Algeria's Green Dam: Replanting a Line Against the Sahara

First conceived in the 1970s, Algeria's 'Barrage Vert' (Green Dam) is a state reforestation belt stretching roughly 1,000 kilometers along the steppe zone between the Moroccan and Tunisian borders, intended to slow desertification and soil loss at the Sahara's edge. After decades of uneven progress, the Direction Générale des Forêts relaunched the program in October 2023, aiming to expand the protected zone from 3.7 to 4.7 million hectares across 13 provinces and to plant hardy, income-generating species such as carob, olive, and pistachio alongside traditional pines. By late 2025, forestry officials reported roughly 26,000 hectares reforested since the relaunch, part of a longer-term plan to restore 400,000 hectares of the steppe belt.