Today, the problem of desertification in Africa is becoming ever more serious. Africa, two-thirds of whose land area is desert or arid zones, is highly vulnerable to soil degradation and drought. Forty-six percent of land that was once productive and fertile has now deteriorated, putting the livelihoods of about 65% of the continent’s population at risk, and in 2015 more than 20 million people fell into food shortages, a situation that occurred. Among African regions, the Sahel is particularly concerning in terms of the impacts of desertification. The Sahel is a band stretching east–west along the southern edge of the Sahara, crossing like a belt the boundary between tropical Africa to the south and the Sahara to the north. Its climate is semi-arid, with low rainfall and poor soils, making it unsuitable for agriculture.

Farmers carrying straw (Mali). Photo: Ferdinand Reus ( CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Even under these conditions, people living in the Sahel depend on agriculture for most of their income, leaving them in poverty and suffering from hunger and malnutrition. In fact, according to the Human Development Index—an indicator of achievement in health, education, and income—in 2015 (out of 188 countries), Niger ranked 188th, Ethiopia 186th, Chad 185th, Burkina Faso 183rd, Mali 179th, and Ethiopia 174th, clearly showing the development lag in Sahelian countries. The Sahel belt is also called the “Hunger Belt,” and many of the countries located there are facing food shortages. For example, in Chad, about half (2 million) of the population living in the Sahel belt suffers from hunger, and a quarter of them has been reported to need food aid.

Another concern is the rapid population increase in the Sahel. Even globally, the Sahel’s population growth is remarkable; its current population of about 100 million is projected to reach 350 million by 2050. If so, demand for food and natural resources will continue to rise, while fertile land will keep shrinking due to desertification, leading in the future to risks such as further loss of forests and grasslands and deterioration of people’s livelihoods.

Against this backdrop, the “Great Green Wall ( The Great Green Wall )” project was launched to halt the expansion of the Sahara Desert. Adopted by the African Union (AU) in 2007, the project aims for 11 countries located in the Sahel (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Senegal) to jointly plant trees along the southern edge of the Sahara in order to prevent its southward advance and to address challenges such as drought, food shortages, and poverty in the Sahel. The “Great Green Wall” extends roughly 8,000 km from Senegal on the west coast of northern Africa to Djibouti on the east coast, with plans to link these areas into a continuous belt of planted forests. In addition to 21 African countries, partners such as the World Bank and the French government are cooperating, and at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), held in December 2015 alongside the Paris Agreement, US$4 billion was committed. As the final goals, the project aims by 2030 to restore 50 million hectares of land in Africa, ensure stable food supplies for 20 million people, create 350,000 jobs, and sequester around 250 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. The “Great Green Wall” is thus a major project that seeks not only to tackle issues in the Sahel, but also to contribute to global climate change mitigation.

Created based on data from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Thanks to support from backers such as the AU and the World Bank, results are gradually emerging. According to officials of the organization leading the project, to date about 15% of the “Great Green Wall” has been planted, and approximately 4 million hectares of land in the Sahel have been restored. For example, in Senegal, the planting of 11 million trees has gradually restored what was once 5 million hectares of wasteland; in Ethiopia, 15 million hectares have been restored; and in parts of Nigeria, 20,000 jobs have been created.

However, greening desert regions is not an easy task, and questions have arisen as to whether the “Great Green Wall” initiative is truly effective. For instance, some scientists hold the view that, because rainfall is increasing, the Sahara is not expanding but actually beginning to shrink. There is also a view that the causes of hardship for residents include human factors—such as excessive development and the lack of sustainable land management—beyond climatic factors like climate change, and that the expansion of the Sahara is not necessarily the root cause. In the Sahel in particular, there is also a report that, due to residents’ limited land management capacity, 80% of newly planted trees died within two months.

Furthermore, it is said that most soil degradation in Africa’s desert regions is caused by overgrazing, and in Nigeria—where overgrazing and excessive harvesting of fuelwood are particularly prevalent—overgrazing has become such a serious problem that there are concerns much of the land and socioeconomic structures could collapse within a few years.

In such circumstances, planting trees—in other words, building a “Great Green Wall”—may itself be a futile endeavor. There may be more efficient and sustainable measures at the community or village level.

Recently, moves have emerged to address desertification through alternatives rather than the “Great Green Wall.” For example, although Niger is one of the poorest countries, farmers there are working to revive vast arid lands with innovative methods on small budgets, and in fact are producing results. Methods used include reviving plant and tree roots and digging semi-circular pits in the soil to hold water—natural methods rooted in Niger’s land. In fact, trees devastated by flooding recovered over several years and have remained in good condition to this day. These approaches have led to the restoration of 5 million hectares of land and 200 million trees. If these efforts continue, annual grain production could increase by 500,000 tons, providing food for 2.5 million people, it is said.

Residents planting avocado seedlings (Ethiopia). Photo: Trees ForTheFuture ( CC BY 2.0 )

Partners of the “Great Green Wall” program have begun paying attention to these farmer-led ecosystem restoration movements and are seeking to adapt their distinctive methods within the program. The “Great Green Wall” is now on the verge of being redefined. Rather than building a monolithic wall of forest, the hope is to curb desertification and bring back broad swaths of green to the Sahel through a patchwork of greening efforts tailored to each region’s natural environment and to farmers’ livelihoods. To do so, local communities must take the lead and seek systems that enable sustainable management of wetlands, farmland, rangeland, and other landscapes. It is necessary to address desertification sustainably, at low cost, using methods rooted in each place.

Both the “Great Green Wall” program, which builds shelterbelts with massive funding from many supporters, and the steady greening efforts carried out by local residents in ways rooted in their own lands, share the same goal. If the “Great Green Wall” can shift to a more flexible approach and adapt methods as needed, the future of the Sahel may change into something very different from what it is today.

Kompienga Province (Burkina Faso). Photo: Breezy Baldwin ( CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 )

Writer: Kyoko Kuwahara

Graphics: Kamil Hamidov