Improving Climate Resilience in the Steppe and Dry Forest Areas of the Algerian Green Dam (ICR-AGD)  

Rising temperatures, falling rainfall and drought threaten Algeria's Green Dam, the steppe belt home to more than half of the country's nomadic population. As droughts intensify, herders expand grazing on open rangelands, speeding erosion and desertification; an outdated 1975 Pastoral Code and limited access to climate information and finance stop known adaptation practices spreading.

The project will shift the Green Dam from stand-alone tree planting to integrated landscape management in six wilayas (provinces). It will support reform of the 1975 Pastoral Code, introduce Algeria's first pastoral concession system, and set up a climate observatory with digital advisory services. It will restore rangelands, dunes and water systems, replacing Aleppo pine monocultures with mixed native species grown in nurseries managed primarily by women. It will also develop six drought-tolerant value chains, including prickly pear, olive and wool.

This is the first GCF project in Algeria. It scales the national Green Dam programme, linked to the GCF-FAO SURAGGWA programme (FP268), and the Government of Algeria will fund 57 per cent of the total cost. It pairs governance reform with restoration and livelihoods, and repositions pastoralists from drivers of degradation to custodians of rangelands.