{"id":83213,"date":"2016-11-21T12:01:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T12:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=83213"},"modified":"2016-11-20T12:23:45","modified_gmt":"2016-11-20T12:23:45","slug":"battle-of-the-desert-a-great-green-wall-for-africa-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/11\/battle-of-the-desert-a-great-green-wall-for-africa-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Desert: A \u2018Great Green Wall for Africa\u2019 (II)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tera,<\/a>

Tera, Bajirga, Niger – Women at work for preparing the field for the next rainy season by escaving mid-moon dams to save water. Credit: \u00a9FAO\/Giulio Napolitano<\/p><\/div>\n

20 Nov 2016 – <\/em>\u00a0– Desertification, land degradation, drought, climate change, food insecurity, poverty, loss of biodiversity, forced migration and conflicts, are some of the key challenges facing Africa\u2014a giant continent home to 1,2 billion people living in 54 countries.<\/p>\n

And they are huge challenges indeed, in particular affecting Africa\u2019s vulnerable drylands. Just think that the drylands of North Africa, Sahel and Horn of Africa extend over 1.6 billion hectares home to about 500 million people, i.e. slightly less than half of the entire population of the continent.<\/p>\n

Such rapidly deteriorating situation, which has been exacerbated by climate change and its growing impact, has mobilised more than 20 African countries around the Sahara (North, East and West), international organisations, research institutes, civil society and grassroots organisations, to build together what has been called: The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) or simply Africa\u2019s Great Green Wall (GGW).<\/p>\n

On this, Nora Berrahmouni, Forestry Officer (Drylands) at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)<\/a>, tells IPS in an interview that the GGW core area (focus area for intervention identified) is about 780 million hectares.<\/p>\n

What is this Wall all about? \u201cAfrica\u2019s Great Green Wall, the so-called \u201cGreat Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI)\u201d is a Pan African initiative, established and endorsed by the African Union in 2007 and it is Africa\u2019s flagship initiative to combat the effects of climate change, desertification, food insecurity and poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Drylands of North Africa, Sahel and Horn of Africa extend over 1.6 billion hectares home to about 500 million people”– FAO<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here, Berrahmouni clarifies that the so-called Great Green Wall initiative \u201cis not a line or a wall of trees across the desert. The \u201cWall\u201d is a metaphor to express solidarity between countries and partners, a mosaic of sustainable land management and restoration interventions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of its name, the plan aims at promoting:<\/p>\n