Participation of the Executive Secretary in the panel on the “Enhanced Action for Forests in the Mediterranean and Sahel Region” initiative

Nouakchott, 25 October 2016. At the invitation of the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification of the Kingdom of Morocco, Professor Abdoulaye Dia, Executive Secretary of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (in English, and co-officially, Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall – PAGGW), will take part from 26 to 27 October 2016 in Rabat in a high-level panel discussion on the new mechanism for Enhanced Action for Forests in the Mediterranean and Sahel Region (AFMS). This meeting aims to present the various environmental protection initiatives and programmes in force in the Saharan-Sahelian region in a context of climate change.

Thus will be presented and shared, in particular, the 2020 Strategy of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), the Mediterranean Forests Strategy, the 2016-2020 Strategy of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall for the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative, as well as those of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). An interactive debate will then be opened on the convergence of the regional strategies presented and on the project to establish the AFMS initiative.

During his stay in Morocco, the Executive Secretary will have various meetings with the officials of the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification of the Kingdom of Morocco and of the COP22 organizing committee, scheduled to take place in Marrakech from 7 to 18 November, with a view to discussing the Great Green Wall and the participation of the PAGGW. Professor Abdoulaye Dia will also have a meeting with His Excellency Mr. Miklós Tromler, Ambassador of Hungary to the Kingdom of Morocco, on the modalities of cooperation between the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall and the Hungarian Government and private sector in the implementation of the Great Green Wall.

It should be recalled that the Great Green Wall Initiative, launched in 2005 and coordinated by the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall, created in June 2010 under the auspices of the African Union, is one of Africa’s flagship projects against climate change. It aims to overcome the harmful effects, both socio-economic and environmental, of desertification in the Sahara and the Sahel, a geographical area where the population is constantly growing. It brings together, in alphabetical order, the following eleven countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.

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Press contact:

Mahamadou Coulibaly

Communication, Marketing and Advocacy Officer

Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall/Nouakchott

com.apgmv@grandemurailleverte.org, bylbao2002@gmail.com

Tel. + 222 48 84 22 54