Ecological Restoration – Community Restoration: The Great Green Wall

Conceived in 2007 as a massive tree-planting initiative to halt the expansion of the Sahara Desert, the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative has evolved into something far more dynamic. Today, it operates as a decentralized, community-driven movement across the African Sahel and is transforming an 8,000 km strip of land into a mosaic of productive landscapes and re-building local communities in empowering ways. 

1. Restoring Economic Autonomy 

The initiative prioritises planting native, multi-purpose species that also offer sustainable harvests and non-timber products, bringing local communities a direct economic income.  

• Sustainable Harvests:  in Ethiopia, for example, communities are restoring native plantations of Boswellia papyrifera (harvested for frankincense). Local residents, particularly women and young people, sustainably harvest and sell this high-value resin, generating a consistent income without the need for felling any trees. 
• Non-Timber Products:  the cultivation of resilient native species, such as, Moringa, Baobab and Shea, provide communities with localised commodities to process, consume and sell. This is shifting local dynamics from subsistence to micro-enterprise. 

2. Empowering Women’s Leadership and Co-operatives 

The GGW has become a vehicle for social equity by placing women at the centre of ecosystem governance. Partner organizations, such as Tree Aid, explicitly tie land restoration to governance training, helping women form mutual support networks, manage community seed banks, and operate localised savings and loan schemes.

3. Reviving Ancestral and Local Knowledge

Another empowering shift has been the move to embrace indigenous land-use techniques, such as, Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) and traditional water harvesting. FMNR, focuses on protecting and nurturing the “underground forest,” the living root systems of native trees that already exist in the soil. Traditional water harvesting, or ‘zaï planting pits’, focus on digging simple micro-catchments and adding organic manure. These trap scarce rainwater allowing crops to thrive in drought conditions without expensive external inputs. 

4. Creating Climate Resilience and Securing Futures

By restoring the land and creating localised green economies across the region, the project directly addresses the root drivers of forced environmental migration and localized conflict. It gives the Sahel’s youth population a reason to stay, as it offers tangible and long-term livelihoods right at home.  It also reduces the gruelling hours’ girls and women have to spend fetching water, as the improved vegetation cover enhances the soil’s water-retention capacity and is gradually replenishing local water tables.   

5. Supporting Cooperation, Peace and Hope

Brahma Kumaris have been supporting the GGW since 2022, with a local project called ‘Peace Drops.’  The Peace Drops initiative focuses on three core values: Cooperation, Peace and Hope and building a positive mind-set. It also aims to inspire inter-nation and interfaith harmony across Africa and to grow a wall of hope against abject poverty.  This initiative includes regular online meditation, reflection and prayer opportunities to send  the vibrations of good wishes and pure feelings to the Sahel environment and the millions living there.

Past webinars and new guided meditations are posted here.