One Planet Summit For Biodiversity Great Green Wall Investment Forum

ONE PLANET SUMMIT FOR BIODIVERSITY

GREAT GREEN WALL INVESTMENT FORUM

Monday 11 January, 2021

Remarks by FAO Director-General,Dr QU Dongyu
As delivered 

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.     FAO highly appreciates to HE. President Macron and HE. The Prince of Wales and happily joins your call for urgent and accelerated action in support of the Great Green Wall Initiative.

2.     By restoring degraded land, we reinstate productivity, increase food security and create jobs, while mitigating and adapting to climate change.

3.     FAO has worked with local communities in the Sahel to devise a comprehensive land restoration approach that connects plant science with communities, mechanizes traditional methods and is adapted to transformation of agri-food systems and landscapes.

4.     Over the last five years, we applied this approach in over 400 communities, thereby helping to restore over 50 000 hectares of degraded lands to the benefit of close to 1 million people.

5.     To face water scarcity, a major problem in the Sahel and the Sahara, FAO offers digital, near real-time information on water productivity for both rainfed and irrigated agriculture, covering the whole Africa and the Near East.

6.     The WaPOR portal is open access and helps decision-making at all levels for optimal water resources management, which is essential for the Region’s sustainability.

7.     To scale-up best practices and successful approaches, we need stronger collaboration among organizations and with national authorities, local communities and the private sector. The most important are innovations of policy, technology and business models by collective action. Encourage you to learn other successful experiences and to increase natural capital from green bank by planting more trees in the world.

8.     This is why FAO, UNEP and UNCCD developed a UN system-wide Action Plan to support the Great Green Wall Initiative and work Hand in hand.

9.     This concerted effort will serve as a flagship for both the SDG Decade of Action and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, which FAO leads together with UNEP.

10.  FAO currently has a project portfolio of 238 million USD directly supporting the 5 Pillars of the Great Green Wall Accelerator and a total project portfolio of over 1.15 billion USD supporting the 11 Great Green Wall countries on aspects related to agriculture, forestry and land management.

11.  The Great Green Wall Initiative is a historic opportunity to conserve biodiversity, address climate change and enhance food security simultaneously. No one left behind and no land left behind!

12.  Let’s work hard and make another green wonder of world a new reality

Thank You.