In Niger, Trees and Crops Turn Back the Desert

This article tries to show some of the improvements possible if we leave nature alone a bit. The model they describe is not only changing Niger, but vast areas of Asia where trees are now encouraged to grow in the fields.

Note: in the Times photo the tube well. It has almost no bearing on the article and probably represents a remaining stress humans add there.

Note: this is the first time the Times has anything to say about Niger that does not include the name Plame in a dog’s age.

GUIDAN BAKOYE, Niger — In this dust-choked region, long seen as an increasingly barren wasteland decaying into desert, millions of trees are flourishing, thanks in part to poor farmers whose simple methods cost little or nothing at all.

Better conservation and improved rainfall have led to at least 7.4 million newly tree-covered acres in Niger, researchers have found, achieved largely without relying on the large-scale planting of trees or other expensive methods often advocated by African politicians and aid groups for halting desertification, the process by which soil loses its fertility.

Recent studies of vegetation patterns, based on detailed satellite images and on-the-ground inventories of trees, have found that Niger, a place of persistent hunger and deprivation, has recently added millions of new trees and is now far greener than it was 30 years ago.

Posted by johnnycivil
fight 'till you collapse then get down then get up