More than 270,000 hectares of degraded land across nine African countries are set to undergo restoration under a new US$78 million programme announced by the United Nations.
The initiative, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is expected to improve livelihoods for about five million people across the Sahel and neighbouring regions, where environmental degradation continues to threaten agriculture, water supplies and rural economies.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which announced the programme on Tuesday, said the participating countries are Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.
UNEP will implement eight of the programme’s 10 projects and coordinate activities across the region, while the West African Development Bank will oversee the remaining two.
The programme will focus on restoring degraded landscapes and strengthening ecosystems that sustain farming, pastoralism and other rural livelihoods.
The urgency of the initiative is underscored by the environmental pressures facing the Sahel. UNEP said the region is warming at about 1.5 times the global average, while roughly two-thirds of its productive land has already been degraded.
The new funding is expected to be supplemented by resources from the Green Climate Fund, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and bilateral partners.
According to UNEP, those additional contributions will push the overall value of the programme above US$500 million.
Susan Gardner, Director of UNEP’s Ecosystems Division, said the funding would allow participating countries to move beyond planning and begin implementing restoration projects at scale. She added that the programme would also provide a common framework for sharing knowledge and tracking results.
The initiative is expected to support the countries’ commitment to restoring 30 per cent of degraded land by 2030.
Individual projects will target specific environmental challenges. Mali is expected to restore 150,000 hectares, while Niger will rehabilitate 55,000 hectares of farmland, woodland and grazing areas.
In Nigeria, women-led enterprises will be incorporated into the programme, while projects elsewhere will include drought-resilient land management, forest restoration and wetland rehabilitation.
The Great Green Wall was launched in 2007 under the African Union as a regional response to desertification, land degradation and drought across the Sahel.
The latest programme seeks to expand that effort by combining environmental restoration with economic opportunities for communities facing the effects of climate change and deteriorating ecosystems.
