also the senior project manager and executive director of The Great Green Wall Of Africa since 2017.
Africa
Africa is not moving as fast as the West, it is experiencing many serious conflicts and recurring political problems in many parts of the Sahara. Many projects never see the light, are destroyed by conflict or looters, budgets and funds lost by a lack of qualified personnel to guide long-term projects, which never reach the established consultation objectives which they is very expensive in administrative costs and promotion campaign, even on a regional scale, the problems are very real, on a territory of 12 countries, as big as the whole of the United States, the challenge in itself, this is there again.
Working from Canada, Mr. Dénommée has been able to create a global, concertation, who had led to solutions that has resulted in real strategies on the ground , reflecting in growing support, from all over the world.
The whole project is actually a concertation of 12 African countries , a small group of Senegalese, who started the project in the early 2000s, an exceptional wild peat bog in Eastern Canada, 2 Chinese universities and an extraordinary collaboration , patience , dedication from : Mr. Luc Jr Dénommée Canada, Mr. Hervé Eboulé, Cameroon, and Mr. Fouad Boughanmi, Tunisia.
