Deserts threaten to expand across much of North and Southern Africa, with the Science and Development Network reporting that global warming is set to put the dunes of the Kalahari on the march, for example.
But elsewhere in the world, one country has launched a major plan to reclaim 250 000 square kilometres of land it has lost to expanding deserts. Nearly one-fifth of China’s total area is covered with desert. Any further spread could have serious impacts on agriculture and settlements.
According to China’s State Forestry Administration, 500 000 square kilometres of desert has the potential to be reclaimed. The ”desert-control scheme” just announced by the Chinese Cabinet aims to reclaim half of this by 2020.
The government’s heavy-handed approach may be of interest to numerous African governments faced with a similar crisis. China will ban land use in areas at risk of desertification, and plant trees and grasses in an attempt to stop the sand spreading. It will also increase research on desertification and set up a system to monitor the spread of deserts.
One major contributor to desertification is people cutting down trees to burn as fuel. The scheme will therefore invest in efficient water use and sustainable energy supplies — such as wind or solar power — in dry areas.
”The most important task is to work out robust research-based plans to meet the specific demands of each element of the desert-control battle,” says Wang Tao, director of the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute in Lanzhou.
Jia Zhibang, director of the State Forestry Administration, says the government will encourage private-sector involvement in the scheme.
All of the money companies spend on fighting desertification will be tax exempt, and the government will pay the interest on any loans used to carry out the work, says Jia.
Announcing the scheme, the Chinese Cabinet said a massive tree-planting project that began in the late 1990s is already curbing desert expansion in some areas.
Between 2000 and 2004, China’s deserts shrank by 1 283 square kilometres a year, compared with yearly growth of 3 436 square kilometres from 1994 to 1999.
The announcement follows the release of China’s new national policy for medium- and long-term scientific development.
Priorities include energy, life sciences (otherwise known as biology) and environment and new materials. China’s investment in research and development is meant to soar to 900-billion yuan ($112-billion) by 2020. — SciDev.Net