To halt the advance of the Sahara, the 8,000 km Great Green Wall in the Sahel relies on reforestation to combat desertification, but by 2026 it remains far behind the goal of 100 million hectares.

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 21/06/2026 at 00:05

Updated on 21/06/2026 at 00:06

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Eleven African countries launched the Great Green Wall in 2007, an 8,000 km corridor to block the Sahara. Almost 20 years later, reforestation against desertification is hindered by violence and lack of money, and only a fraction of the 100 million hectare goal has been achieved.

The idea is one of the most ambitious the planet has ever seen. Plant a green belt 8,000 kilometers long across Africa, coast to coast, to halt the advance of the Sahara over inhabited lands. This is the heart of the Great Green Wall, launched in 2007 by the African Union and undertaken by eleven countries in the Sahel region, the semi-arid strip just below the world’s largest hot desert.

The problem is that, almost two decades later, the dream is still far from becoming reality. The Great Green Wall should have restored a significant portion of a 100 million hectare goal by 2030, but the 2026 reports show a very delayed project, hindered by wars, coups, and lack of resources. The reforestation against desertification is progressing, but at a much slower pace than necessary to win the race against the desert’s advance.

What is the Great Green Wall, and why it is not a wall of trees

The Great Green Wall of 8,000 km in the Sahel bets on reforestation against desertification to halt the Sahara, but remains far behind the goal. — **Great Green Wall**

Despite the name, the Great Green Wall is not a continuous wall of trees planted in a straight line. The original idea was this, but it evolved into something smarter: a mosaic of restored lands, about 8,000 kilometers long and up to 15 kilometers wide, weaving together forest restoration, water management, adapted agriculture, and soil protection along the Sahel.

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The giant goals for 2030

The planned numbers are impressive. By 2030, the Great Green Wall aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, capture 250 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, and create 10 million green jobs for those living in the Sahel. It would be quite a turnaround in one of the poorest and most unstable regions on the planet.

To fund all this, robust financial promises have been made. In 2021, international partners announced around 19 billion euros in commitments to accelerate the work, and estimates indicate that the total cost to complete the reforestation and recovery reaches hundreds of billions of dollars. The financial ambition matches the size of the challenge to halt the Sahara and reverse desertification on a continental scale.

The turnaround: why the project is so delayed

The 8,000 km Great Green Wall in the Sahel bets on reforestation against desertification to halt the Sahara, but remains far behind the target. — **Great Green Wall**

Here lies the side that few people talk about. Despite all the publicity, the Great Green Wall has delivered only a part of what was promised. The reports vary depending on the methodology, but indicate something between 18 and 30 million hectares recovered, well below the planned 100 million. The jobs created also fell far short: about 350,000, compared to the target of 10 million.

The explanation lies in the difficult ground of the Sahel. The region has become a stage for coups, armed groups, population displacement, and chronic insecurity, making it almost impossible to plant and care for trees in peace. Add to this the irregular arrival of promised money and uneven monitoring among countries, and it becomes clear why reforestation against desertification has not been able to keep up with the advance of the Sahara as expected. The wall exists, but it stumbles in reality.

Why this matters far beyond Africa

It may seem like a distant problem, but it is not. The desertification that the Great Green Wall tries to halt is linked to hunger, poverty, and the forced migration of millions of people who lose their lands and leave in search of survival. When the soil dies in the Sahel, the pressure spreads to cities and borders, in a domino effect that the whole world ends up feeling.

There is also the climate dimension. Recovering lands and conducting large-scale reforestation helps capture carbon and stabilize the climate of a region that influences rainfall and temperatures far beyond the African continent. Therefore, even delayed, the fight against the Sahara remains one of the greatest tests of environmental cooperation on the planet, with lessons that apply to any country facing degraded soil, including those far from Africa.

The Great Green Wall is, at the same time, one of the most beautiful ideas and one of the greatest environmental challenges of this century. Halting the Sahara with reforestation and land recovery would be a historic victory against desertification, but the setbacks in the Sahel show that good intentions alone do not hold back the desert.

And you, do you think the project will manage to turn the tide by 2030, or was the goal of 100 million hectares too ambitious from the start? Leave your opinion in the comments.

CITED SOURCES

O Antagonista — original article
Wikipedia — Great Green Wall (extension, countries, history)
Terra Brasil Notícias — megaproject that brings together ~20 countries (scale and funding)
African Development Bank — the Great Green Wall (goals, 19 billion euros)
TecnoGames Brasil — progress and percentage of the goal (recent progress)

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To halt the advance of the Sahara, the 8,000 km Great Green Wall in the Sahel relies on reforestation to combat desertification, but by 2026 it remains far behind the goal of 100 million hectares.

Eleven African countries launched the Great Green Wall in 2007, an 8,000 km corridor to block the Sahara. Almost 20 years later, reforestation against desertification is hindered by violence and lack of money, and only a fraction of the 100 million hectare goal has been achieved.

What is the Great Green Wall, and why it is not a wall of trees

The giant goals for 2030

The turnaround: why the project is so delayed

Why this matters far beyond Africa

CITED SOURCES

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To halt the advance of the Sahara, the 8,000 km Great Green Wall in the Sahel relies on reforestation to combat desertification, but by 2026 it remains far behind the goal of 100 million hectares.

Eleven African countries launched the Great Green Wall in 2007, an 8,000 km corridor to block the Sahara. Almost 20 years later, reforestation against desertification is hindered by violence and lack of money, and only a fraction of the 100 million hectare goal has been achieved.

What is the Great Green Wall, and why it is not a wall of trees

The giant goals for 2030

The turnaround: why the project is so delayed

Why this matters far beyond Africa

CITED SOURCES

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

He transformed an abandoned plastic water tank into an underground house in the “hobbit hole” style, using only repurposed pallet wood, without heavy machinery or expensive labor.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

Scientists have created a material six times lighter than air, 75 times lighter than styrofoam, and that becomes stronger the more it is compressed: aerographite seems impossible, but it can reinforce structures, batteries, and satellites.

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A city has planted 880,000 trees and 2.5 million smaller plants since 2016, reduced the temperature by up to 3°C in some areas, and won an international award for using vegetation to combat urban heat in Colombia.

More than half of the residents of this city live underground to escape the brutal heat of 50°C: in the world’s largest opal hub, houses, churches, and hotels are carved into the rock and maintain around 23°C year-round in the Australian desert.

Ötzi, the 5,300-year-old mummy found in the Alps, reveals a still active microbiome, and the Iceman’s yeast points to an energy-saving fermentation.