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A Great Green Wall of Resilience











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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Africa Open D.E.A.L: Open Data for Environment, Agriculture and Land & Africa's Great Green Wall
    Towards a continental leadership on environmental data (July 2021)
    2021
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    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC) led a land-use data collection and analysis between 2018 and 2020. With the support of the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall (GGW), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and 30 African countries, FAO and the AUC coordinated the data collection operation on a scale unseen before in agriculture, environment, and land use. The Africa Open D.E.A.L (Data for Environment, Agriculture and Land) initiative has made Africa the first continent to complete the collection of accurate, comprehensive, and harmonized digital land use and land-use change data. It provides a detailed snapshot of the continent, captured through more than 300 000 sampling points collected by 350 operators in two years. Analysts were trained to use Collect Earth, an open-source tool developed by FAO with the support of Google. Over 100 parameters were collected on each sampling point of about 0.5 hectares, including tree counts, farmlands, wildfires, and existing infrastructure. Data were analyzed to highlight land-use change over the past 20 years and the potential for restoration at the national level for every country. The very high-resolution imagery allowed analysts to assess places with difficult field accessibility. The data survey has revealed 7 billion previously unrecorded trees outside forests for the first time, among other findings of the first consistent land use representation of the continent, and discloses more forests and more arable lands than were previously detected. This fact-based information finds that the area of the continental Great Green Wall initiative has 393 million hectares of land with restoration potential and opportunities and that 350 million hectares of cropland are cultivated in Africa, more than double that of the European Union. The survey exposes huge opportunities for the management of the environment, agriculture, and land use in Africa, and increases countries’ ability to track changes and conduct analyses for informed sustainable production, restoration interventions, and climate action. Africa Open DEAL data and information are embedded within FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative geospatial platform and are accessible to anyone through EarthMap.org.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Africa Open Data for Environment, Agriculture and Land (DEAL) and Africa’s Great Green Wall
    Technical land use report
    2022
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    The Africa Open DEAL and Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative is a first-of-its-kind collection of accurate, comprehensive, and harmonized African land use and land use change data. It provides a detailed panorama of land use and change across the entire continent and countries, captured through more than 300 000 sampling points taken from very high-resolution satellite imagery using FAO’s Collect Earth tools. This land report is a collective effort of more than 350 African experts. Using maps and statistics generated from the assessments, the report elaborates future prospects of land use change in a comprehensive and accessible format. Key findings indicate that land restoration for livelihoods, biodiversity and carbon capture is achievable in Africa, in view of multiple large-scale initiatives and countries’ commitments, including restoration targets of 100 million ha for GGW-Sahel, 100 million ha for the AFR100, both by 2030, and another 200 million ha for the Pan-African Agenda on Ecosystem Restoration. Successfully restored lands in the Sahel under GGW would have a profound positive effect on the climate of the whole region, potentially doubling the amount of rainfall or decreasing summer temperatures throughout much of Nnorthern Africa and as far as the Mediterranean. FAO and the AUC remain committed to working with member countries, African institutions and partners to leverage digital technologies to fast-track data on land use change and restoration efforts on the continent. Africa Open DEAL data are embedded within FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative geo-spatial platform and are accessible to anyone through EarthMap.org.
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    Book (series)
    Evaluation of the project "Action Against Desertification in support of the implementation of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative, the United Nations to Combat Desertification and Drought action plans in Fiji and Haiti, and South–South cooperation in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States"
    Project code: GCP/INT/157/EC
    2022
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    The “Action Against Desertification in support of the implementation of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative, the UNCCD action plans in Fiji and Haiti, and South–South Cooperation in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States” project (AAD) worked with eight countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia to tackle the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification (2014 to 2020). It was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partners, with majority of funding from the European Union and co-funding from diverse partners. The project contributed to improving the conditions and productivity of agrosilvipastoral landscapes and the capacity to plan land restoration and manage forest and land resources. Livelihood improvements and concrete positive incidence on household income, food security, crops and milk production, and community interactions. It increased awareness and support policy makers developing intervention strategies that address D/LDD. The large-scale, heavy machinery-based technical intervention logic was found appropriate to address desertification/land degradation and drought (D/LDD) in specific conditions and countries. The geospatial study estimated the contribution of Action Against Desertification (AAD) to carbon sequestration to be between 384 000 and 1.27 million tonnes of carbon sequestered. The evaluation recommendations include further investments in training; building awareness and addressing climate change and land degradation; increasing political and policy coherence; guaranteeing sustainability and buy-in from beneficiaries; building in sustainable financing mechanisms at all stakeholder levels; increasing opportunities; and developing non-timber forest product (NTFP) value chains to create and develop viable markets for the products.

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