The Great Green Wall aims to increase tree cover on 100 million hectares by 2030 and countries have made other pledges to restore millions of hectares of drylands through other commitments. But these will never be met with conventional tree planting or integrated landscape projects alone. This brief presents how communication can be used to catalyze regreening in the African drylands. 

Farmer managed natural regeneration, simple water harvesting techniques and area exclosures have led to the regreening of millions of hectares across the Sahel and Greater Horn of Africa. This brief presents these three principle practices.

Niger has a long history of smallholders investing in sustainable land management, supported by the government, NGOs, and multilateral donors. Notable successes both large and small are well documented. This brief highlights ways to build upon these achievements, and make significant impacts to increasing agricultural production, reducing poverty, and helping rural communities adapt to climate change. 

The Great Green Wall is one of the largest landscape restoration initiatives in the world. But it has so far not been reaching its targets. Experiences shared in the Tropenbos International - ETFRN publication ‘Restoring African Drylands’ however, showed how to increase rates of implementation - speedily, smartly and sustainably. This has been summarized into this two page brief, including an example of what each of the countries could do… 

ETFRN News 60 focuses on dryland restoration in the Sahel and the Greater Horn of Africa. It collates 36 articles from more than 100 contributors, including examples of remarkable increases in tree cover and improved agricultural yields over large areas of the Western Sahel, landscape restoration in Ethiopia, and examples from many other countries.