Restoring land, nourishing lives: a holistic approach against desertification

Abstract

The FAO’s holistic approach against desertification represents a transformative vision for Africa’s resilience, reimagining degraded lands as thriving, productive ecosystems that sustain both people and planet. The programme mobilises local communities to restore degraded drylands through native tree planting, soil and water conservation, and sustainable land-use practices, while simultaneously strengthening food security, building rural entrepreneurship, and applying digital monitoring tools. FAO’s approach links large-scale restoration with nutrition, livelihoods, and local enterprise, ensuring that ecological gains translate into tangible human well-being. Rooted in African leadership, traditional knowledge, and scientific innovation, it combines community stewardship with advanced monitoring to restore soils, diversify diets, and strengthen agro-pastoral systems; demonstrating how restoring land can nourish lives and build lasting resilience across the Sahel and Horn of Africa.

Partners

Scaling partners

Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PA-GGW of the African Union); Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement; Network on Forest Enterprises in Africa (NEFEA); African Forest Forum (AFF); Google Earth Outreach,

Innovation partners

World Agroforestry Centre (CIFOR-ICRAF)

Demand partners

• Initiative Grande Muraille Verte pour le Sahara et le Sahel (IGMVSS)
• Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte de Djibouti
• Initiative Grande Muraille Verte de l' Erythrée
• Initiative Grande Muraille Verte pour le Sahara et le Sahel (IGMVSS)
• Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte du Mali
• Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte de Mauritanie
• Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte du Niger
• Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte du Nigéria
• Agence Sénégalaise de la Reforestation et de la Grande Muraille Verte du Sénégal
• Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte du Soudan
• Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte du Tchad

Financing

USD 55 million (2025-2030)

Challenge

Desertification and land degradation are major drivers of hunger and poverty, contributing to unemployment, forced migration, and conflict, while exacerbating the frequency and severity of extreme weather events linked to climate change. In many affected regions, communities rely on subsistence agriculture that combines limited crop production with livestock, making them highly vulnerable to environmental stressors. The growing scarcity of water and arable land is increasingly at the heart of tensions, particularly between farming and pastoralist groups, fueling local conflicts and undermining social cohesion.

These environmental and socio-economic pressures have severe consequences for nutrition, especially among children in vulnerable households. Malnutrition not only compromises their immediate health and survival but also impairs physical growth, cognitive development, learning capacity, and future productivity, with long-lasting repercussions for individuals, communities, and national development.

Solution

The programme provides an integrated model for large-scale, community-led land restoration that links ecological recovery with food security and economic resilience. It applies evidence-based sustainable land management (SLM) practices, such as native species reforestation, rainwater harvesting, and soil regeneration, supported by digital monitoring, remote sensing, and robust evaluation systems. By combining local ecological knowledge with modern data and planning tools, the initiative ensures that restoration activities are both scientifically sound and socially inclusive.

Implemented by FAO with the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall and national agencies, the programme operates across Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, The Gambia, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. It builds institutional capacity and fosters cross-sectoral partnerships, aligning restoration with national nutrition, agriculture, and climate priorities.

Through this architecture, land restoration becomes a driver of food system transformation, integrating nutrition-sensitive agriculture, sustainable livestock systems, and community-based value chains to deliver lasting livelihood, climate, and dietary benefits across Africa’s drylands.

Impact

Environmental Restoration and Ecosystem Recovery
(Results achieved by FAO Action Against Desertification (AAD) since 2015)

• 160 000 ha of land under restoration
• 100 000 households reached
• 15 million seedlings produced and planted
• 150 000 kg of forest seeds collected and sown in the field
• 110 native species prioritized and used for restoration
• Carbon sequestration: 0.38-1.27 million tons CO2eq‍

Enhanced food security

Results from Niger, Nigeria and Senegal between 2016 and 2020 showed enhanced household income after the interventions and compared to control groups. Perceived food insecurity fell from 45% to 15% in Senegal and from 69% to 58% in Niger (Food and Nutrition Bulletin, vol 44(25): 58-68, 2023).

Health and nutrition improvements via:

• Access to diverse, safe, and nutritious foods
• Integration of nutrient-rich native species (e.g., baobab, moringa, tamarind) into farming systems.
• Improved dietary diversity, micronutrient intake, and child nutrition outcomes.

Women’s empowerment

• Women represent 40–80% of the agricultural workforce in the Sahel and account for roughly half of direct beneficiaries in GGW intervention areas.
• Active leadership in village committees, seed collection, nursery management, and non-timber forest product marketing.

Livelihoods, markets and conflict reduction

• Restored land supports sustainable harvesting, fodder production, and small-scale processing.
• Productivity gains from climate-smart, nutrition-sensitive practices that increase yields and reduce input dependency.
• New market opportunities aligned with sustainability standards and consumer demand.
• Reduced conflict over scarce resources, strengthened community cohesion, and improved local resilience.

Scaling plan

Over the next five years, the initiative will expand from pilot demonstrations to broader implementation across diverse agro-ecological zones. Scaling will build on the strong technical and policy foundation already established in sustainable land management (SLM), while placing greater emphasis on the sustainable use of food resources for improved food security and nutrition.

• 2026 (3 countries): Embed nutrition metrics in restoration monitoring systems; integrate culturally relevant, nutrient-rich species into restoration sites; launch small-ruminant and camel-milk initiatives improving fodder access, veterinary services, and basic processing; establish baseline data on food insecurity and dietary diversity for women and young children; develop seed-supply plans for native, nutrient-rich foods.
• 2027-2028 (6 countries): Expand nutrition-sensitive restoration to new sites and countries; scale planting of nutrient-rich native species; strengthen dairy access and processing; develop value chains for nutrient-dense crops; deepen local planning and institutional capacity.
• 2028-2029 (8 countries): Evaluate outcomes on food availability, dietary diversity, and child nutrition; document best practices; promote cross-country learning and replication of effective models.
• 2030 (8 countries): Conduct final impact assessment on food security, dietary and nutrition outcomes, and cost-benefit performance; integrate results into national and regional policies; publish findings to inform evidence-based decision-making.

Enablers

Existing policy frameworks for restoration/adaptation; national input/extension systems; MEL platforms; CGIAR/NGO/private-sector partnerships; SUN platforms for nutrition.

Contact

Dr Lynnette Neufeld, Director Food and Nutrition Division, FAO, lynntte.neufeld@fao.org
Dr Patrizia Fracassi, Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer, Food and Nutrition Division, FAO, patrizia.fracassi@fao.org