At the frontline of land restoration and sustainable livelihood: an analysis of the implementation of Nigeria’s Great Green Wall

Sahelian region Great Green Wall Initiative GGWI is a beacon of hope initiated by the African heads of state in 2007 to save the degraded Sahel region by restoring about 100mil-lion hectare of land, sequester 250million tons carbon from the soil, increase food security, create jobs and build the resilience of over 30million inhabitants by 2030. Eliciting from ecological restoration and sustainable livelihood approach, this study examines how Nigeria is implementing the regional initiative through the National Agency for the Great Green Wall to achieve land degradation neutrality and sustainable livelihoods of the affected inhabitants. To achieve the objectives of the study, a qualitative approach was adopted, and data was collected through primary (semi-structured online interview) and secondary (relevant aca-demic articles, reports, and web) sources. The study revealed that the implementation pro-cess of the GGWI by the NAGGW Nigeria is foot-dragging and seemed inadequate to attain the regional target goal of restoring about 100million degraded land by 2030. The implemen-tation programme needs a more holistic strategy that will integrate innovative solutions with inclusive participation of local institutions to guarantee sustainable development. Govern-ment priority should be on good governance and environmental action for effective restora-tion intervention and to meet the 2030 regional GGWI goal.