Dryland restoration efforts must acknowledge and actively promote the inclusive management and utilization of invasive trees and shrubs, and areas managed should be counted when monitoring achievements towards national restoration commitments. 

The Great Green Wall aims to increase tree cover on 100 million hectares by 2030 and countries have made other pledges to restore millions of hectares of drylands through other commitments. But these will never be met with conventional tree planting or integrated landscape projects alone. This brief presents how communication can be used to catalyze regreening in the African drylands. 

Farmer managed natural regeneration, simple water harvesting techniques and area exclosures have led to the regreening of millions of hectares across the Sahel and Greater Horn of Africa. This brief presents these three principle practices.

Niger has a long history of smallholders investing in sustainable land management, supported by the government, NGOs, and multilateral donors. Notable successes both large and small are well documented. This brief highlights ways to build upon these achievements, and make significant impacts to increasing agricultural production, reducing poverty, and helping rural communities adapt to climate change. 

Summary review from the ETFRN News 60 that provide new insights into what has led to the documented successes, summarizes the ‘top ten’ key findings, and offer recommendations to a much-needed change in focus if we are to achieve the ambitious commitments made by African countries to Land Degradation Neutrality targets, the Bonn Challenge, the African Forest Landscape Initiative, and the Great Green Wall, amongst others. It collates 36 articles from more than 100 contributors, including some long-term analyses of remarkable increases in tree cover and improved agricultural yields over large areas of the Western Sahel never published before, landscape restoration in Ethiopia, and examples from many other countries. 

ETFRN News 60 focuses on dryland restoration in the Sahel and the Greater Horn of Africa. It collates 36 articles from more than 100 contributors, including examples of remarkable increases in tree cover and improved agricultural yields over large areas of the Western Sahel, landscape restoration in Ethiopia, and examples from many other countries.