New Scientist reports: [edited]
African farmers are reclaiming the desert, turning the barren wastelands of the Sahel region on the Sahara's southern edge into productive farmland.
Comparison of satellite images taken this year and 20 years ago show that the desert is in retreat thanks to the replanting of hundreds of thousands of Ana trees, a type of Acacia. And wherever the trees grow, farming can resume.
Tree planting has led to the re-greening of 3 million hectares of land in Niger, enabling 250,000 hectares to be farmed again.
The land became barren in the 1970s and early 1980s through poor management and felling of trees for firewood, but since the mid-1980s farmers in parts of Niger have been protecting them instead of chopping them down.
"The results have been staggering", said Chris Reij of the Free University Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
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4 comments:
great news, good to hear.
and there was me thinking that you had to adopt all the african children to save africa!
maybe somebody should tell madonna and she could invest in a worthy cause, rather than just a media worth one.
How do they farm if the land is full of trees?
I thought that is why they had to chop trees down?
:-)
I think the clue is in the paragraph that reads:
"Tree planting has led to the re-greening of 3 million hectares of land in Niger, enabling 250,000 hectares to be farmed again."
How can I link to your post, it gives such a glimmer of hope!
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