NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 7— A new regional investment programme, backed by US$78 million in Global Environment Facility funding, will restore 270,000 hectares of degraded land and improve livelihoods for five million people across nine Great Green Wall countries.

📻 Breaking It Down

The initiative, with total resources exceeding US$500 million including co-financing, seeks to accelerate land restoration across some of Africa’s most climate-vulnerable areas while strengthening the agricultural, pastoral and ecological systems on which millions of people depend.

The programme brings together Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal under a common regional framework designed to coordinate restoration efforts, improve monitoring and enable countries to share knowledge and successful approaches.

The Sahel is warming at about 1.5 times the global average, while roughly two-thirds of its productive land is degraded, increasing pressure on food systems, water resources and rural livelihoods.

📌 What You Need to Know

Environmental degradation, food insecurity and conflict have also contributed to the displacement of more than four million people across the region.

UNEP will implement eight of the programme’s 10 projects and coordinate regional delivery, while the West African Development Bank (BOAD) will implement the remaining two.

“This programme provides the finance to act on that work across nine countries, and a common framework so that they can plan, measure, and learn from the results together,” said Susan Gardner, Director of UNEP’s Ecosystems Division.

She said the initiative would contribute to the countries’ commitment to bring 30 per cent of degraded land under restoration by 2030.

The US$78 million GEF grant will be supplemented by financing from the Green Climate Fund, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and bilateral partners, taking total programme resources above US$500 million.

The largest restoration target will be in Mali, where 150,000 hectares will be regenerated across the Kayes, Nioro and Ségou regions. Niger will restore a further 55,000 hectares of farmland, woodland and grazing land.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya