Simple agricultural methods stopped desertification in North Africa
Fred Pierce
Retreat from the Sahara desert until 90
The waves of sand turn back in the Sahara desert. The trend of desert expansion in the 70s and early 80s, which caused drought and famine throughout North Africa, has been reversed. A new analysis of satellite images of the southern tip of the Sahara reveals vegetation sprouting in a 6,500 km strip, from Mauritania in the west to Eritrea in the east.
It seems that the reversal of the desertification trend has put an end to an environmental disaster, which in the past was perceived as just as serious as the destruction of the virgin forests. The development also refutes the announcements made recently by the United Nations, according to which desertification is still a widespread phenomenon in Africa.
Already from the mid-80s, when a recovery began in the amount of rain that fell in the region, one could expect a confusion of vegetation at the southern end of the Sahara (see figure). But so far this has been considered a kind of "standard deviation" within the general trend of Midbor. According to some researchers, the confidence that Africa was becoming a desert was so great that evidence to refute this claim was neglected; Just last month, the United Nations Environment Program announced to the Earth Summit in Johannesburg that 45% of Africa is in the process of desertification, and the World Bank's Global Environment Facility agreed to allocate funds to combat the progress of desertification.
But Chris Ray from the University of Veria in Amsterdam claims that the assessment of the desertification trend was wrong. According to him, the sand dunes are receding, the groundwater level is rising, and the trees and bushes are coming back. In some places the crops of agricultural farms increased by 70%, Ray reports in the current issue of the journal Haramata, which deals with African deserts and is published in London under the auspices of the International Institute for Environment and Development. Neighboring Mali and Niger have seen reconstruction on a similar scale, according to Ray.
At the same time, Andrew Warren from University College London reported that according to recent satellite images of the region, vegetation is re-emerging from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the shores of the Red Sea.
Some of the most impressive changes were in Burkina Faso, which was hit in the 80s in particularly severe ways. Millions of people then fled the area due to the drying of the land. According to Ray, in the north of the country there is now a "quite spectacular recovery of the vegetation". Next month Ray will present his findings to international aid agencies.
The reason for the appearance of the vegetation, according to the researchers, lies in the combination of the return of the rains and the adoption by farmers of simple technological methods to preserve soil and water in their territory. Ray praised area farmers for adopting an idea, suggested to them by aid workers 20 years ago, to conserve water and soil by erecting low stone walls along the elevation lines of their fields.
The walls, which are only a few centimeters high, allow for the absorption of the heavy rains that fall from time to time. The water preserved in this way seeps into the soil and prevents its erosion. "Farmers who came to turnips began to conduct experiments and invent inventions," Ray said. "Today, thousands of dunams on which stone walls were erected along the height lines are growing trees, in places that were arid 15 years ago."
Now there are those who will see the desert claim as a myth. Camila Toulmin, a desert researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said farmers on the fringes of Africa's deserts still need help. This region is among the poorest on earth. But according to her, "We must stop thinking of the residents of the area as victims. What they need is more convenient access to world markets to market their produce, and not an unsuccessful project to prevent desertification."
Boston Globe
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