Africa and China Expand Desert Restoration Efforts

Africa and China are pursuing major landscape restoration programs designed to combat desertification, strengthen ecosystems, and support communities affected by environmental degradation. Africa’s Great Green Wall, launched by the African Union in 2007, originally envisioned an 8,000-kilometer belt of trees across the Sahel. It has since evolved into a broader restoration strategy targeting 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, while seeking to improve agriculture, livelihoods, food security and climate resilience. China’s comparable effort began in 1978 with the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, covering about 4 million square kilometers across 13 provincial-level regions through 2050. Rather than forming a single forest, it combines shelterbelts, forests, grasslands and other ecological measures. Both initiatives use approaches such as agroforestry, assisted natural regeneration, water harvesting, dune stabilization and native planting. They rank among the world’s largest landscape restoration efforts despite differing political and geographic contexts.