Last of two parts
The first part is at thevoice.us/the-great-race-excessive-population-deep-deserts
It borrows its name from the massive stone structure built by the Qin Dynasty. But the purpose of the Green Great Wall is not to hold back the barbarians, it’s to stop the ever-encroaching deserts.
Here is the continuation of article by Antony Funnell/ABC radio National on seeking to grab green spaces from the clutches of deserts in China and Africa infused both with implications and difficulties:
“You’ve got so many people cutting down trees for firewood, so many more farms and factories sucking up groundwater, so many more animals eating up the grass, it just dries up the land.
“Africa opts for a different approach
“In the Sahel region of Africa, essentially the southern fringe of the Sahara — 26 countries have come together to build their own version of the Green Great Wall (in China), rather confusingly dubbed the Great Green Wall (in Africa).
“It too was originally envisaged as a winding strip of trees, twice as long as China’s and several kilometres deep.
“But that approach has been abandoned.
“A man dressed in fatigues stands beside a green tree holding gum arabic.
“Actually, what’s needed is not so much a line of trees as widespread adoption of sustainable land management,” said Jonathan Davies, the global drylands coordinator with the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“As a result, the new approach focuses on creating a patchwork of differing vegetation, matching plant species to the differing environments in need of revegetation.
“That, said Dr. Davies, is its strength.
‘”In many cases [what’s needed] is reviving farming practices that were there in the past and for different reasons, due usually to cultural policies, those practices were eradicated,’ he said.
‘“A common one is agroforestry, integrating trees such as acacia species into the farming system, which obviously stabilizes soil and promotes soil health.’
“The idea is to build a more resilient landscape, one that’s less susceptible to disease and other natural pressures.
“(Journalist and author, Vince) Beiser said China’s mass forestation efforts have suffered, by contrast, because of their mono-crop approach.
‘”A few years back a pest, a particular kind of beetle, hit one big chunk of the Green Great Wall and wiped out 1 billion trees almost overnight,” he says.
“In many other places they are finding that a lot of the trees simply die. They are just the wrong type of trees for that kind of environment and they just don’t last very long.’
“Researchers have identified nearly a billion hectares of land available for reforestation. Planting trees there could buy us time in the fight against climate change.
“There are differing challenges in measuring the overall effectiveness of both the Green Great Wall (in China) and the Great Green Wall (in Africa).
“In China, the evaluation system is handled by the very same state forestry department responsible for planting. Because of that, said Beiser, the figures they produce can’t be trusted.
‘”So, the Chinese government said it’s been a walloping success, that it has reduced sandstorms by a huge amount, that they’ve reclaimed enormous amounts of land, they’ve pushed back the desert and reclaimed thousands and thousands of square miles of land,’ Beiser said.
“Some of that is true to a certain extent, but it’s true that billions of these trees have died.’
“Even scientists within China have criticized the project’s mono-crop approach.
“The difficulty with measuring the effectiveness of Africa’s project is very different.
“According to Dr. Davies the problem there lies in the complexity of the scheme, and the sheer number of stakeholders involved.
“But the early signs are promising.
‘”In Niger, I think the figure now is about 7 million hectares of farmland has been put back under different forms of agroforestry,’ Dr. Davies said.
“That’s huge-scale, and you can really see the impact that is having on the lives and the stability of the farming communities.
‘”You’ve got to look at outcomes, not just in terms of the health of the land, but how that translates into impacts on people’s lives, on people’s incomes, on the overall welfare of people throughout the region.’
“The benefits of an inclusive approach
“Mohamed Bakarr, a lead environmental specialist at the Global Environment Facility, said the African project demonstrates the benefit of weaving economic and social incentives into environmental projects.
“‘It’s not just about restoring degraded areas now, it’s restoring those degraded areas and then harnessing them to transform the livelihoods of the people, as well as addressing their food scarcity problems.
“You can’t pursue one goal and ignore the other, they have to be interlinked. Solutions have to be integrated, but the outcomes will deliver for all the three goals because at the end of the day you want the system to be resilient.
‘”By restoring land, we store carbon, and we restore biodiversity at the same time, while responding to multiple benefits for local communities,’ he said.
‘”So, we have a wonderful opportunity right now to actually build something that will be a symbol for future generations.’
“Next year marks the end of the UN-designated Decade for Deserts. The year 2021, however, will see the commencement of the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration,” Antony Funnell wrote.