At dawn, in the mountains of Kabylie, a light mist caresses the century-old cedars. Below, young people bustle around a strange structure made of plastic bottles and rammed earth. This is no ordinary construction site: here, a different future is being built, a future where Algeria reconnects with its nature and invents new ways of living with it.
Reborn forests at the heart of the High Plateaus
A few years ago, the region of Sétif was in the grip of rampant desertification. Arid winds swept across cracked lands, and crops were withering. Today, a pilot project called “Green Belt Algérie” is breathing life back into these scarred landscapes.
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“We have planted more than 1.2 million trees in five years”, explains Leïla Mebarki, forestry engineer and coordinator of the programme. “But it’s not just a matter of numbers. Each tree is planted with the local residents, in a spirit of reclaiming their environment.”
Thanks to agroforestry techniques adapted to the semi-arid climate, the soils are coming back to life. Agricultural yields are increasing, water sources are stabilising, and young people are returning to the villages. “We thought our land was dead”, confides Ahmed, a 56-year-old farmer. “But it was just sleeping, that’s all.”
Houses that breathe with the earth
In Ghardaïa, in the heart of the desert, another project is making waves: ecological dwellings built with local, recycled and natural materials. The initiative, led by architect Nadia Bensalem, draws inspiration from ancestral Mozabite techniques, while integrating modern innovations.
“We use cob, compressed clay bricks and insulation made from palm wool”, she explains. “Everything is designed to withstand intense heat, without air conditioning.”
These bioclimatic houses consume up to 80% less energy than a conventional dwelling. They are now attracting the attention of local authorities, who are considering incorporating them into future urban development plans for the Saharan regions.
When waste becomes a resource
In Oran, a cooperative of young entrepreneurs has decided to tackle an urban scourge: plastic waste. Every day, the city produces more than 1,200 tonnes of waste, a large proportion of which ends up in the Mediterranean Sea.
The collective “Recycl’Algérie” has set up a participatory collection network, where residents exchange their waste for shopping vouchers or reductions on their water bills. “It’s a circular economy, Algerian-style”, smiles Amine, one of the founders.
The recovered plastics are transformed into paving stones for pavements, street furniture or construction materials. In two years, more than 400 tonnes have been recycled. “What was a problem becomes a solution. That’s what real change looks like”, says Amine.
Digital oases to protect ancient knowledge
In the Sahara, oases are fragile treasures. Their balance rests on thousand-year-old irrigation systems, the foggaras, now threatened by modernisation and the abandonment of traditions.
A project led by the university of Tamanrasset, in partnership with UNESCO, aims to map and digitise this knowledge. Using drones and water sensors, researchers collect data on groundwater tables and underground networks.
“It is a race against forgetting”, explains Professor Mourad Tighilt. “We want to pass this knowledge on to younger generations, but also to adapt it to today’s challenges.”
The results are promising: some forgotten foggaras have been rehabilitated, making it possible to revive the cultivation of date palms and vegetables in areas that had been abandoned for decades.
Renewable energies that are changing the game
With more than 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, Algeria holds one of the greatest solar energy potentials in the world. Yet it is only recently that this resource has begun to be exploited on a large scale.
In Adrar, a 150 MW solar power plant now supplies more than 200,000 households. But beyond large state-led projects, it is the micro-initiatives that are transforming everyday life.
In the village of Timimoun, a group of women installed solar panels on the roofs of the school and the dispensary. “Before, we had power cuts every day”, recounts Fatima, a schoolteacher. “Today, children can study in the evenings. It’s a small revolution.”
The government plans to reach 27% renewable energy in the energy mix by 2030. But on the ground, it is often citizens who lead the way.
A youth in search of meaning and action
This environmental renewal would not be possible without the commitment of an increasingly aware young generation. In Alger, Constantine or Tizi Ouzou, citizen initiatives are multiplying: beach clean-ups, urban vegetable gardens, awareness campaigns in schools.
“We no longer want to wait for change to come from above”, says Yacine, 24, a member of the collective “Respire Algérie”. “We want to be the architects of our own future.”
Social media plays a central role in this mobilisation. Viral videos showing children planting trees or neighbourhoods transformed into shared gardens attract thousands of shares. A movement is underway, driven by hope and creativity.
“It’s not easy, acknowledges Leïla, from Green Belt. But you can feel that something is shifting. Algeria has long turned its back on its nature. Today, it is beginning to listen to it again.”
As climate challenges intensify, these projects point to another way forward. A path where innovation is nourished by tradition, where youth takes the reins, and where landscapes are gently transformed, at the pace of the hands that tend them. But will this transformation be sufficient, and above all, lasting?
