[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 lack of progress observed. Political instability in many of the countries involved and the delay in the promised funding are now hindering soil rehabilitation through forest planting—a project that may have existed only on paper.
Some might say the idea fizzled out, but he prefers to warn: “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 atIRD, also served as the project lead for the Great Green Wall (GMV) initiative in Dakar. He states bluntly that the GMV’s objectives “are far from being achieved and will not be achieved by 2050 either. Nevertheless, the analysis on which the project is based is sound. We’re not introducing anything new, we’re not destroying anything, we’re listening to local communities—the only risk is that there will be no results.”
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-kilometer-wide strip of land, stretching across a 7,000-kilometer 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 surface area , ” 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, 11/8/2023, 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. In the end, these forests either failed to regenerate or were ravaged by pathogens,” notes the forest biology specialist.
The stakeholders involved in the Great Green Wall have therefore decided to plant only native tree species. Two species are prioritized: the Senegal acacia, which produces gum arabic—a highly valued ingredient in pharmaceuticals—and the balanites, whose bark and thorns also have commercial value. “The GMV is primarily presented as an environmental restoration project,” notes Robin Duponnois. “But beneath the trees lie social and economic challenges, such as the integration of crop farming and livestock raising—which have always been at odds in these regions—entrepreneurship, the promotion of local terroir, 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, multi-purpose 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 decline. “In the village of Tessekere, the funding needed to repair a water pipe never arrived, so the garden was gradually abandoned. There is no continuity in project development, even though we have the technology and the processes, ” he notes with a touch of bitterness.
A sentiment that Robin Duponnois immediately qualifies: “In northern Senegal, the acacia plantations are doing very well. 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 a train, since the GMV appears to be stalled in most other countries and the “Great Green Wall Accelerator”—launched with great fanfare in 2021—has yet to materialize on the ground.
Trees of Peace
How can we explain that Senegal, with a GDP 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 colossal sums, you don’t put money into a country at war. ” It remains to be seen whether the 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 obstacles, have for years carried hundreds of thousands of tons of sand as far as Beijing, located 350 km further south. “ “The idea was to reforest to stabilize the dunes and prevent these sandstorms, ” explains Robin Duponnois. “They also tested cyanobacteria to create crusts on the ground, and they established large nurseries using highly sophisticated in vitro cultivation techniques. They built an entire system of canals to deliver water via drip irrigation…”
Fifty years later, and despite the human and social costs of the numerous land expropriations and population displacements it has entailed, China’s Great Green Wall is being hailed as 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, 2/8/2018) to achieve its goals by 2050: planting 35 million hectares of forest across a 550-kilometer-wide and 4,500-kilometer-long stretch. Not quite enough to turn its stone counterpart green—which stretches 20,000 kilometers long.
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