[LUM#21] Anatomy of a Fall
Has the Great Green Wall of Africa project, launched in 2008, already failed? Many people believe so, given the apparent lack of progress. Political instability in many of the countries involved and the failure to secure promised funding are now hindering soil rehabilitation through the planting of forests that may never have existed outside of on paper.
Some might say the idea fizzled out, but he prefers to caution: “Abandoning a project that has generated such a media frenzy would be a disappointment and an extraordinary admission of weakness.” Robin Duponnois, a research director atthe IRD, also served as the project lead for the Great Green Wall (GMV) initiative in Dakar. He states bluntly that the GMV’s objectives “are very far from being achieved and will not be achieved by 2050 either. However, the analysis on which the project is based is sound. We’re not introducing anything new, we’re not destroying anything, and we’re listening to local communities; the only risk is that there will be no effects.”
In 2008, 11 countries participated in the launch of the initiative: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. The goal: to plant trees along a 15-km-wide strip of land, stretching along a 7,000-km belt from Dakar to Djibouti, to prevent the desertification of land degraded by human activities (see: Research sol majeur, November 10, 2021, LUM Magazine 15). “Hence the somewhat misleading term ‘wall against the desert,’ but the Sahara isn’t advancing—it’s just reclaiming land,” the researcher subtly clarifies .
Under the trees
The idea is not new. The 1970s had already seen the launch of the “Green Dam” in southern Algeria (“Algeria Revives Its Green Dam Megaproject,” November 8, 2023, Jeune Afrique), the “Great Wall” in China (see box), and the “green belts” of Ouagadougou and Cairo. Almost all of them failed, but a valuable lesson emerged from these early setbacks: “All these projects were designed using exotic tree species, most often in monospecific plantations. Ultimately, these forests either failed to regenerate or were ravaged by pathogens,” notes the forest biology specialist.
The stakeholders involved in the Great Green Wall project have therefore decided to plant only native tree species. Two species are prioritized: the Senegal acacia, which produces gum arabic—a prized ingredient in pharmaceuticals—and the balanites, whose bark and thorns also have commercial value. “The Green Great Wall is primarily presented as an environmental restoration project,” notes Robin Duponnois. “But beneath the trees lie social and economic challenges, such as reconciling crop farming and livestock raising—which have always been at odds in these regions—as well as entrepreneurship, the promotion of local heritage, and so on.” ” (The Great Green Wall: Capitalizing on Research and Promoting Local Knowledge, A. Dia, R. Duponnois, 2012, IRD Editions).
A locomotive without a car
In Senegal, for example, multipurpose gardens have been co-developed in many villages. “The women were trained so they could sell their produce and stop traveling 30 kilometers every week to get to the market.” The gardens found their audience before they, too, were affected by the GMV project’s loss of momentum. “In the village of Tessekere, the funding needed to repair a water pipe never arrived, so the garden was gradually abandoned. There’s no continuity in project development, even though we have the technology and the processes, ” he notes with a hint of bitterness.
Robin Duponnois immediately tempers this sentiment: “In northern Senegal, the acacia plantations are thriving. There are still nurseries, and gum arabic production is on the rise. Senegal remains the driving force behind the project. ” (See: “The Great Green Wall Slowly Makes Its Way Through Senegal,” April 15, 2016, Le Monde). A driving force, certainly, but one without any cars, since the GMV appears to be at a standstill in most other countries, and the “accelerator” for the Great Green Wall—launched with great fanfare in 2021—has yet to materialize on the ground.
Trees of Peace
How can we explain that Senegal, whose GDP is roughly equivalent to that of its other partners, is one of the few countries still pursuing this effort? “Because, for the time being, it enjoys a political stability that many others lack,” the scientist replies . “Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Eritrea… are in unstable situations; the Great Green Wall is no longer a priority for these countries.” And while international partners have pledged quite colossal sums, you don’t put money into a country at war. ” It remains to be seen whether the Green Wall will recover (see “Accelerating the Mobilization of African and International Scientific Expertise to Boost Interdisciplinary Research for the Success of the Sahelian Great Green Wall by 2030,” 10/2022 , Land).
Green Dragon vs. Yellow Dragon
It is the world’s largest man-made forest, covering more than 500,000 square kilometers (2009) of poplars, pines, and willows planted in China since the late 1970s to combat the Yellow Dragon. These storms originating in the Gobi Desert, unimpeded by any obstacles, have for years carried hundreds of thousands of metric tons of sand all the way to Beijing, located 350 km further south. “ “The idea was to reforest the area to stabilize the dunes and prevent these sandstorms, ” explains Robin Duponnois. “They also tested cyanobacteria to create crusts on the ground, set up large nurseries using highly sophisticated in vitro cultivation techniques, and built an entire system of canals to deliver water via drip irrigation…”
Fifty years later, and despite the human and social cost of the numerous land expropriations and population displacements it has entailed, China’s Great Green Wall is considered a success. Vegetable-growing areas have been established, monospecific forests have given way to a diversification of tree species, and ecotourism has flourished. “There’s even a chairlift in the middle of the dunes, ” the researcher notes with a smile. But China isn’t stopping there. In 2018, it mobilized 60,000 soldiers (Le Figaro, February 8, 2018) to meet its goals by 2050: to plant 35 million hectares of forest across a 550-kilometer-wide and 4,500-kilometer-long area. That’s not enough to turn its stone counterpart—which stretches 20,000 kilometers—green.
Check out theUM podcasts,UM available on your favorite platform (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc.).