Eroded areas suitable for trees occupy by far the biggest part of land on earth: over 5 billion hectares are ready to use which is over 30% of Earth’s surface. Prairies and poorly wooded areas arose by natural grazing or by human cattle breeding, after which the wind helped to keep these areas open. In the course of time very large areas have been deforested particularly due to human intervention. On the one hand caused by the ever growing need for agricultural and horticultural land, and on the other caused by the need for wood for crafting, industrial and domestic (charcoal) purposes. Overgrazing by for example the goats and sheep, which has literally chewed entire former woodland areas into new extensive deserts, is a problem too.

Sometimes people use the argument that we cannot change deserts into wood, as trees will not grow there. This is however not true: once most deserts were green and the real cause of their existence there now, is humanity itself. In the Bible Israel is described as the land of milk and honey. Mesopotamia was the region where the Tower of Babel was constructed and we all know of the overwhelming wealth at that time in that now poor and dry region. In Tunisia there is a Colosseum in EL Jem. It is now in the middle of the desert but at its time of construction it was able to give room to over 30.000 people. So at that time North Africa was rich and fertile with many people living there. We all know the history of Carthago and Egypt, at that time rich and wealthy, now poor as a result of the desertification. Desertification causes therefore poverty and fertile soils cause wealth. This is why we have to restore Earth’s surface and the instrument to do so it the tree.

2000 years ago all yellow, orange and red areas were covered with trees

How to restore deserts into fertile land

In several countries developments take place where with expensive and capital intensive methods for reforesting reforest deserts. The problem with several of these methods is that they are often based on subsidies to be viable. If we want to plant two billion hectares of deserts with trees, as is my objective to cause, then this principle is impossible to follow. The problem is too big to solve it with subsidies. The problem should solve itself by developing a principle where an investor, NGO or government can have a good Return on Investment once reforesting the deserts. Return on Investment is the keyword and not subsidy, if we want to plant two billion hectares of trees. Another problem of many solutions is that they are not sustainable: in many cases groundwater is used that has been created through thousands of years and now it’s used in a few hundred years. In order to use this water, the groundwater pumps are installed to take it from the soil and pumps are installed to pump it to the trees. So besides using groundwater also energy is used. All in all we may say that many of these solutions are not sustainable and many of them, if not all, will not lead to the solution that we need.

In Morocco in the Sahara desert "on rocky soils". I saw a method which is old and sustainable and parts of this method I copied: I learned from thousand years old methods and improved them with the Groasis waterboxx system.

Their method consists of various steps:

1. With a pick axe a hole is made of 60 x 40 x 40 cm.
2. Now they plant a very small Pinus nigra tree in it, in order to have as little evaporation possible. After planting they add 15 liters of water. This water restores partly the capillary and as the loose soil gets together, a pot-hole develops. This pot-hole is used to give several times water until the tree is able to survive. It is labor intensive, and that’s why it cannot be done on a great scale, but it works.
3. In this way a field of small pine trees develops and after some years they grow well.
4. The same technique is repeated with Eucalyptus, although I prefer the use of local trees from the natural habitat.
5. View the images

In the Sahara I also saw interesting techniques on "walking dunes".

1. This is an impression of a ‘walking dune’ area. Look at the erosion caused by strong winds.
2. First palm leaves are being cut and fences in squares of 8 x 8 meters are made of them.
3. Tamarix branches are put in the soil, around 30 liters of water added on them, and then the stem is covered completely with loose sand. After a while a part of the stems starts to develop growing. Here you see some examples.
4. Of course not all Tamarix develops well. With the waterboxx it would work better and the success rate could get to high percentages.
5. View the images

Conclusion

With the Groasis waterboxx we can copy thousands of years old techniques and improve the planting result. This way of restoring deserts or rocky areas is very cost attractive and really sustainable as it uses water from the air and it doesn’t use electricity. (Ianthe, link naar calculatiedocument, dit stukje tekst weghalen).