Re-Greening Desert Ecosystems

[Adrisya Alok]

I'm going to do the "running thread" idea to get my mind moving and motivated to research this. I know I have read about it, been told about it secondhand, but I would like to see exactly how it's being done. My first research turned up the treehugger site:



This project is very much like the Fresco: technocracy, Ozymandias dreams:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09 ... roject.php

Then the Great Green Wall concept, which is much more interesting, but hopefully more diverse and intensive than this PR release makes it all sound:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07 ... africa.php

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.

Also, and best of all, I have discovered a blog that is coming from an organic farm in the middle of Kenya which is full of exquisite stories and useful detail. This is it: Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa.
http://greendreams.edublogs.org/

This is the best article to begin with: http://greendreams.edublogs.org/2008/07 ... t-harvest/




Transforming a dump to a garden that quickly is remarkable but also an act of desperation. I certainly imagine that it's risky at best without putting some time into soil testing and treatment. We need to democratize soil testing! Reduce it to a simple, effective, re-usable consumer product.

[Justin Boland]

Three great videos:

Greening the Desert with Geoff Lawton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk

Water Harvesting and Biodiversity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kiH4DOF ... re=related

Permaculture Water Harvesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPrfNVzDNME

The basic concept is the Swale, which is just a ditch to catch water. Lawton describes being greeted with constant skepticism (if not shock) by his insistence on working with existing countours. Engineers want grids -- they want to clear a site out, and often can't realize when that's part of the problem. Using existing contours increases yield, that's all.

A swale is a very simple concept, but they scale up very quickly to catch literally tons of water.



The investment is sweat and time -- let the swale fill up a few times over the winter, then mulch the topside of the contours:



Lawton is very dismissive of greenhouse attempts in a desert setting -- calls them "giant maggots" at length, actually. But he also recommends adding "micro-irrigation" to the mulch hills:



Up next is some nitrogen fixing, desert hardy trees:



And the last phase -- of this part, at least -- is filling the increasingly fertile space downhill from the swale with a succession of food trees: date palms, figs, pomegranate, guava, mulberries and later citrus.

[Adrisya Alok]

Thank you for capturing the screenshots, that is very helpful. I wonder what an operation like this would look like, in terms of who maintains and creates it, and how they live in the meantime. They start, I imagine, by visiting the site and doing a comprehensive work-week setting up the swales and buffering them with equipment and mulch they transport out themselves. Probably camping in tents and living off imported supplies, especially water. It would probably be more than a few years before this technique was actually yielding water and food onsite.

I wonder, what kind of an operation would you need to truck out to the middle of the desert and...stay there? I am unsure what I really mentally picture here. Aquaponics would definitely be involved, as well as Earthship and passive cooling systems. I suppose I'll retire to think about this and sketch some ideas.

[Justin Boland]

Also found this, dowsing on the Image Ripper:
http://www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/worldg ... _2118.html

Irrigation in the heart of the Sahara, Egypt

Great introductory but detailed read on Desert Biomes:
http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/desert.htm



From this source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picture ... hwest.html

In the Minqin county of China, workers have been building biological barriers using hay to create grid patterns that stabilise sand dunes and prevent desertification.

Located in the arid northwest of China, Minqin county is surrounded by the Tengger and Badain Jaran deserts in the east, west and north. The county is one of the major sources of China's sandstorms and groundwater levels are dropping about one metre every year.

Two thirds of China's water consumption is used for agricultural irrigation. About one-quarter of China's landmass is desert. The nation has nearly 25 per cent of the world's population, with just seven per cent of the world's arable land.

The Chinese government has spent billions attempting to prevent further invasion of the desert in Minqin by introducing vegetation and planting trees. Experts suggest that desertification is a major obstacle to economic growth in China and that it is partly responsible for China's enormous income disparity.

[Adrisya Alok]

http://www.claverton-energy.com/desert- ... esert.html

Lots of hypothetical numbers I include here:

Rainwater Harvesting
Dakar rainfall = 1.38 mm/day
Most falls in July – Sept
100 sq metres of glass fills a 50 cu metre cistern
= 50% increase in productivity of still
Therefore the productivity of a basic 100 square metre still, including rainwater harvesting, lies between 150 and 250 cubic metres of water per year.

Also take a look at this concept:

Transpiration cycle
Trees continually pass water vapour out of the stomata in their leaves into the atmosphere. This water will condense into clouds as it rises into cooler air, and fall as rain, to pass into the soil, there to be taken up again by trees, completing the transpiration cycle.

A molecule of water will go through this cycle six or seven times as it passes from the Atlantic to the Pacific over the Amazon rainforest (see Fig 1, Transpiration cycle.jpg).

For me that image represents an Aha! moment. If we can determine the approximate interval that water needs to travel, we could set up evenly space satellite oasis stations that would branch out into a new ecosystem over a century-long timeline. Does that visually make sense to readers? I mean that instead of progressing like a shoreline erosion, we could speed the process by spacing things more scientifically, and giving transpiration a head start of sorts.

More links I have been reading through:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_recla ... esert_land
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertific ... tification
http://desertification.wordpress.com/20 ... rt-willem/

[Justin Boland]

This has been an awesome jam session, thank you. Your name means "Invisible Light," correct? Are you from India?

Anyways, got these via Twitter this morning, it's great to have an extended neural net.



Source:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/feat ... dges200704

The Future's Farmer
Dr. Carl Hodges brings oceans inland to nourish salt-tolerant plants, transforming dry earth into much-needed arable land.
by Adam Spangler VF.COM April 23, 2007

Along the Sonoran coast of Mexico, Carl Hodges must be looked upon as a modern-day alchemist. Who else could turn a barren desert into fertile farmland?

But Hodges did just that. Since founding the Seawater Foundation in 1977, the 70-year-old atmospheric scientist has become one of the world's leading thinkers when it comes to solving some of the world's complex ecological problems, and has met with everyone from Fidel Castro to Al Gore.

Hodges's desert transformations begin with the digging of a single canal inland from the ocean. Pumps lift the seawater several meters in elevation; gravity does the rest, moving the water inland to a secondary series of canals and lakes that become home to a flourishing aquaculture of fish, shrimp, and mollusks. The seawater, now nutrient-rich with biological waste from the assorted marine life, serves as an excellent fertilizer, irrigating nearby fields of salt-tolerant plants. On its final journey, to Earth's aquifers, it replenishes depleted wetlands, whose rejuvenated mangrove trees attract fish, birds, and other wildlife.

More from his foundation:
http://www.seawaterfoundation.org/newSite/swEritrea.htm



And here's a farmer in Oaxaca, Mexico who's been busy reclaiming the desert for nearly his whole life:
http://www.goldmanprize.org/2008/northamerica

In the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, Mexico, Jesús León Santos leads an unprecedented land renewal and economic development program that employs ancient indigenous agricultural practices to transform this barren, highly eroded area into rich, arable land. With his organization, the Center for Integral Small Farmer Development in the Mixteca (CEDICAM), a democratic, farmer-led local environmental organization, León has united the area’s small farmers. Together, they have planted more than one million native-variety trees, built hundreds of miles of ditches to retain water and prevent soil from eroding, and adapted traditional Mixteca indigenous practices to restore the regional ecosystem. Efforts are paying off as barren hillsides turn green again, aquifers are recharged, and the high rate of migration slows as indigenous farming families find they are able to make a living at home.

Solutions
In the early 1980s, León, a Mixtec indigenous small farmer and cofounder of CEDICAM, began helping people organize to reforest the area to quell erosion. As more and more farmers requested trees to plant on their properties, CEDICAM’s first nursery expanded into a system of several community-run nurseries. More than twenty years of grassroots work has led to significant benefits for the region. With help from León and CEDICAM, people are now planting up to 200,000 native trees a year. The trees prevent erosion, aid water filtration into the ground, provide carbon capture and green areas, contribute organic material to the soil and provide more sustainable, cleaner burning wood to residents who cook on open fires. CEDICAM is teaching communities sustainable use of firewood and the use of wood-saving stoves. This alleviates the workload of women who, in the past, had to travel farther to collect wood.

León is working with communities to retrieve pre-Hispanic traditions of using barriers to prevent hillside erosion. He has helped identify ancient terraced agricultural systems in the region, many in ruins, and helped communities rebuild the barriers using stones from the fields. The resulting flattened areas impede erosion and enhance agricultural production. León has pioneered the construction of contour ditches, retention walls and terraces to capture rainfall and prevent erosion on hillsides. Five kilometers of contour ditches have been shown to capture 1,800,000 liters of water after each heavy rain, recharging the aquifers below. An estimated 80 percent of rainfall previously flowed off the land without filtering, thus causing erosion and preventing the refilling of aquifers. León and CEDICAM have worked with farmers throughout the region to build hundreds of kilometers of contour ditches.

Sustainable Agriculture
In order to promote sustainable agricultural practices, León began a program helping farmers convert to natural compost fertilizers and to use native seed varieties. Today most farmers in the region use native seed. As a result of the public education and seed-saving efforts, the region is becoming a GMO-free zone. León also started a program to promote local foods and traditional indigenous diet, in opposition to the influx of processed foods accelerated by free trade and changes in the culture due to immigration. Many small farmers believed that using chemicals was the modern way and by returning to traditional practices they would be seen as ignorant. León taught people to appreciate the role of the small farmer, building prestige and pride into the recuperation of traditional indigenous and small farming methods. He began applying sustainable methods among a small group of farmers and as neighbors saw concrete results, they too converted to sustainable farming.

León and CEDICAM are now working with more than 1,500 small farmers in 12 communities. They have planted more than one million trees and reforested more than 1,000 hectares. Their sustainable agriculture programs have led to the conservation of some 2,000 hectares. Further, they have protected 5,000 hectares with stone terraces and walls, leading to a 50 percent increase in agricultural production and increased topsoil and water retention, resulting in ecological, social and economic benefits. Where recently only 25 to 30 percent of the land was arable, communities now farm upwards of 80 percent of the land. The contour ditches that prevent run-off of rain water have led to a 50 to 100 percent increase in spring levels. Farmers throughout the area have converted from industrial fertilizers and pesticides to natural compost fertilizers and native seed varieties, and are returning to local foods and a traditional indigenous diet. For a semi-arid zone like the Mixteca, all of these changes have immensely improved lives throughout the region’s communities, leading to less out-migration.

León’s success has led to interest from other regions and countries. He has shared his experience in water conservation, anti-erosion techniques and sustainable agriculture at forums throughout Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and at various universities and events in the US.

[dlollard]

I haven't taken the time to read & absorb all this, but I'll add what comes to mind. I must say, the Geoff Lawton video is one of the most hope-inspiring things I've ever seen!

I shudder at the pictures of irrigating the Sahara--I hope they're not using aquifers to do that--unless it's to establish plant systems that will NOT need to deplete resources.

As you'll find I'm fond of saying, the Permaculture Designer's Manual (Bill Mollison) has great information--a whole chapter called "Dryland Strategies". He introduces different kinds of deserts, behavior of wind and sand dunes, the geology and hydrology of tablelands, making the most of precipitation, desert housing, animal systems, salting of soils, and more ... I wish I could upload this whole book directly into my brain. (I want to read it again!)

In areas where rainwater runoff has been slowed to allow infiltration into the soil (or approximation of soil!), seedballs can be scattered, to sprout when conditions are right. As those plants establish, they'll intercept more water, build soil, provide shade & forage, etc., for the next step in ecosystem succession.

As far as gardening or cropping in drylands, the guideline is: you need to catch rainwater off an area about 20 times larger than the area you're cultivating/irrigating! Indeed, to live sustainably, we must live within the limits of the ecosystem.

There's an anecdote in here somewhere about a forest in the middle of a desert in Australia, where at the center is an old wild turkey nest. That mound of plant material, plus seeds and lovely fertilizer was enough to get natural reafforestation going!

Adrisya--thanks for mentioning that about forests and evapotranspiration / rainmaking-- yes, it was an ah-ha for me too when I read that cutting down forests upwind creates drought downwind. Good idea about spacing new woodlands scientifically, I wonder how that would work. How wide does a forest belt have to be to evaporate enough water to make it rain, and how far downwind would it rain? I don't know.

I <3 urbanevolution.org!!

[Justin Boland]

^^Awesome! I'm actually downloading some Permaculture films, I just grabbed the Planet Earth series for the episode on Deserts, I'll be watching that and getting visionary in a few minutes. Found these, I'll burn 'em to disk and bring them next time I see you -- gotta be CD-R, I can't do DVD burns yet.

Establishing a Food Forest the Permaculture Way (2008)
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2010451

Join Geoff Lawton on a Permaculture adventure as he demonstrates how to grow a food forest from start to finish. Over 90 minutes of quality information to get you on the right track in creating your own garden of Eden.

We start with a 20 minute Permaculture Classroom as Geoff explains the patterns of a Food Forest and the essential principles of ? "time stacking" your garden with the right mix of support species that feed and protect your fledgling fruit trees into maturity. We then join Geoff in the field as he puts the theory into action, planting the seeds and watching the system grow.

Running Time: 85 minutes

Bill Mollison - Global Gardener Series 1-4
http://www.mininova.org/tor/991325

Bill Mollison - Global Gardener Series 1-4

Permaculture helps people turn wastelands into food forests.

112 minutes

BILL MOLLISON is a practical visionary. For nearly two decades he has traveled the globe spreading the word about permaculture, the method of sustainable agriculture that he devised. Permaculture weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, water management and human needs into intricately connected productive communities. Mollison has proved that even in the most difficult conditions permaculture empowers people to turn wastelands into food forests.

GLOBAL GARDENER is a series of four half-hour programs on one tape. Each episode looks at examples in different bioregions:

IN THE TROPICS - Mollison introduces the basic principles, and shows results in Australia, India, and Zimbabwe.

ARID LANDS - Reversing desertification in Arizona, Botswana and Australia.

COOL CLIMATES - Europe, Tasmania, and the San Juan Islands in Washington State.

URBAN - New York City and Harare, Zimbabwe.

Reviews
"(Permaculture) involves caring for the whole system of earth and spaces, devising model systems with much design drawn from nature, with the end result being a system that's ecologically sound and economically profitable...Mollison provides practical and motivating information for just about anyone interested in gardening, sustainable lifestyles, and similar topics...Recommended." Rachel Lohafer, Instructional Technology Center Media Library, Iowa State University, MC Journal

"A lively and informative two hour video that will be greatly appreciated by
gardeners, farmers, horticulturists, and agriculturists." Midwest Book Review

"This uplifting production of positive change shows people, in developed and third world countries, in the bush and in the city, turning waste lands into sustainable food production systems....this video teaches not how to do it, but how to think about doing it. This film is probably the next best thing to taking a class with Mollison himself." Earthworks Magazine

[dlollard]

Looking forward to the permaculture videos--I haven't seen Lawton's Food Forest one. The Global Gardener is nice, it's so helpful to see different techniques in action in different kinds of sites, and how they progress from establishment to fruit (where "the designer becomes a recliner"). It so happens, I can burn DVDs. Perhaps I should DL these torrents myself, if they're relatively good quality.

Speaking of Australia, it's especially sad to read of the horrific wildfires there lately, when I know of an Australian who has published detailed strategies for reducing damage from wildfire to settlements. And this came out decades ago! When will people ever learn! And of course, after people's homes burn down, they often want to build a new one just the same. Sigh. I'm kinda glad I live in an area NOT prone to wildfire, or to hurricane, but our own major natural disaster, the tornado, I don't know what to do about it besides hide in the basement and hope & pray! One thing I appreciate about industrial civilization, is those warning systems with their sirens.

Don

[Justin Boland]

^^I mentioned that same point to an Aussie pal who promptly directed me to this article:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/blogs/m ... 29728.aspx

The small towns that were obliterated – Kinglake, Marysville, St Andrews, Arthurs Creek, Narbethong, Strathewen – were at the heart of the Victorian environment movement and had been so for more than three decades. The people living there did not build, to quote Ms Bennett, "heavily structured and highly flammable homes" but were pioneers in sustainable design, permaculture, mud-brick architecture, fire management planning and energy efficient housing. Among their number were architects, ecologists, builders, publishers and artists who drove environmental reform and intellectual debate on environmental issues. If any community across Australia was going to be well-prepped for a bushfire, this was it. Most had fire plans and emergency strategies. But record temperatures, wind speed and arsonists combined to produce a fire that was too fast, too fierce and way too big for them to defend their homes.

Until last weekend, these towns formed an eco-activist green belt, around an hour’s drive form the centre of Melbourne.

Now, to be fair, "eco-activist" could just mean "rich liberals." I've been to several eco-activist green belts who had very little interest in much besides hot tubs and red wine...but they definitely had the money for lots of impressive sustainable projects.

Still, the overall message is disturbing -- that even with preparation and capital, nature's maw is just plain bigger than our money.

[Justin Boland]

Source:
Desertification Blog

Your seeds for small family gardens in desertified areas



Your seeds in garbage bins or in family gardens ?

In August 2007 I developed a new website in the Dutch language (<www.zadenvoorleven.wordpress.com>) to invite Dutch speaking people not to throw seeds of some plant species (vegetables and fruits) in their garbage bin anymore, but to wash them, dry them and send them to me. The main objective is to use these seeds in family gardens, school gardens, allotment gardens and the like in drought and desertification affected countries. Thus, we will be able to help the poor people deprived of food, vitamins and other necessary nutrients.

Currently, a lot of actions are programmed to combat hunger and poverty. In most cases, it are large-scale actions for which development programmes are spending huge amounts of money. It is rather well-known that such massive initiatives are difficultly understood by the rural people, so that they do not automatically lead to sustainable development. Large-scale programmes and project tend to slow down and even stop completely when external aid is halted. Local rural people stay behind in a sort of impossibility to manage the remains of such huge projects.

I am convinced that small-scale projects offer more chances to be successful, in particular because the local population is in a better position to manage them, e.g. their own family garden versus larger community gardens. During years of field work in drought affected countries on all continents, I noticed that the basic problem of hunger and poverty is caused by a continuous lack of support for the construction of small family gardens, school gardens or allotment gardens, both in rural and in urban areas.

If only every family could have its own family garden of 30-40 square meter, and every school could construct its own school garden, where every pupil would have a few square meter to practice production of vegetables and seedlings of fruit trees, hunger and poverty would gradually be alleviated, until they disappear thanks to the continuous efforts of the poor themselves, registering every day their progress. They would no longer be permanently dependent on external aid, but slowly become self-sufficient. Investment in such small gardens, where the local people can take care of their own food production, is significantly cheaper than investing in massive, but temporary food aid programmes.



I suppose you eat from time to time a tropical fruit like melon, watermelon, pumpkin, papaya, avocado, passion fruit, cherimoya (Annona), etc. We all throw the seeds of these fruits in the garbage bin. But, these are viable seeds, out of which new plants can easily grow in developing countries.

[Adrisya Alok]

Has anyone tried getting in touch with the retired professor who runs that Desertification blog? He would surely be a wealth of information and ideas!