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The Great Green Wall Initiative represents one of the most ambitious environmental restoration projects ever conceived, spanning the entire width of the African continent. Launched by the African Union in 2007, this transformative initiative aims to combat the devastating effects of desertification and land degradation across the Sahel region, creating a mosaic of restored landscapes that will support millions of people while addressing some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time.
Understanding the Great Green Wall Vision
The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement with an epic ambition to grow an 8,000km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa. The initiative stretches from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, creating what proponents envision as the largest living structure on the planet once completed.
The GGW initiative’s ambition is to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land; sequester 250 million tons of carbon and create 10 million green jobs by 2030. These goals reflect not just environmental restoration but also economic development and social transformation for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
The concept has evolved significantly since its inception. The concept evolved into promoting water harvesting techniques, greenery protection and improving indigenous land use techniques, aimed at creating a mosaic of green and productive landscapes across North Africa. Rather than a literal wall of trees, the initiative now encompasses a comprehensive approach to sustainable land management and rural development.
Historical Context and Origins
The idea of creating a green barrier against desert expansion has deep historical roots. In the 1950s British explorer Richard St. Barbe Baker made an expedition in the Sahara. During St. Barbe’s 40,000-kilometre expedition he proposed a “Green front” to act as a 50-kilometre-deep tree buffer to contain the expanding desert.
The idea re-emerged in 2002, at the special summit in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, on the occasion of World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. It was approved by the Conference of Leaders and Heads of States members of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States during their seventh ordinary session held in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on 1–2 June 2005.
Originally conceived by Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s late revolutionary leader, the Great Green Wall was launched in 2007 by the African Union. The initiative brought together eleven core countries initially, though it has since expanded to include additional nations across the continent.
The Sahel Region: A Climate Crisis Frontline
The Sahel region where the Great Green Wall is being implemented faces some of the most severe environmental and social challenges on Earth. The Great Green Wall is taking root in Africa’s Sahel region, at the southern edge of the Sahara desert – one of the poorest places on the planet. More than anywhere else on Earth, the Sahel is on the frontline of climate change and millions of locals are already facing its devastating impact.
Temperatures in the Sahel are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average — Djibouti already reaches 106°F on average in summer — the population is also growing faster than anywhere else in the world. This combination of rapid climate change and population growth creates unprecedented pressure on already degraded lands.
According to the U.N., over 135 million people in the region currently depend on degraded land for survival. The consequences of land degradation extend far beyond environmental concerns. Food insecurity, migration, terrorism and resource conflicts are all on the rise in the region, making land restoration not just an environmental imperative but also a matter of human security and development.
Understanding Desertification in the Sahel
Northern Africa has seen the quality of arable land decline significantly due to climate change and poor land management. Land degradation stems from human-related and natural factors, including unsustainable farming practices, overgrazing, climate change and extreme weather.
Land degradation contributes to the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity; more than 9,000 plants and animal species are considered endangered as a result. Land degradation also poses serious threats to agricultural productivity, food security, and quality of life.
Participating Countries and Geographic Scope
The intervention zone is to become home to a mosaic of sustainable agricultural systems covering eleven countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. These eleven countries form the core of the initiative, though the project has expanded its reach over time.
This ambitious project is being implemented across 22 African countries and will revitalize thousands of communities across the continent. The expansion reflects growing recognition of the initiative’s potential to address land degradation challenges beyond the original Sahel corridor.
The countries Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Chad thereafter created the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW) to coordinate implementation and track progress across national boundaries.
Core Objectives and Goals
The Great Green Wall Initiative encompasses multiple interconnected objectives that address environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development.
Environmental Restoration Goals
The primary environmental objective focuses on reversing land degradation and desertification. Its goal: to slow desertification in the Sahel region by planting a “wall” of trees 8,000 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide – from Senegal to Djibouti.
Beyond tree planting, the initiative aims to restore entire ecosystems. The Great Green Wall initiative uses an integrated approach to restore a diversity of ecosystems in the North African landscape. This includes grasslands, wetlands, and agricultural systems that together create resilient landscapes capable of supporting both biodiversity and human livelihoods.
Climate Change Mitigation
Carbon sequestration represents a critical component of the initiative’s climate strategy. The restored landscapes are expected to capture massive amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, contributing to global climate change mitigation efforts while improving local environmental conditions.
Drawing from Tree Aid’s experience from a 12,000-hectare community-owned agroforestry project in Burkina Faso, the white paper estimates the GGW has untapped potential for sequestering 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent in the Sahel, valued at $28 billion at the 2023 market price.
Economic Development and Job Creation
The initiative recognizes that environmental restoration must go hand-in-hand with economic opportunity. Creating sustainable livelihoods for local communities is essential for long-term success and ensures that people have incentives to maintain restored landscapes.
Fundamental to this initiative is planting and growing a “wall” of trees, grasslands and vegetation to curb desertification, create new job opportunities for people in the Sahel region, increase food security and positively impact the environment by absorbing carbon that would otherwise go into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.
Social and Security Benefits
The Wall promises to be a compelling solution to the many urgent threats not only facing the African Continent, but the global community as a whole – notably climate change, drought, famine, conflict and migration. By addressing the root causes of resource scarcity, the initiative aims to reduce conflicts over land and water while providing alternatives to migration.
Implementation Strategies and Approaches
The Great Green Wall employs diverse strategies tailored to local conditions and community needs across the vast Sahel region.
Species Selection and Planting Techniques
The team selected 55 woody/herbaceous indigenous species with economic value, including baobab (Adansonia digitata), balanite (Balanites aegyptiaca), African crabwood (Carapa procera), gum acacia (Senegalia senegal), tamarind (Tamarindus indica), and African grape (Lannea microcarpa). The focus on indigenous species with economic value ensures that planted trees can survive in harsh conditions while providing tangible benefits to local communities.
Early implementation focused heavily on mass tree planting, but this approach encountered significant challenges. At first, in 2007, the initiative set out to plant trees in enormous numbers to complete the vision of a literal green wall. The vast majority died, often because they were the wrong species and there wasn’t enough water — and because local communities in one of the world’s poorest regions were given little incentive to keep them alive.
Community Participation and Ownership
Experience has shown that community engagement is critical for success. Countries that have shown the most commitment to the project, such as Senegal, have shown the most growth. Experts say that the success in Senegal in planting trees is a result of empowering those at the community level to get involved and feel ownership of the project.
Successful projects integrate local knowledge and ensure that communities benefit directly from restoration efforts. Pilot restorers planted 2,235 hectares, creating opportunities for sustainable income for 32,000 people, demonstrating how restoration can generate economic opportunities when properly designed.
Integrated Land Management
The initiative has evolved beyond simple tree planting to embrace comprehensive land management approaches. Within a few years, the Great Green Wall switched focus toward a more metaphorical “wall.” Tree planting remained an important component, but the vision became broader, with more focus on cultivating arid, degraded land.
It promotes sustainability and resilience through management of the natural resources – land, water, soils, trees, and genetic resources – that underpin food and nutrition security in the region. This holistic approach recognizes that sustainable land use requires managing multiple interconnected resources.
Funding and Financial Support
The Great Green Wall requires massive financial investment to achieve its ambitious goals, and funding has been both a source of support and a major challenge.
International Commitments
More than USD 14 billion has been raised and pledged to support this game-changing initiative. International donors have recognized the global significance of the project and made substantial financial commitments.
In 2021, President Emmanuel Macron of France and other world leaders announced the Great Green Wall multi-actor Accelerator at the One Planet Summit. This initiative seeks to facilitate the coordination and collaboration of donors and stakeholders involved in the GGWI. The pledge of over $19 billion in funding from a coalition of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), international development banks, and governments helps aspirations becoming a reality.
The Green Climate Fund alone has poured in $14.4 billion over the past decade, according to spokesman Simon Wilson. The EU contributed over $1.78 billion in just three years between 2021 and 2023 — information obtained through a Freedom of Information request. Other donors, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the GEF and the U.N., have contributed billions more.
Funding Challenges and Disbursement Issues
Despite substantial pledges, getting money to where it’s needed has proven extremely difficult. In 2023, 80% of the $19 billion pledged had been “programmed” but only 13% had been disbursed. In the countries along the Wall, the national agencies responsible for administering and overseeing the progress say they have received just a fraction of the money spent.
While wealthy nations have promised more than $20 billion to support the project, very little of that money has been put toward the Wall. Before grants can be disbursed, they must go through a lengthy approval process.
The Pan-African Great Green Wall Agency said the initiative’s main challenges have been “funding issues to match the ambitions, coordination, national technical capacities, heterogeneity of contexts, public security in certain countries, and coordination of financing at the national level.” “Despite intensified advocacy efforts … and significant announcements of financial support, the level of funding mobilized has remained well below the planned needs,” the agency said.
Coordination Problems
“The reason you’re seeing results on the ground in an unsubstantial manner is because there are serious problems with coordination at the national level,” admits Gilles Ouedraogo, who heads the Great Green Wall Accelerator. The national agencies “are not systematically involved in the implementation of Great Green Wall projects” where funding may instead go directly through the ministry of finance or other government institutions.
Progress and Achievements
Assessing the actual progress of the Great Green Wall has proven challenging, with different sources reporting varying levels of completion and success.
Reported Progress Statistics
As of 2024, about 30 million hectares had been restored, completing 30% of the target. However, this figure represents the most optimistic assessment, and other evaluations paint a more sobering picture.
By 2020, 13 years into the project, a U.N. report found that only 4% of the land had been “restored.” In 2021, aware of the lack of progress, international donors pledged a further $19 billion to the completion of the Wall.
In 2019, reports stated the initiative was 15% complete. The GGW website in 2025 still presents the same figure. However, a 2020 article from The Guardian reported that only 4% of the target area had been covered. These discrepancies highlight significant challenges in monitoring and reporting progress accurately.
Country-Specific Successes
Progress varies dramatically across participating countries. Nigeria has restored 4.9 million ha of degraded land and Ethiopia has reclaimed 15 million ha. In Senegal, over 11 million trees had been planted.
In Nigeria, for example, the execution reaches 50%, with more than 45 million seedlings produced and about 12,000 hectares restored between 2015 and 2024.
Ethiopia has had the most success with 5.5 billion seedlings planted, but Chad has only planted 1.1 million, illustrating the vast disparities in implementation capacity and commitment across countries.
Satellite Data and Environmental Indicators
Recent satellite monitoring provides some encouraging signs. Although there are fluctuations in the desert and vegetated areas, overall, the desert area is decreasing, while the vegetated area is increasing, especially during the past years since 2019.
From the year 2002 to 2023, the desert location moved northward in 79.24% of the regions along the longitude direction, while the other 20.76% of regions moved southward. The results indicate that the desert areas along GGW retreated during the past two decades.
However, attributing these changes specifically to Great Green Wall interventions remains difficult. While forest cover has increased in GGW regions, tree survival rates and long-term ecosystem restoration remain uncertain.
Challenges and Obstacles
The Great Green Wall faces numerous interconnected challenges that have significantly hampered progress toward its ambitious goals.
Limited On-Ground Success
Recent research reveals troubling findings about actual restoration success. Out of 36 Great Green Wall plots surveyed in Senegal, covering nearly 45,000 acres, the researchers found that only one was more green than it would have been naturally due to rainfall.
In a recent study, the researchers found that even in Senegal, one of the countries most dedicated to the Great Green Wall, only one out of 36 areas planted is greener than it would have been naturally. The likely reason, they say, is that many seedlings are dying off when rainfall is meager, or they are being trampled or eaten by cattle in areas without fencing.
“There is no difference between what is inside and outside the plots,” says Valerio Bini, a geographer and professor at the University of Milan who toured the sites around Widou Thiengoly in January 2025. “The Great Green Wall does not exist.”
Political Instability and Security Concerns
The Sahel is dubbed Africa’s “Coup Belt” for its recurring political instability and insurrections, and several Great Green Wall countries have also undergone major political upheavals since the initiative began, pushing environmental priorities to the sidelines.
As of 2023, the Great Green Wall was reported as “facing the risk of collapse” due to terrorist threats, absence of political leadership, and insufficient funding. Armed conflicts and terrorism in the region make it dangerous or impossible to implement projects in many areas.
Insecurity in the Sahel: armed conflicts and terrorist attacks hinder implementation in areas like Zamfara, Katsina, and Borno, particularly affecting countries like Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
Technical and Environmental Challenges
Low seedling survival rate: many die due to lack of irrigation or weak rainy seasons. The harsh environmental conditions of the Sahel make it extremely difficult to establish vegetation, particularly when projects lack adequate water infrastructure or maintenance funding.
Infrastructure failures compound these challenges. The project had received just enough international funding to build the irrigation system on Guelleh’s farm, he explains, but didn’t have money to fix the dam and the solar pump once they broke down. Arab hopes to be able to resurrect the project once money becomes available, but for now his department lacks the funds.
Insufficient National Commitment
“The Sahel countries have not allocated any spending in their budgets for this project. They are only waiting on funding from abroad, whether from the European Union, the African Union, or others,” said Issa Garba, an environmental activist from Niger, who also described the 2030 guideline as an unattainable goal.
This lack of domestic financial commitment raises questions about long-term sustainability and national ownership of the initiative.
Monitoring and Accountability Issues
This discrepancy raises concerns about the accuracy and transparency of progress tracking. A recent study highlights the lack of consistent on-the-ground restoration data.
Researchers say that countries must stop looking at the number of trees planted as a measure of success and instead use satellite data to determine where the Sahel is actually greening. The focus on planting numbers rather than survival and ecosystem health has created misleading impressions of progress.
The Great Green Wall Accelerator
In response to slow progress and implementation challenges, stakeholders launched a renewed effort to revitalize the initiative.
Launched at the 2021 One Planet Summit, the Great Green Wall Accelerator aims to facilitate collaboration among donors and stakeholders involved in the GGW initiative and help all actors better coordinate, monitor, and measure the impact of their actions.
The goals of this plan were to create a monitoring system to better track progress toward the 2030 goals, analyze which projects within the initiative were working better than others, and generate greater cooperation and participation among member countries. More money has also been put into the initiative by donors, and project leaders have been tracking how the money is being used to ensure that it is directed to meeting the goals set for 2030.
Improved Monitoring Systems
Launched in 2024, it’s an online platform that tracks funding for the GGW from different donors, the results and progress of more than 350 projects, and analyzes where each of the 11 countries stands in terms of their contributions to the GGW.
As part of the accelerator, efforts are underway to address delays, improve monitoring progress of different projects that are part of the GGW initiative, track them by country, and evaluate their effectiveness, including building a new online database. GGW partners say they hope the harmonized monitoring and progress tracking can help sustain funding and realize the objectives of the ambitious initiative in the Sahel.
Environmental and Social Impacts
Despite implementation challenges, the Great Green Wall has generated some positive impacts in areas where projects have been successfully maintained.
Ecosystem Benefits
A decade in and roughly 15% underway, the initiative is already bringing life back to Africa’s degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale, providing food security, jobs and a reason to stay for the millions who live along its path.
Where restoration has succeeded, it has improved local environmental conditions. Restored vegetation helps reduce soil erosion, improve water retention, and create microclimates that support agriculture and biodiversity.
Socioeconomic Outcomes
Since the birth of the initiative in 2007, life has started coming back to the land, bringing improved food security, jobs and stability to people’s lives in successful project areas.
The study found a link between increased forest cover and reduced food insecurity, suggesting that where restoration succeeds, it can contribute to improved nutrition and livelihoods.
However, The social impacts were “periodic and short-lived” — mainly limited to short-term jobs preparing the saplings or farming small plots, indicating that many projects have not yet generated the sustained economic benefits envisioned.
Climate Impacts
Northern Nigeria: Contrary to the general upward trend, the northern regions of Nigeria, which are the primary focus areas of the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative, exhibit decreasing LST anomalies, suggesting that increased vegetation may be moderating local temperatures in some areas.
Lessons Learned and Best Practices
The Great Green Wall’s mixed results offer valuable lessons for large-scale restoration initiatives worldwide.
Importance of Community Engagement
Projects that empower local communities and ensure they benefit directly from restoration efforts show significantly better outcomes than top-down approaches. Community ownership and participation are essential for maintaining planted areas and ensuring long-term sustainability.
Need for Adequate Maintenance Funding
Many projects have failed not because of poor initial design but because of insufficient funding for ongoing maintenance, irrigation, and protection of planted areas. Sustainable funding mechanisms that extend beyond initial planting are critical.
Appropriate Technology and Species Selection
Using indigenous species adapted to local conditions and ensuring adequate water infrastructure are fundamental to survival rates. Projects must be designed based on realistic assessments of environmental conditions and available resources.
Coordination and Governance
Better coordination among international donors, national governments, and local implementing agencies is essential to ensure resources reach the ground and projects align with local needs and capacities.
Future Prospects and the Path to 2030
Five years away from its self-imposed deadline, billions of dollars have been spent and billions more pledged, yet most of the Great Green Wall remains barren. The initiative faces a critical juncture as the 2030 deadline approaches.
The Great Green Wall is advancing, but at a slow pace and with significant challenges. Although it has achieved positive impacts at the local level, it is far from meeting its initial goals for 2030. The project remains a symbol of hope and resilience against climate change and desertification, but it requires more funding, greater coordination, and solutions adapted to the realities of the Sahel.
Calls for Reform
Amid the existing stagnation, a growing number of voices have called for scrapping the project. However, others argue for fundamental reforms rather than abandonment.
Countless projects have floundered, and the African agencies tasked with overseeing the initiative say they have been largely sidelined by the international donors funding it. A symbol of pan-African cooperation, critics say, has become yet another cautionary tale for the limitations of top-down international aid in Africa.
Renewed Commitment and Innovation
Ange Mboneye, advocacy manager at SOS Sahel, an NGO that has worked in the Sahel for more than five decades and has partnered with the GGW since 2013, says the renewed enthusiasm in the initiative is palpable, with increased visibility, stronger communication efforts, increased interest among donors, and financial commitments trickling in.
With growing momentum for increased support to the GGWI from the global community, this is a timely opportunity to aspire for greater ambition for transformational change in the Sahel.
Global Significance and Broader Implications
The Great Green Wall isn’t just for the Sahel. It is a global symbol for humanity overcoming its biggest threat – our rapidly degrading environment. It shows that if we can work with nature, even in challenging places like the Sahel, we can overcome adversity, and build a better world for generations to come.
The initiative contributes to multiple global frameworks and commitments. The Great Green Wall makes a vital contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (known as the SDGs) – a global agenda which aims to achieve a more equitable and sustainable world by 2030.
Once complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, 3 times the size of the Great Barrier Reef, representing an unprecedented achievement in ecological restoration if its goals can be realized.
Comparative Initiatives Worldwide
The Great Green Wall is not the only large-scale anti-desertification initiative. Similar projects offer both inspiration and cautionary lessons. China’s Three-North Shelter Forest Program and Algeria’s Green Dam project have provided valuable insights that have influenced the Great Green Wall’s evolution toward more integrated approaches.
These comparative experiences demonstrate that while large-scale restoration is possible, it requires sustained commitment, adequate resources, appropriate technology, and strong governance over many decades.
The Role of International Partnerships
It brings together African countries and international partners under the leadership of the African Union Commission and the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall. The initiative represents a model of international cooperation on environmental challenges.
Throughout its history, the GEF has been a strategic partner of the GGWI countries and provided more than $1 billion in grants through diverse projects and programs. These investments have leveraged an additional $6 billion from national governments, development partners, and other multilateral sources in support of the GGWI.
Organizations like the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the World Bank, and numerous NGOs play crucial roles in providing technical expertise, funding, and implementation support.
Technology and Innovation in Implementation
Modern technology is increasingly important for monitoring and improving Great Green Wall implementation. Satellite remote sensing allows for objective assessment of vegetation changes across vast areas, helping identify what works and what doesn’t.
The system allows overlapping of project data with satellite imagery to track changes in landscape and tree cover and estimate carbon dioxide sequestration, providing more accurate and transparent progress tracking than traditional methods.
Digital platforms for coordination and data sharing help address some of the governance challenges that have plagued the initiative. However, technology alone cannot solve fundamental issues of funding, political will, and community engagement.
Economic Opportunities and Carbon Markets
When implemented right with community rights at the forefront, Skirrow says voluntary carbon markets can fill the funding gaps for projects in the GGW, while the investment from the private sector “would not only drive the restoration that’s required, but would significantly create jobs and reduce poverty.”
Carbon markets represent a potential mechanism for generating sustainable funding for restoration activities. However, ensuring that carbon credit revenues benefit local communities and support genuine, long-term restoration remains a critical challenge.
Key Takeaways and Benefits
- Restores degraded land: The initiative aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land across the Sahel, reversing desertification and improving soil quality in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions.
- Supports local communities: By creating green jobs and improving agricultural productivity, the Great Green Wall provides economic opportunities for millions of people living in poverty.
- Enhances biodiversity: Restored ecosystems support diverse plant and animal species, helping to reverse biodiversity loss in the Sahel region.
- Reduces desertification: The initiative combats the southward expansion of the Sahara Desert, protecting agricultural lands and water resources.
- Sequesters carbon: Restored vegetation captures atmospheric carbon dioxide, contributing to global climate change mitigation efforts.
- Improves food security: Better land management and restored ecosystems enhance agricultural productivity and reduce vulnerability to drought.
- Promotes peace and stability: By addressing resource scarcity and providing economic opportunities, the initiative aims to reduce conflicts and migration pressures.
- Demonstrates international cooperation: The Great Green Wall brings together African nations and international partners in a shared commitment to environmental restoration.
Conclusion: A Vision Worth Pursuing
The Great Green Wall Initiative represents one of humanity’s most ambitious attempts to reverse environmental degradation and build resilience in the face of climate change. While progress has been slower and more challenging than initially envisioned, the fundamental vision remains compelling and necessary.
The GGWI remains a powerful and clear vision that embodies the aspirations for a prosperous, resilient, and sustainable Sahel. Its achievement will enhance not only the social and economic well-being of the Sahelian people but also generate tangible environmental and resilience benefits for the planet and people.
The initiative’s challenges—insufficient funding disbursement, coordination problems, political instability, and technical difficulties—are significant but not insurmountable. Recent efforts through the Great Green Wall Accelerator to improve monitoring, coordination, and accountability offer hope for more effective implementation going forward.
Success will require sustained commitment from both African governments and international partners, adequate and reliable funding that reaches the ground, strong community engagement and ownership, appropriate technology and species selection, and realistic timelines that acknowledge the long-term nature of ecological restoration.
The Great Green Wall’s ultimate legacy may not be a literal wall of trees stretching across Africa, but rather a mosaic of restored landscapes, empowered communities, and improved livelihoods that demonstrate humanity’s capacity to work with nature to address our most pressing environmental challenges. Whether the initiative can overcome its current obstacles to achieve this vision will have implications far beyond the Sahel, offering lessons for restoration efforts worldwide.
For more information about the initiative, visit the official Great Green Wall website or explore resources from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.