What is Great Green Wall Initiative?

January 22, 2021

The Great Green Wall for Sahel and Sahara Initiative recently received 14 billion USD funds at the recent One Planet Summit for Biodiversity. The funding is to be used to restore degraded land, strengthen resilience, create green jobs and protect biodiversity. Among the financiers, the World Bank has committed 5 billion USD, African Development Bank committed 6.5 billion USD and Government of France committed 14 billion USD.

What is Great Green Wall Initiative?

The Great Green Wall initiative aims to transform the lives of 100 million Africans by growing 8,000 kilo metre long and fifteen kilo metre wide mosaic of trees, vegetation, grasslands, plants.

The Great Green Wall is an African-led initiative. It was started in 2007 by the African Union to combat desertification, land degradation, drought. The project aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. So far between 2007 and 2019, the Great Green Wall initiative has restored only four million hectares of land.

Key Objectives of Great Green Wall Initiative

The initiative aims to sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon and create ten million green jobs. It will support the African communities to grow fertile land and increase economic opportunities for the youngest population. The project will help to create climate resilience in the region where temperatures are rising faster than the rest of the earth.

Sustainable Development Goals

The Great Green Wall initiative will contribute fifteen of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The main objective of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is to reach Land neutrality by 2030. Thus, the Great Green Wall initiative will help achieve this.