| Issue |
BCAS
Volume 39, 2025
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 2025002 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/bcas/2025002 | |
| Published online | 19 September 2025 | |
Perspective
Greening the Edge of the Sahara: China’s Approach to the African Great Green Wall
National Engineering Technology Research Centre for Desert-Oasis Ecological Construction, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
* To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(DU M.)
Abstract
The African Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) is an ambitious transcontinental program aimed at halting desertification, restoring degraded lands, and improving livelihoods across the Sahel region. Despite its transformative vision, the initiative has encountered technical, financial, and governance challenges. In recent years, China’s involvement—drawing from its extensive experience with the Three-North Shelterbelt Program and integrated desertification control—has introduced a new model of South-South cooperation. Through adaptive technologies, capacity building, and co-developed community-based strategies in Mauritania, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, Chinese partners have provided tangible contributions to Africa’s ecological restoration. This article documents these collaborative stories and argues that China’s ecological governance framework is shaping a new paradigm for global environmental development.
Key words: African Great Green Wall / desertification control / China-Africa cooperation / Three-North Shelterbelt / ecological restoration / sustainable livelihoods / global environmental governance
Cite this article as: LEI Jiaqiang, DU Mingyuan, ZHOU Na, WANG Yongdong and YOU Yuan. (2025) Greening the Edge of the Sahara: China’s Approach to the African Great Green Wall. Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39, 2025002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/bcas/2025002
LEI Jiaqiang, researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, focuses on desertification control and sustainable land use in arid regions. His key achievements include developing advanced afforestation models and engineering shelterbelt designs for the Tarim Desert Highway. He is a recipient of the National 973 Project Award and the Xinjiang Science and Technology Progress Special Award, recognized for his innovative contributions to combating desertification.
DU Mingyuan, researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests focus on desertification mechanisms, sand-dust transport processes and local climate changes. Key achievements include establishing numerical models for wind and sand control in desert areas and soil erosion assessment models. He received the Progress Award from the Japanese Association for Arid Land Studies for research on climate change-human activity relationships in China’s arid lands.
© 2025 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published by the journal Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This paper is licensed and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license 4.0 as given at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
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