“Wall of Trees” Planned to Help Stop Sahara Desert from Expanding
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 07.10.08
photo by Damien Rafferty/Fly Global Music Culture
I admit that it’s often easy to get down when thinking about environmental degradation, especially in a place like Africa which has had so many other problems as well. Every once in a while though you come across a story that makes you reconsider your assumptions about stopping a seemingly relentless force such as the expanding desertification in the Sahel.
The Great Green Wall
ENN is running a story about how African nations on the creeping southern border of the Sahara are taking action to attempt to halt the march of sands. The so-called “Great Green Wall” won’t be a continuous band of trees, but will involve several areas of planting stretching from Mauritania in the west to Djibouti in the east. The plan has been in the works for several years, but planting will soon begin.
Seven Thousand Kilometers of Trees
The belt of green will be 7000km long and 15km wide, cost $3 million to plant and take two years to complete the initial project phase. The west-most section will be planted in Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Fase, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal, while the eastern section will be planted in Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.
via :: ENN
Africa and the Environment
UN Publishes Satellite Atlas of Africa’s Changing Environment
Renewable Energy Promotion Center Established in Egypt
The Economist: Africa’s Global Warming Challenge
This is fantastic, and so cheap compared to the alternative. We need more treeplanting efforts all over the world.
What are the chances these trees will survive? Is there sufficient moisture and quality soil to ensure survival? Normall the better reforestation plan involves an understanding of forest succession, the first step usually involving some grasses, herbacious, and shrubs to hold the soil while the trees take hold. This article does not provide any of these details but these are essential to understanding this plan.
how likely is this to work?
Given local support ie - people not cutting down the trees and proper implementation -- very likely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification#Countering_desertification
Liz,
It will probably work, if done correctly. The reason the desert is expanding in the first place is that people are cutting down trees and vegetation, I think.
Absolutely TP!
This is an obvious extension of Wangari Maathai's Greenbelt Movement, for which she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, so there is a proven track record of positive effect here. Why it has taken so long for other nations to adopt her strategy is a big question, but it's a good thing they are. Interesting how it has also developed into a womens movement (as she couldn't get men to adopt it; they wouldn't listen to a women, despite the fact she was Kenya's first female PhD...)
http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/
HG
As a former resident of the desertified area of Senegal... I can attest that trees do grow there. The problem is that wood, which becomes charcoal, is the main source for cooking. Keeping these trees from getting cut down will be a big challenge. Changes to the way people cook and use the wood is key to success.
Those are excellent concerns, wondering about the survival of these trees in such a harsh environment.
Check out this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4S6kTlz6Mk4
It lays out a plan for using permaculture techniques to "green" a salty desert over the course of a few years. The proposed green belt for the Sahara would definitely benefit from berms to catch the minimal water and create a natural aquifer.
Permaculture sees "problems" not as obstacles, but as situations that need creative solutions.
Personally, I grow tired of people trying to stop the environment from doing things that we deem "bad". The earth and nature is an ever-changing, living thing - let it be. Eventually, it will either overcome whatever roadblocks man can concieve of, or so much will be done to stop one thing that we harm another. Just because it is a desert does not mean that nothing can survive, or even thrive, there. Stop the desert from expanding on one frontier and it begins to shrink on the other. Soon, there will be chants to save the endangered "insert latest specimen here".
Rivers move, rocks fall, ice melts, and then freezes again. Deal with it. Watch the Lion King again - it's the circle of life.
It pains me when I realize that in so much of the world men are still unwilling to consider women as equals. In my own experience, the younger generation (I'm 21) doesn't usually think like that. It could be that I've just chosen friends who are good, reasonable people out of a larger, often bigotted pool, but there is hope there.
More education (for everybody), in parallel with new research, is the only long-term key to problem solving. A better informed population chooses better informed leaders who make better policies. At least, that can happen. It might not. But without education any such progress is almost impossible.
Sorry, I've gone a bit off-topic. But this can work, whether men want to believe it or not. And hopefully, at least some of us in the rest of the world will see it as a powerful symbol that ending deforestation, and reforesting deforested areas, is imperative for many, many reasons.
Didn't they try this in China to keep the Gobi desert back, and isn't it not working?
$3million!!! That's it!!! Whay aren't these trees in place already? It's amazing that this has not already been completed years ago. The desert has been on it's way for a long time, and little has been done. Whether the trees will survive in such harsh conditions will remain to be seen.
theyve done something similar in Jordan.... i believe i saw it on youtube. no one thought it would work, but they are slowly regreening what was waste desert land.
I really hadn't ever heard of this type of project. This is really cool. I know that replanting trees prevents erosion and all sorts of things, but i had no idea it could be used to stop the spread of desertification. If they aren't already considering/using it, China should try this to help slow their expanding desert(s) as well.