Great Green Wall

What Great Green Wall does

The Great Green Wall is an African-led multilateral environmental initiative, formally launched in 2007 under the African Union, that aims to grow an 8,000km mosaic of restored land and vegetation across the Sahel from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east. The initiative coordinates land restoration, sustainable agriculture, and rural development activities across more than 20 participating African countries — via the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall and UNCCD as secretariat — with a 2030 ambition to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, create 10 million green jobs, and sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon. As of the second decade, approximately 18 million hectares have been restored and 350,000 jobs created across the Sahel.

Supporting infrastructure includes the Great Green Wall Observatory (a digital platform aggregating financial flows and impact data with geospatial satellite imagery overlays), the Harmonized Results Management Framework structuring reporting across five GGW pillars, a VR documentary premiered at COP21, and the Great Green Wall Accelerator — a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism announced in January 2021. Core methodology relies on Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), a low-cost selective pruning technique, combined with ecosystem restoration using native vegetation.

The initiative is not a commercial entity: it has no pricing model, no equity structure, and no direct revenue, operating instead on donor funding channeled through implementing partners to rural Sahelian communities. Funding sources include international donor commitments, bilateral government contributions (notably France via President Macron's One Planet Summit announcement and Ireland), and private sector climate finance routed through the Great Green Wall Umbrella programme. Initial pledges of $14.326 billion at the January 2021 One Planet Summit have grown to over $19 billion against an estimated $33 billion total need to achieve 2030 targets.

Name

Great Green Wall

Legal name

Great Green Wall Initiative

Website

https://thegreatgreenwall.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The Great Green Wall is an African-led multilateral initiative under the African Union, coordinating land restoration, sustainable agriculture, and rural development across 20+ Sahel countries with a 2030 ambition to restore 100 million hectares, create 10 million jobs, and sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Environmental Restoration Services

NAICS

Administration of Conservation Programs (92412)

SIC

Forestry (800)

akta.pro primary industry

Sustainable Cities, Urban Development & Green Infrastructure (BPADALAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) / No Net Loss Planning & Metrics (EUAHAHAJ)

Keywords

• Land restoration initiative
• Desertification combating program
• Sustainable land management
• Environmental conservation programme
• Climate resilience restoration

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. International Donor Funding: The Great Green Wall is primarily funded through international donor commitments from governments, multilateral development banks, and development finance institutions. At the January 2021 One Planet Summit, over $14.3 billion was pledged for the GGW Accelerator. Funding supports the five pillars: value chain investments, land restoration, climate resilience infrastructure, societal resilience, and capacity building.
2. Bilateral Government Contributions: Direct financial contributions from participating African governments and international partner governments. France, through President Emmanuel Macron's announcement at One Planet Summit, has been a key bilateral supporter. Ireland has also made government investments in the initiative.
3. Private Sector Investment: Private finance channeled through the Great Green Wall Umbrella programme and investment forum. The initiative seeks to bring climate financing and expertise from private sector leaders to achieve the Great Green Wall by 2030.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Great Green Wall is an African-led multilateral initiative under the African Union that grows and coordinates an 8,000km mosaic of restored land and vegetation across the Sahel region, from Senegal to Djibouti. It restores degraded land, delivers food security, creates green jobs, and builds climate resilience for rural Sahelian communities. The initiative is operationalized through the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall, the UNCCD-backed Great Green Wall Accelerator, the digital Observatory, and the Harmonized Results Management Framework.

Product overview

The Great Green Wall is primarily an environmental initiative rather than a technology product company. The core offering is the Great Green Wall Initiative itself—an African-led movement to restore degraded land across the Sahel. Supporting the initiative are several digital platforms and tools: the Great Green Wall Accelerator (a coordination and monitoring platform), the Great Green Wall Observatory (a multipurpose digital platform for tracking financial resources and results), and the Harmonized Results Management Framework (a unified monitoring system). Additionally, awareness-building products include a VR Film and Documentary Film, both produced to share the initiative's story globally.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Great Green Wall Accelerator: A multi-actor accelerator announced by President Emmanuel Macron and world leaders at the One Planet Summit in January 2021 to facilitate coordination and collaboration of donors and stakeholders involved in the Great Green Wall Initiative.

Products and services

• Great Green Wall Initiative African-led environmental initiative under the African Union that grows and coordinates an 8,000km mosaic of restored land, trees, and vegetation across the Sahel region from Senegal to Djibouti. It restores degraded land, delivers food security, creates green jobs, and builds climate resilience for rural Sahelian communities and participating African governments.
• Great Green Wall Accelerator A multi-stakeholder coordination platform that facilitates collaboration among donors and stakeholders supporting the Great Green Wall across 11 countries. It channels funding for the five pillars — value chain investments, land restoration, climate resilience infrastructure, societal resilience, and capacity building — and tracks progress toward the 2030 ambitions.
• Great Green Wall Observatory A multipurpose digital platform and project management system that allows registered users to collect, report, and aggregate committed financial resources and reported results against the Harmonized Results Management Framework. Includes geospatial services with satellite imagery overlays to track landscape changes and tree cover across Great Green Wall countries.
• Great Green Wall VR Film A groundbreaking virtual reality documentary about Africa's Great Green Wall and the people growing it, featuring 360-degree immersive content. Available on iOS and Android apps and viewable with Google Cardboard; distributed to global audiences as an awareness and educational product.
• Great Green Wall Documentary Film A feature documentary directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), featuring Malian musician/activist Inna Modja. The film follows a music-driven journey across Africa's Great Green Wall, exploring land restoration efforts and the lives of people across the Sahel, and serves as a flagship awareness and storytelling product for the initiative.

Quantifiable outcome

• Nearly 18 million hectares of degraded lands restored as of the initiative's second decade
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered strategic, core, flagship and supporting.

• International Olympic Committee (IOC)strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2021The IOC is planting the 'Olympic Forest' in Mali and Senegal as a contribution to the Great Green Wall. The project involves planting around 355,000 native trees across approximately 90 villages, covering about 2,120 hectares. Part of the IOC's climate-positive strategy and connected to Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026.
• Great Green Wall AcceleratorcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 January 2021Announced by President Emmanuel Macron and world leaders at the One Planet Summit on January 11, 2021. The multi-actor Accelerator facilitates coordination and collaboration of donors and stakeholders. From an initial $14.3 billion pledged, funding has grown to over $19 billion to date.
• One Planet SummitflagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 11 January 2021Co-organized the One Planet Summit for Biodiversity with France and UN. The summit mobilized leaders and resources for the Great Green Wall, resulting in $14.3 billion initial pledges and the Great Green Wall Accelerator announcement.
• Austrian Development AgencysupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Strategic collaboration with UNCCD since 2020 aimed at strengthening coordination and implementation of desertification prevention projects, enhancing international cooperation.
• Pan-African Agency of the Great Green WallcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010Founded in 2010 to strategically coordinate the implementation of the initiative and bolster resource mobilization efforts. The agency plays a crucial role in ensuring integration and execution of various projects under the Great Green Wall initiative across multiple African nations.
• African UnioncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2007The African Union is the founding and governing body behind the Great Green Wall initiative. In 2007, under the African Union's leadership, countries across the region turned the dream of a Great Green Wall into reality. The AU continues to provide strategic direction and political commitment for the pan-African movement.
• UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2007UNCCD is a key partner and serves as the secretariat for the initiative. The convention supports the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall to monitor, track progress, and ensure coordinated support to member states. UNCCD Executive Secretaries including Monique Barbut and Ibrahim Thiaw have championed the initiative.
• Tree AidstrategicImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerNGO partner working to make the Great Green Wall a reality by restoring land and creating green jobs in communities across the Sahel region.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• CGIAR (formerly Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research): Global agricultural research partnership with major programs on climate adaptation, soil restoration, and food security in the Sahel. Comparable as a multi-country, donor-funded initiative addressing land/agriculture challenges in overlapping geographies—provides research backbone for restoration programs like GGW.
• UNCCD (UN Convention to Combat Desertification): The parent convention under which GGW operates as a flagship initiative. Highly comparable as the global authority on desertification, land degradation, and drought—coordinates the GGW secretariat and provides institutional framework, making it both a partner and the closest institutional peer.
• World Resources Institute (WRI): Global research organization with major programs in forests (Global Forest Watch), restoration, and climate. Operates comparable monitoring/data platforms (similar in spirit to the GGW Observatory) and convenes multi-stakeholder initiatives in the land restoration space.
• IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature): Global conservation organization with programs in protected area management and ecosystem restoration across Africa. Comparable as a multilateral conservation institution with convening power, donor relationships, and Africa-based restoration programming overlapping GGW themes.

Direct peers

• UN-REDD Programme: A UN collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD) co-led by UNDP, UNEP, and FAO. Highly comparable as a multilateral UN-backed program coordinating forest/land restoration across multiple developing countries with donor funding—operates in adjacent thematic and institutional territory to GGW.
• Tree Aid: An NGO partner of GGW working directly on land restoration and green job creation across the Sahel. Direct operational peer—same geography, same communities, same techniques (including FMNR), and explicitly named as a GGW implementation partner.
• Bonn Challenge: A global effort to restore 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2030. Directly comparable as a multilateral land restoration initiative with country pledges, donor backing, and a hectare-based restoration target—operates as a sister initiative to GGW in the global restoration ecosystem.
• AFR100 (African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative): A country-led effort to restore 100 million hectares of Africa's degraded and deforested land by 2030. Direct peer operating in the same African geography with overlapping country participation, similar hectare-based targets, and shared donor ecosystem—often cited alongside GGW in donor communications.

Emerging players

• Trillion Trees: A coalition of conservation organizations (BirdLife, WCS, WWF) focused on protecting and restoring one trillion trees globally. Comparable as a multi-stakeholder tree restoration initiative with corporate partnerships, donor funding, and Africa-based projects—though narrower in scope than GGW's integrated development model.

Others

• Green Climate Fund: The world's largest dedicated climate fund and a major GGW donor. While not a direct operational peer, GCF is highly comparable as a multilateral climate finance mechanism deploying billions to developing countries for land, water, and resilience projects—functionally similar in capital deployment model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=pc3BTMVPIwc
• Xx.com/GreenWallAfrica
• Facebookfacebook.com/GreenWallAfrica

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Great Green Wall