Table of Contents
What is being done to stop the spread of the Sahara Desert?
Launched in 2007 by the African Union, the Great Green Wall is a concerted attempt to slow and even reverse the spread of the world’s largest hot desert. Supported by the UNCCD, more than 20 countries across the Sahel are now planting trees to create what they claim will be the world’s largest living “structure”.
How can we help desertification?
Restoration of degraded drylands can lessen the effects of desertification by taking pressure off existing forest lands, helping to conserve biodiversity, improving soil fertility and productivity, and contributing to climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration, according to Sacande.
Can deserts be reversed?
Holistic Planned Grazing, or Management Intensive Grazing (MiG), gives rise to a planned grazing strategy that has been proven to reverse desertification. This practice has worked in many arid and semi-arid regions of world where desertification has occurred.
How can we fight drought and desertification?
Preventive actions include:
- Integrating land and water management to protect soils from erosion, salinization, and other forms of degradation.
- Protecting the vegetative cover, which can be a major instrument for soil conservation against wind and water erosion.
How can deserts be managed?
Desertification can be reduced by adopting the following strategies: Planting more trees – the roots of trees hold the soil together and help to reduce soil erosion from wind and rain. Water management – water can be stored in earth dams in the wet season and used to irrigate crops during the dry season.
Can a desert be reversed?
Holistic Planned Grazing, or Management Intensive Grazing (MiG), gives rise to a planned grazing strategy that has been proven to reverse desertification. The two elements are (1) the land, and (2) the grazing livestock. By managing the land with a specific graze and rest plan, the ecology will quickly improve.
What causes erosion in the desert?
Running water is responsible for most desert erosion. Flash floods and mudflows are common because there is no vegetation to hold back the runoff. Slopes are steeper because, due to the lack of water in the soil, mass wasting is reduced in importance.
Is strip cropping?
Strip cropping is a method of farming which involves cultivating a field partitioned into long, narrow strips which are alternated in a crop rotation system. It is used when a slope is too steep or when there is no alternative method of preventing soil erosion. The forages serve primarily as cover crops.
How can we protect dryland from desertification?
It has been shown that dryland populations, building on long-term experience and active innovation, can stay ahead of desertification by improving agricultural and grazing practices in a sustainable way. Preventive actions include: Integrating land and water management to protect soils from erosion, salinization, and other forms of degradation.
What is desertification and how can we stop it?
Fertile soil is disappearing, swathes of land are being eroded away. Through its convention on combating desertification the UN is attempting to stop the desert growing and take back the land. Stone, sand and salt deserts – almost one third of the earth’s surface is sparse, barren land – an area that is ever growing.
Why is it so difficult to save the desert?
It is difficult to save such barren soil. Desertification not only leads to the destruction of the ecosystem, the consequences go much further. It can lead to the extinction of species, to poverty, hunger and a lack of water – a consequence that brings with it drought.
How to prevent desertification in the dry subhumid zone?
In the dry subhumid and semiarid zones, conditions equally favor pastoral and cropping land use. Rather than competitively excluding each other, a tighter cultural and economic integration between the two livelihoods can prevent desertification.