Through this site you can find out more about the Future Proofing Senegal’s Great Green Wall Project
In Senegal, largescale reforestation activities are ongoing, and, compared to some other regions in the Sahel, relatively good progress has been made towards meeting GGW targets for 2030. To date, over 18 million trees have been planted, with a total reforested area of 72452 ha. Yet, this represents less than 10% of the targeted restoration area, and replanting programmes have been hampered by high tree mortality rates and a lack of rigorous monitoring data. Many questions remain regarding what tree species are most resilient to future climate conditions. Moreover, robust protocols are required to monitor both the growth and survival of planted trees and the level of ecosystem services that are delivered to local communities.
The GGW is one of the world’s largest and most ambitious ongoing land restoration initiatives. This project will engage plant physiologists, ecologists, social scientists and policymakers to help realize the goal of improving millions of lives across the Sahel. With a focus on Senegal’s efforts to reach it’s targeted 817 500 ha of restored land, the overarching aim of this project is to inform and enhance the GGW initiative, build landscape restoration capacity in the Sahel, and strengthen research collaboration between Ireland and West Africa.
The specific objectives of the project are fourfold:
WP1 inform GGW species selection under climate change
WP2 build capacity for monitoring reforestation & ecosystem services
WP3 enhance the GGW science-policy interface
PI Ecology
Co-PI Forestry/Agroforestry
Post doc Maynooth University Forestry/Plant ecophysiology
Senegal-based post-doc Plant ecophysiology
Research assistant (ISRA) Forestry
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We regularly publish articles on our blog about the progress of our work on “future proofing Senegal’s Great Green Wall”project. We invite you to consult them by clicking on the button below
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WP1: In this work package, we will utilize state- of-the-art plant growth chambers in Ireland to assess the growth of key Senegalese GGW tree species under current and future climate conditions.
Objective
To assess growth responses of GGW tree species to predicted temperature, rainfall and atmospheric CO2 conditions for the Sahel in 2050
WP2: In this work package, experienced forest ecologists and agroecologists in Ireland and Senegal will work together to develop a GGW tree survival and growth monitoring protocol.
Objective
To Build capacity in Senegal for monitoring reforestation and assessing ecosystem service delivery to local communities
WP3: In this work package, we seek to build a better GGW science–policy interface so that basic science and participatory practice is translated to policy.
Objective
To build a better GGW science–policy interface so basic science and participatory practice is translated to policy and widespread implementation
