After years of struggling with insufficient funds, efforts to build Africa's Great Green Wall -- a massive defence line against desertification -- have received a major boost.

The initiative concerning 11 countries on the rim of the world's biggest desert was first launched to great acclaim in 2005, only to battle a lack of cash.

But 2021 could be the year of change.

Donors this year pledged $19 billion for the scheme, half of which has now been committed, while at the recent COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, US billionaire Jeff Bezos indicated that his foundation would stump up $1 billion to help fight land degradation, particularly in Africa.

- What is the Great Green Wall? -

The idea is to plant diverse trees and shrubs in a corridor about 8,000 kilometres (4,900 miles) long and 15 kilometres (nine miles) wide across Africa, hugging the southern edge of the Sahara.

The African Union endorsed the initiative in 2007, two years after the leaders of Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan hatched the plan at a summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States held in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou.

The project is being coordinated by the Pan-African Great Green Wall Agency.

Once completed, it will be the largest living structure on the planet, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

- What are its aims? -

The Great Green Wall is Africa's flagship programme for fighting climate change and desertification, and also aims to combat food insecurity and poverty across North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

The region, among the world's poorest, is also seeing some of the steepest temperature increases on the planet.

Concrete goals include rehabilitating 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, sequestering 250 million tonnes of carbon and creating 10 million green jobs.

"It's not just a curtain of trees," Senegalese geologist Abdoulaye Dia, executive secretary of the Great Green Wall Agency, told AFP.

- What is the situation today? -

Since 2005, the Green Wall has recovered 4.6 million hectares of impoverished land across the 11 countries, according to Dia.

The main strategies have been reforestation and measures to prevent soil degradation and over-grazing, he said, noting that the financing came from individual governments -- well short of the funds needed for the overall success of the programme -- without giving a figure.

In January this year, the Green Wall received a major shot in the arm at the One Planet Summit in Paris, where donors pledged $19 billion for the programme.

"Forty-eight percent of the funds have been committed (to work) on the ground," French President Emmanuel Macron said at a side event at the climate summit in Glasgow.

But progress has been slow. In a 2020 report, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification said there was an "insufficient, unpredictable and insecure funding situation".

Adama Doulkom, the Great Green Wall's Burkina Faso manager, pointed to rampant insecurity as a "major difficulty".

Amazon founder Bezos said work on the wall -- which he called a "remarkable innovation" -- had to be sped up.

Still, Dia praised the global surge in "visible and tangible activities" tied to the wall, saying the project had been criticised as being "a never-ending saga -- but now it has become a reality."

Great Green Wall brings life back to Niger desert
Simiri, Niger (AFP) Nov 23, 2021 - Once a desolate landscape, the Simiri plateau in Niger is now a small paradise for fauna and flora.

Goats crunch acacia seeds, squirrel and partridge prints dot the ground, praying mantises hang from trees and swarms of grasshoppers devour the verdant foliage.

"A small forest has miraculously been reborn," marvelled Simiri mayor Moussa Adamou.

The transformation is part of the African Union's Great Green Wall project, which aims to restore 100 million hectares of dry land by 2030 along an 8,000-kilometre (5,000-mile) strip stretching from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east.

Arable land is prized in landlocked Niger, where desert covers three-quarters of the territory and 80 percent of the population lives on subsistence farming.

The World Bank predicts its population will rise from 23 million in 2019 to 30 million in 2030 and 70 million in 2050, underlining the vital importance of the Green Wall's success.

Niger's contribution is mainly made up of white gum and Bauhinia rufescens trees, two drought-resistant species that can grow 12 metres (40 feet) tall.

Armed with pickaxes and spades, villagers built earthen embankments that hold rainwater around the saplings longer to ensure they grow even during droughts.

"Their leaves and seeds are rich in protein for livestock," explained local farmer Garba Moussa.

"Cooked or dried, we also eat them as survival food during severe food shortages," he added.

Mayor Adamou said that game animals and even giraffes have been leaving their remote habitat south of the capital Niamey to savour the tender acacia leaves since the Simiri plateau reforestation programme started in 2013.

Niger's southern forests have lost one-third of their surface area and now make up only one to two percent of the country, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

By 2030, Niger aims to "green" 3.6 million hectares of land, which represents more than 37.5 percent of its territory, said Maisharou Abdou, the Green Wall's director-general in Niger.

Abdou said between eight and 12 percent of the total had been achieved by 2020, but emphasised the project was "a long-distance race".

Mouhamadou Souley, head of the anti-desertification services, added that work had already begun to extend Simiri's reforestation by another 65 hectares.

- Jihadist threat -

To achieve this dream, the country -- one of the world's poorest -- needs more than 454.645 billion CFA francs ($780 million), he added.

The European Union, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank and other donors have already given money.

In addition to halting desertification, the Great Green Wall also focuses on access to water, solar energy and socio-economic development including market gardening, fish farming, cattle rearing and poultry farms to provide employment for the local population.

Local NGOs have joined the battle, with plans to reforest 100 hectares, cultivate nurseries and dig water wells, according to Issa Garba of Young Volunteers for the Environment.

However, the jihadist attacks that have plagued several Great Green Wall countries could jeopardise the project.

Niger expert Sani Yaou said farmers are afraid to carry out reforestation or tree maintenance activities due to the jihadist threat.

"Insecurity has dealt a heavy blow to its realisation... All countries are focused on the fight against insecurity," Garba added.

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