370 million trees on three million hectares… In 1968, the Green Dam project of Algerian President Houari Boumédiène seemed utopian. However, it allowed the country to protect its water tables, its flora, its agriculture and especially to stop the desert.
Between the 1940s and 1970s, the great Algerian desert threatened to engulf the north. The bombardments of the French army during the Algerian war, preceded by nuclear tests and the brutal looting of forests by the colonial authorities, left the new independent Algerian state helpless in the face of an ungrateful nature and the threat of a massive desertification. When the Revolutionary Council took power in Algeria in 1965, the head of the socialist government, Houari Boumédiène, made reforestation of Algeria one of his priorities. The state then experienced rapid economic development, thanks to oil revenues. However, the demographic explosion and rapid urbanization required a rapid response from the government. The obvious choice would have been savage industrialization. But Houari Boumédiène chooses to take up the challenge of the future.
The challenges of the Green Dam
The desert was advancing at a steady pace, replacing the savannas of southern Algeria. The Algerian Ministry of Agriculture decided in 1966 to start reforestation of Moudjebara. Nevertheless, the authorities realized that it was impossible to reforest along the steppes without the vegetation being adapted to local needs. After two years of studies, the Green Dam Commission presented its program, which was based on the planting of native shrubs, in order to create a belt along the Algerian steppes from Djeniene Bourezg west of Lake Melghir to ballast. A very costly and risky bet, as Algeria was emerging from a decade of political conflict.
However, ten years later, the Green Dam was a success. Algeria was the only Maghreb and African country to approach agricultural autonomy in 1976. This success of Houari Boumédiène highlighted the regional power of Algeria and was an example for all the States of the Non-Movement. aligned. The green dam was also the culmination of the “triple industrial, agrarian and cultural revolution” desired by Boumédiène.
The Green Dam:
In 1974 faced with the desertification that lives the Algerian territory, President Houari Boumédiène decides to set up the “Green Dam” plan. This huge project aims to literally create a tree dam stretching over 1500km long pic.twitter.com/hPJjdN2T2X
- Assabiya (@Assabiya_) November 8, 2020
Continuous work to protect the gains
Today, the Green Dam is threatened. Global warming slowed down the development of the dam in the 2000s, before bringing it to a halt in recent years. The director of the General Directorate of Forests (DGF), Mohammed Abbas, estimates that between 2010 and 2021, Algeria lost 30 to 000 hectares of plant cover per year. The recent fires in Kabylia have not helped matters.
The highly rural eastern Algeria depended on its forests and facilities for its economy. But since 2019, studies are underway to increase the effectiveness of the Green Dam. The state is seeking to restore some uncovered areas and plans to plant new tree stumps in areas where vegetation is denser.
For the Center for Scientific and Technical Research on Arid Regions (CRSTRA) in Biskra, the current climate represents a real challenge. According to the director of CRSTRA, Fattoum Lakhdari, “the most important thing now is to draw lessons from the experience of the Green Dam, to make a real assessment of this great project, to assess the rate of achievement of its objectives and study the areas where this heritage has borne fruit and the areas where it has not worked ”.
On June 17, 2021, the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture and the DGF launched the Green Dam project. Ultimately, the objective is to increase the plant belt by 10%, by planting 43 million shrubs. Work at all times, therefore, "to protect biodiversity and future economies from crises caused by climate change," reads a press release from the DGF. Good news a few weeks before the Glasgow 2021 Climate Change Conference (COP 26).
The green wall cannot replace the “Green Dam” initiated by H. Boumediene before you came into the world and then sabotaged by the assimilated. Cocorico-logy is not ecology. https://t.co/ji3FHJnISs
- Mohammed MADJOUR (@MadjourMohammed) April 22, 2021