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Land degradation is a major issue in the Sahel region. Numerous investments have been made in implementing sustainable land management (SLM) actions to reverse land degradation. Our work aims to (i) describe the variety of degraded land reclamation actions (DLRAs) and (ii) map the stakeholders acting in Niger. A time series (2008–2021) of georeferenced public data was collected and organized using a harmonized nomenclature. The results show that about 279,074 ha could be analysed in our study. Dug structures are the most widespread technique, while treated land is mostly devoted to single agricultural or pastoral uses. DLRAs are unevenly distributed in the Niger. More than 100 stakeholders were part of the effort to restore degraded land in the country—some playing a specific role, while others, such as the Government of the Niger, were responsible for mobilizing funds for implementing sustainable land management programs, while also carrying out certain programmes of their own. Our study points out the added value of creating a geolocalized dataset and, in future, a spatialized database management system to (i) deploy targeted sustainable land management actions complementing past and ongoing actions and (ii) create synergy between all the stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sahelian Great Green Wall (SGGW) is an influential project to combat desertification and promote sustainable land management on a large scale, involving 11 countries in the Sahel region of Africa. The UNCCD's 2020 progress report showed a mixed picture concerning the meeting of the initial targets. At the One Planet Summit in 2021, announcements were made to consolidate the implementation of the SGGW, most notably with the creation of the Great Green Wall Accelerator. In this context, our paper sets out to review the scientific work conducted with regard to the SGGW. We have thus carried out a bibliometric analysis of the literature on SGGW. Although the initiative involves 11 countries and covers a large spectrum of scientific disciplines, our results show the predominance of ecological studies in the SGGW literature and a concentration of studies in certain geographies of interest, such as northern Senegal. Moreover, based on a secondary analysis of publications on land restoration and sustainable ecosystem management in Sahelian countries, we show that the literature relevant to SGGW topics is richer and fills in the information gaps we have identified at thematic and geographical levels. By showing that SGGW studies are overly focused on certain topics and geographical areas, our paper argues for a better interdisciplinary mobilization of researchers working on GGW-related topics. The scientific and operational success of the project depends on stronger networking between the different research teams and themes, both in Africa and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]