Restoring techniques
- Direct sowing
- Assisted Natural Regeneration
Goals
- Land Degradation Neutrality (SDG 15)
- Community based reforestation projects with socio-econonomic impacts (SDG 2, 4, 5)
- Increasing biodiversity by sowing trees, grasses and herbs. We aim per hectare 300 trees (SDG 13, 15)
Necessity
The African Union's Great Green Wall project was launched in 2007 and runs from Mauritania to Djibouti, 8,000 km long and 100 km wide.
By reforesting, desertification due to climate disturbance is stopped, which over time allows agriculture to be practiced again in this forest (agroforests) and contributes to food security of these countries.
The goals of the Great Green Wall are:
- Restore 100 million hectares of degraded land
- Sequester 250 million tons of Carbon
- Create 10 million green jobs in rural area’s
Five pilar investment
Pillar 1– Investment in small and medium-sized farms and strengthening of value chains, local markets, organization of exports
Pillar 2– Land restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems
Pillar 3 – Climate resilient infrastructures and access to renewable energy
Pillar 4– Favourable economic and institutional framework for effective governance, sustainability, stability and security
Pillar 5 – Capacity building
Eco progressions by entrepreneurs Without frontiers (EwF) in Senegal
A feasibility study was conducted in April 2018, followed by the launch of a pilot project of 250ha in Mbar Toubab and Ranérou in 2019-2020. From 2021 till 2022, 2000ha were planted in Mbar Toubab and Téssékéré and from 2023, we aim to plant annually 2000ha of new forests in the Great Green Wall band in partnership with ASERGMV (Great Green wall Agency of Senegal) and Eaux et Forêts. All new forests planted by EwF are fenced and guarded to protect it against the immense pressure of live stocks.
The project Widou 25.000 - Accountable Investment and Impact Program (AIIP) , aims at supporting the resilience of communities - in terms of food security and social strength - by ensuring sustainable access to fertile land. The intervention model is based on “the creation and management of a common good”.
Key drivers:
• Groundwork : the creation of micro-basins and to reinforce infiltration
• Biodiversity (flora): a combination of grasses, herbs and local tree species
• Community engagement: reinforcement and the appropriation and protection of the forest
• Valorisation: sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products (Arabic Gum, Balanites, ...) and grass land.
Through a participatory process with the local villages, who work with us to propose the desired tree species, the new sites will be seeded (after the ground work) by the women's communities. In addition to tree seeds, grasses and herbs are sown to provide short-term benefits. Grasses are mostly for fodder to bridge the dry period and are sold to livestock farmers, but can also be enriched into baskets, mats, brushes that can be sold at local markets. It is a way to provide steady streams of income.
In the long run, the fruits of the trees can be sold, such as gum arabic (Acacia senegal) for the food industry or balanites oil (Balanites tree) for cosmetics purposes. Both are products that can be sold on the international market and have a fixed commodity value.
The project is in a first implementation phase, with regeneration having started on 4,000 ha of Sahel semi-arid area (200-400mm). In this first phase, the intervention model and program - successfully developed and applied by Entrepreneurs Without Frontiers in Burkina Faso on 10,000 ha - has been adapted to the specific Senegalese context and regional peculiarities.