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http://www.echoroukonline.com/english/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8540

Algeria plans anti-desertification budget worth 800 million US dollars.

on Sunday, December 23 @ 03:52:52 CST

Algeria devotes 800 million US dollars on an annual basis for the struggle against desertification, especially at semi-barren land, an agriculture Ministry official said in Algiers. Since the year 1996, control has been carried out on approximately three out of seven million hectares of land facing the spectre of desertification, Mohamed Malouhi, director of the Forests Department at the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture, told reporters.  Algeria is the sole country in the world that earmarks such a substantial financial package for fighting the creeping scourge of desertification, he explained.
Algeria is also in the process of hiking the anti-desertification budget by implementing ambitious projects designed to shore up human development, to safeguard biodiversity and to extend tree-planting campaigns. Tree-planting campaigns have now covered around 60,000 hectares across Algeria.

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Story by: Med. B.