Africa’s Great Green Wall project designed to plant trees to stop the advancement of the Sahara Desert, now presents the tremendous potential to curb climate-induced migration, unemployment, and growing insecurity from the Boko Haram terrorist group in particular among the youths and vulnerable communities, experts have said.

The Pan-African project that began five years ago has now evolved to a practical slate of activities that is improving the livelihood of the poor, building resilience in herders and farmers’ communities as climate change continue to threaten.

"The program has moved from just forest to tackle land degradation to other sustainable development challenges like land and water management, climate change, insecurity, job creation particularly for youths with many more countries embracing the initiative,” says Elvis Paul Tangem, African Union Commissioner in charge of the project.

"The initiative now combines sustainable land and water management programs, agroforestry and tree planting, agriculture development and the fight against climate change,” Tangem said in an interview at the African Forest Forum September 30, 2016, in Lome-Togo.

“Though sustainable development activities are counted amongst the innovations fronting the successes of the program, the continental political engagement and vision in agreeing for a harmonized approach to the execution of the different country and regional actions is cardinal,” he explained.
Forest experts say the initiative is the largest environmental and development program undertaken currently in the continent, with more countries and regions embracing it after seeing the impacts and results achieved.

"Many more countries are embracing the initiative now than when it started because of the development successes registered,” says Dr. Tieguhong Julius Chupezi, forest researcher and consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African Forest Forum.

"The initiative has provided the platform and framework were countries, development partners, and practitioners, researchers and all stakeholders concerned with land degradation, desertification and drought can come together and work with a shared vision,” Tieguhong said.

"The Great Green Wall initiative is increasingly seen as having the potential to tackle migration and insecurity issues that have continued to swell in many countries in the continent,” he said.

Over 21 countries are now involved in several projects and activities in support of the initiative from which runs from the circum-Sahara area to the Horn of Africa, according to African Union officials. These include Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, and Somalia, Togo, and Ghana.
 
However, Senegal, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, Ethiopia, and Nigeria are blazing the trail, epitomizing great examples with the development of market gardens that grow food and fruit trees for animals in the dry season, providing job opportunities for youths and thus curbing climate induce migration, said Tangem.
Senegal has so far planted over 12 million trees stretching 150 kilometers and covering 40,000 hectares of land.

Tangem says the Senegalese government intends to extend tree planting to about 545 kilometers covering 800,000 acres in the next few years.
In Burkina Faso and Senegal, reintroducing animal feed and fruit trees for herders, vegetable market gardening, and eco-tourism is providing job opportunities for many young people and thus helping hitherto migratory population to stay in their communities.

(Insert MAP of Africa’s Great Green Wall project stretching from Mauritania to the West to Djibouti to the East. Its available on the net)
Improved farming and agricultural activities undertaken within the framework of the Great Green Wall project has resulted in job opportunities, empowerment of rural farmers and improvement of the livelihood of local communities in eleven states in the Northeast and Northwest of Nigeria. These states include Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Katsina, Adamawa and Zamfara.

The African Union also argues that the project is helping in the fight against rising insecurity with at least 5000 youths who might have probably joined the Boko Haram terrorist group, now employed as firefighting brigades and part of the Great Green Wall forest guards, eco-tourism agents and women growing and selling vegetables.

Statistics from Global Mechanism, an International NGO shows that:
Ethiopia has 15 million hectares of degraded land restored and important land tenure security improved;
Senegal has planted 11.4 million trees and 25.000 hectares of degraded land restored;
Nigeria has seen 5 million ha of degraded land restored with over 20.000 jobs created;
Sudan has restored 2.000 ha of land restored.

Climate resistant trees and of multiple economic values are the ones planted in many of these countries.

"The trees are mostly the acacia species that survive harsh climatic conditions and bring economic value since they produce gum Arabic, a product that used in food additives and products including pharmaceuticals and soft drinks, for which demand is currently outstripping supply. The trees also produce fruits, for which a new market has emerged and gained economic activity for women,” Tangem said.

Land degradation, desertification, droughts and climate change impact many many communities across the continent, experts say. Forest, these experts argue is central to the solution.

"The Great Green Wall is now becoming a real Pan African flagship program,” says Godwin Kowero Executive Secretary of the African Forest Forum.
The project intends to restore 50 million hectares of land, provide food security for over 20 million people, create thousands of jobs, and sequesters 250 million tons of carbon, according to African Union officials.

The African Union says financial support for the project is growing with most of the funding coming from national budgets.  However development partners like the World Bank, EU, GEF fund, FAO, UNCCD, UNEP, GIZ, and other bilateral and multilateral Partners too are financing the project.

  For the Partners, FAO and EU have been the most consistent, Global Mechanism of UNCCD, GEF, World Bank being the highest funders. Currently the World Bank is investing USD 1.1 billion within the framework of the Sahel and West Africa Programme (SAWAP/ BRICKS) in 12 Member states, African Union officials said.

The pollutants include manmade chemicals used in fridges and air conditioners, and have an impact on depletion of the Ozone Layer.

Christian Aid, among other nongovernmental organisations have called on delegates at the ongoing 28th Meeting of Parties (MOP-28) to the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer to ambitiously set up a date when the world should stop using hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

HFCs are manmade chemical gases used mainly in refrigerators, air conditioners across the world, created to replace CFCs in 1990. However, science has found out that these gases are thousands times more lethal to the climate than Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) as a greenhouse gas and their use is increasing at 10-15% a year.

Greenhouse gases are important compounds that are able to trap heat in the atmosphere, hence, giving the earth warmth that sustains life. But overproduction of these gases has led to over warming of the earth surface, leading to serious changes in climatic conditions, a condition that is already having devastating impacts on livelihoods.

Gaby Drinkwater, a Senior Policy Officer for Christian Aid told delegates at the talks in Kigali, Rwanda that it is in everyone’s interests to phase out HFCs as soon as possible.

 “HFCs were created to replace HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons), which in turn replaced CFCs, after it was discovered that the gases were putting a hole in the ozone layer.  “But we didn’t realise that in HFCs we had created another thing that is even more devastating than Carbon dioxide,” said Drinkwater.

However, said Drinkwater,the good news is “we’ve already created their benign replacements, which are also more energy efficient. We now need to start using them, in conjunction with controlling the destruction of existing HFCs in a safe way,” she said.

With the growing population and the changing climatic conditions, people in developing countries seek more air conditioners and refrigerators, which has led to heavy expansion of HFCs, and could deal a significant blow to the ambition of the Paris Agreement.

The ongoing negotiations in Kigali are focusing on agreeing an ambitious and equitable HFC amendment proposal, including the date when the HFCs must be phased-out. Most of the developed countries are pushing for a date closer to 2031 while a majority of the developing countries want a much more ambitious timeline in the early 2020s.  

Good news is that richer countries have already provided funds to help developing countries make the transition and leap-frog to the safer alternatives, with philanthropists adding another $53m to the pot to aid this process just a month ago.

Ms Drinkwater said countries had nothing to fear from a rapid phasedown: “By leapfrogging polluting HFCs, developing countries can cut their energy use, reduce their climate impact, ensure they deliver on their Paris Agreement pledges and benefit from financial support towards equipment upgrades.”

“The combination of removing HFCs and the energy efficiency savings of new technology could see global temperatures reduced by a full degree centigrade by the end of the century.”
She said.

Tina Birmpili, the Executive Secretary, Ozone Secretariat, stated that projected increases in demand for cooling mean that, by mid-century, more energy will be used on cooling than on heating. She underlined how this trend makes reaching an agreement on an HFC phasedown, combined with efforts to improve energy efficiency, as crucial to mitigating climate change.

Some 244 farmers from Bangema local forest community in the Southwest region of Cameroon have taken court action against SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon PLC (SGSOC), a palm oil developer in Cameroon, reports Greenpeace Africa. The farmers say their communities have been affected by the large-scale palm oil plantation projects developed by the international agro-industry, calling on the Court of First Instance in Bangem, Southwest Cameroon, to render justice. 

Hearing on the matter has been set for 9 November, reports Greenpeace Africa.

Greenpeace Africa is among the many civil society organizations fighting against land rights and forest conservation abuse in local communities in Cameroon and other parts in Africa . They have in this light championed campaigns to stop SGSOC from developing palm trees in the ecologically sensitive region of the Southwest region of Cameroon.

In a press release of 4th October, 2016,Green Peace says two collective complaints involving 244 farmers were filed against SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC) on 27 September for trespass to land. 231 of these farmers from the village of Nguti, are demanding that SGSOC  respect a 5km buffer zone around their farmlands. However, the concession area demarcated by SGSOC encroaches on many farms in the forest areas around Nguti, showing no respect for the buffer zone, says Greenpeace.

“How are we going to live if SGSOC takes our farms? How are we going to eat? I have no other means. I don’t want money, because who knows for how many years it will last? It won’t help my children and grandchildren, but my farm will, as I have crops every year,” said Susan Tah Agbo, who takes care of 24 people thanks to her 20 hectares (49 acres) of farmland.

In Babensi II, 13 farmers also went to court as their lands have been seized by SGSOC, without any consultation or prior agreement, writes Greenpeace Africa. “One day, I came to my farm, and I found that they had bulldozed everything. I knew I was going to develop this place to earn my living and when I die, my children will remain there, but today, I have no place. We are all crying here, and we don’t know how we can be rescued”, said Adolf Ngbe Ebong, a 62-year-old retired policeman.

SGSOC, the Cameroonian company which holds a concession of approximately 20,000 hectares for palm oil plantation development, was owned by the US-based company Herakles Farms until 2015. Since 2009, when the company settled in Cameroon, Greenpeace Africa and national and international NGOs have released numerous documents based on investigations into the many misdeeds of SGSOC.

“SGSOC activities are tainted with illegalities. Not only does their establishment convention with the Cameroonian government violate the law, but they also cleared the forest without a permit, intimidated several traditional chiefs and used bribery and promises which are yet to be realized to obtain local authorities’ favors”, said Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue, Greenpeace Africa forest campaigner.

The provisional land lease granted via a presidential decree in November 2013 to SGSOC expires this November. A coalition of several NGOs, of which Greenpeace is a part, today launched a petition in Cameroon and internationally, to ask the Cameroonian government not to extend or to renew it.

“SGSOC violated the law many times and didn’t fulfill the numerous promises they made to the communities, such as the building of roads and schools, so one can’t think how they could improve. Cameroon needs development, but always while protecting local communities and the significant biodiversity that surrounds them. SGSOC is a destructive project, located in between four protected areas, so it must end,” added Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue.

The project site is located in the Guinean forest of West Africa Biodiversity Hotspot, which shelters 1,800 endemic species of vascular plants and an extraordinary diversity of the world’s top species priorities for primate conservation.

Les pays côtiers africains sont confrontés aux différents fléaux maritimes qui contribuent au ralentissement de leur développement économique. Ces fléaux sont la piraterie maritime, la pêche INN, la migration clandestine, la dégradation de l’environnement marin et côtier et les trafics illicites en tous genres. Que doit-on faire pour réussir à éradiquer efficacement ces fléaux des eaux africaines et donner plus d’opportunité et de possibilité aux économies émergentes  des Etats Africains ?

C’est bien en ces réponses que réside tout le mérite du sommet extraordinaire de l’Union Africaine sur la sécurité et la sûreté Maritimes qui aura lieu du 10 au 15 Octobre 2016 à Lomé au Togo.

 J-15, tous les acteurs de la vie socio politique se mobilisent et mutualisent leur force pour la bonne réussite de ce sommet d’où sortira une charte pour protéger les eaux africaines.

Pour donner plus de chance de réussite à ce sommet, le Haut Conseil pour la Mer et la Haute Autorité de l’Audio Visuel et de la Communication ont jugé utile d’informer et de former  les hommes du quatrièmes pouvoir sur les enjeux et défis de cette problématique ce jour à Lomé.

« Contribution des professionnels de la communication dans la lutte pour la sécurité et la sûreté maritimes et le développement en Afrique » c’est le thème autour duquel les médias venus de toutes les régions du Togo ont eu à se plancher ce matin à Lomé .

Il s’agit entre autres d’amener les journalistes togolais des medias publics et privés à comprendre la nécessité de leur implication dans la lutte contre l’insécurité maritime ; maitriser les terminologies appropriées sur la thématique de la sécurité et de sûreté maritimes.