Great Green Wall Initiative - National Action Plan.

The SADC (Southern African Development Community) Great Green Wall initiative, inspired by the African Union's Great Green Wall, aims to combat land degradation, desertification, and climate change in the Southern African region by establishing a sustainable vegetation barrier through collaborative efforts, focusing on sustainable land management, reforestation, afforestation, and landscape restoration. The initiative seeks to mitigate climate change impacts, improve food security, and promote sustainable development in Southern Africa by fostering cooperation among member states and engaging local communities. The overall goal is to achieve sustainable land management and restoration at both regional and national levels by 2030, integrating Sustainable Land Management (SLM) into all sectors and enhancing intersectoral coordination, with restoration activities planned for various landscapes to restore ecological functionality and improve human well-being through ecological, social, and economic benefits.
The National Action Plan for Zambia aims to contribute to (i) restore (passive and active) and, protect more than 11 million hectares of degraded land and forested land through forest community management and forest areas regenerated with indigenous species using Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) and promoting enrichment planting to conserve forest biodiversity, forests managed under fire management (controlled burning with specified area prescribed for burning); (ii) contribute to the country’s NDC of reducing GHG emissions by 25% through the restoration and protection of land; (iii) improve the livelihood of forest-dependent households. The document leverages a series of pillars (i) effective governance; (ii) land restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems; (iii) investment and innovation; (iv) climate resilient community and infrastructure; (v) capacity building. The NAP sets out the following specific objectives (i) enhance restoration and rehabilitation of degraded lands at all levels; (ii) enhance the conservation and protection of water resources, biodiversity, and ecosystems; (iii) enhance climate change adaptation and mitigation measures; (iv) strengthen systems for sharing information and knowledge and facilitate networking on best practices and approaches; (v) raise awareness and build capacity on sustainable land management initiatives and programs; (vi) strengthen institutional and policy framework; (vii) build resilience of communities to climate change in land degraded areas. The Plan outlines specific indicators, methods/sources of data, locations, timelines, and responsible entities for each outcome and output. Among other things, it (i) underlines the need to have adequate data on degradation available for restoration activities, with the number of studies and publications as key indicators; (ii) focuses on enhancing early warning systems for drought risk management; (iii) emphasizes the mainstreaming of best practices and approaches in sustainable land management across agriculture, water, wildlife, and restoration initiatives; (iv) encourages to document success stories and implement best practices in these areas.