Re-greening & farming the desert - good news from the Sahel

October 4, 1957 - the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite in to space. August 14, 1959 The first satellite photographs of Earth were made by the U.S. satellite Explorer 6. We have been able to keep detailed records of the entire earth surface since the late 60's and early 70's.

“Where 20 years ago there was barely a tree, there are now 50 to 100 per hectare. Production of cereals has soared”. - Niger, Chris Reij of the Free University Amsterdam - he has worked closely with farmers in the Sahel region over the last 30 years.

On the arid margins of the Sahara desert, communities are fighting and winning back farmable land that was previously Sahara desert and this re-greening of the Sahel is defying the experts. Despite global warming - over the Sahel (border or coast of the Sahara desert) - satellite images over the last 20 years are showing that dunes are retreating right across the Sahel region. Vegetation is ousting sand across a swathe of land stretching from Mauritania on the shores of the Atlantic to Eritrea 6000 kilometres away on the Red Sea coast.

In Niger alone, an estimated 200 Million trees have been planted over the last 2 decades. These trees protect their crops against the winds, stop the sands spreading, prevent soil erosion, provide fodder for live stock so farmers get more manure for their fields and the leaves and fruits provide food. Tree’s increase farming production, release nitrogen into the soil, protect crops against the winds, stop the sands spreading, prevent soil erosion, they absorbed the heat and cool down the area by several degrees, create shade and trees increase rainfall through Climatic Feedback Loops.

Analysis of satellite images and rainfall in the Sahel between 1982 and 1999 show that rainfall has increased 10 to 20 per cent. Some argue climate change, while other scientists are attributing it to Climatic feed back Loops. Trees act like conveyor belts sucking up moisture, which causes clouds and eventually rain. Trees and grasses are far more efficient at creating clouds than cold ocean currents. Rainforest's are very important factors in global weather patterns as they cause extremely strong convection currents. Water in the Amazon can go through 8-9 cycles of vaporisation-to-rain and back again, before it reaches the sea through water systems. The Amazon feedback loops reach up into the slipstream and rain down as far as South Africa.

Communities who fled to coastal areas 25 years previously, during the severe droughts of the early eighties, are now moving back to these arid lowly populated areas where they are able to form farming communities. This takes strain off the already overpopulated cities, creates jobs and generates much needed food surplus.

The Climatic Feedback Loop phenomenon is also reportedly having a very positive effect in places like Namibia, Morocco, Egypt and other dry arid regions on the continent. Driving through Botswana and Namibia in 2004 - I saw this for myself - and this is common knowledge among local people and something they are very excited and proud of - we can positively change our environment by encouraging natural transportation of water through Climatic Feedback Loops - the evidence through some of these satellite images proves this - those dark areas that where once white sand dunes - are now green grasslands with the dark spots representing trees - where there where none before.
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Sat, Dec 5, 2009  Permanent link

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