Photo credit: Xinhua
The weather might have been cool and wet this fall, but that didn’t stop the Elk River Alliance and their amazing volunteers from joining forces to work on a couple of stream bank restoration projects. Thanks to the world of ecological restoration, it is possible to stabilize and rehabilitate an eroded bank by using plants instead of conventional methods, such as riprap. A major benefit of using plants as opposed to conventional bank stabilization methods is that they add to the longterm health of the aquatic ecosystem by providing shelter, habitat and adding nutrients to the stream.
Stream banks can be bioengineered by placing live plant material in the side of the bank and allowing the material to grow. Many plant species, such as willows and cottonwoods, can be grown from cuttings into full, healthy plants.
This means that shoots can be harvested and planted in the fall while they are dormant and then in the spring, when it warms up and the snow melts, they will start to bud and grow roots and shoots. These roots will continue to grow into the eroded soil over the next several years and will stabilize the ground.
This is exactly what volunteers did to help a stream bank on Lizard Creek! The site had failed in 2013 and the ERA had previously banded together with concerned citizens and park users to restore the site. The slope was well on its way to becoming stabilized, but to reduce the erosion that was still occurring they came around for a second pass. More cottonwood and willow cuttings were harvested and planted into the bank between the existing rows. By this time next year, these new cuttings will already be stabilizing the soil.
Another way that stream banks can be stabilized is by planting young plants that will continue to grow in them. This technique is more costly, but can be equally effective if care is taken to give the plants their best shot with lots of water and soil amendments.
Read the full article: The Free Press
by Prof. Dr. Willem Van Cotthem (Ghent University, Belgium)
Please read this article at:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pa78SSwsJwsGaAGKkQC0tzthCJZSmiWFdJXx3Z8ZOeU/edit?usp=sharing
Photo credit W. Van Cotthem :
Rui ZHENG, participant of the UNCCD secretariat, at the official banner on the demonstration field (Photo WVC 2002 TPN305 Rui ZHENG UNCCD.jpg).
Please find some information on this project:
PARTICIPATION OF TC-DIALOGUE FOUNDATION BELGIUM IN A TPN3 PILOT PROJECT IN IRAN
Source : China Tibet Online
Author : Time : 06/10/2015
Editor : Tenzin Choedron
Since 2009, Tibet Autonomous Region has completed 125,600 hectares of desert control with a budget of 374 million yuan. It has had a significant effect on the region, holding back the previous surge in desertification.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has one of most serious desertification problems in the world. Tibet has a very weak ecological environment and is plagued with desertification and soil erosion, due to the high altitudes, cold climate and lack of forest vegetation. Currently, Tibet has 43,269,800 hectares of desert land and 21,618,600 hectares of sandy land. Desertification is widespread in Tibet covering a large area and the state of governance is strict.
Since the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015), Tibet’s Forestry Department has laid out clear goals in relation to governance of desertification. Through policy, biological and structural measures they have carried out various control projects, such as implementation of an ecological security barrier to combat desertification, a special financial anti-desertification project, forest protection and others.
Read the full article: vtibet
Photo credit: Panoramio
Sand fixation in Bayingol, Xinjiang, P.R. China
Abstract
This paper undertakes a direct, comprehensive assessment of the long-term sustainability of desertification rehabilitation in China under a plausible but worst case scenario where governmental interventions, in the form of payments for environmental services (PES), will cease. The analysis is based on household behavior as well as experimental data. Our econometric results highlight the main obstacles to the sustainability of rehabilitation programs subsequent to cessation of government intervention, including specific shortfalls in households’ preference for a free ride, budget constraints, attitudes, tolerance of and responsibility for desertification, and dissatisfaction with governmental actions. We conclude that desertification rehabilitation is not sustainable in China without continued governmental intervention. The results of this study are intended to support policy makers as they consider future directions for rehabilitation sustainability.
Read the full article: PLOS
Photo credit: Google
Straw checkerboard barriers
A new simulation will help improve artificial sand-control measures designed to help combat desertification
Read at : Google Alerts – desertification
Deposition of sand by irrigation canal made in Triyuga River has caused desertification of hundreds of hectares of arable land in Udaypur district, eastern Nepal which is considered to be rich in biological diversity and agricultural productivity. Lack of appropriate gate on the river canal is considered to be the main cause of such deposition which has resulted due to the ignorance of concerned officials. This desertification has also displaced 168 households in the area.
September 9
http://www.karobardaily.com/nepali/news/2014/09/1410252750
Posted by Mr. L.
Read at : Google Alerts – desertification
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1237947-state-forestry-administration-desertification.html
State Forestry Admin. P.R. China 2011
Read at : Google Alerts – desertification
http://www.ecns.cn/2014/06-18/119656.shtml
CNTV Web Editor: Li Yan
Tuesday marks the UN’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. China has been at the forefront of this battle, as it looks to reverse desertification across the country, and reduce sandy and dusty weather from affecting large cities.
According to China’s state forestry administration, measurable progress has been made. For only the second time in 14 years, Beijing was free of sandstorms this spring thanks to a campaign that reduced sandy-dusty weather in the capital and neighbouring Tianjin.
The first phase of the project lasted from 2000 to 2012, as the government planted some 7.5 million hectares of trees. The second phase of the reforestation project is still underway.
Authorities say, in the coming few years, more campaigns will be launched in China’s Northwest regions, which contain 57 percent of the country’s deserts.
(continued)
Read at : Google Alerts – desertification
http://www.newsfix.ca/2013/11/19/greater-desertification-control-using-sand-trap-simulations/
A new simulation will help improve artificial sand-control measures designed to help combat desertification
In the fight against desertification, so-called straw checkerboard barriers (SCB) play a significant role. SCB consists of half -exposed criss-crossing rows of straws of wheat, rice, reeds, and other plants. The trouble is that our understanding of the laws governing wind-sand movement in SCB and their surrounding area is insufficient. Now, Ning Huang and colleagues from Lanzhou University in China have performed a numerical simulation of the sand movement inside the SCB, described in a paper just published in EPJ E. China is particularly affected by desertification, which affects 18 percent of its territory. The results will help us to understand sand fixation mechanisms that are relevant for sandstorm and land-desertification control.
(continued)
Read at :
http://ecowanderer.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/bacteria-can-prevent-desertification-in-the-future/
Desertification is now a widely recognized problem that can negatively affect many people’s lives. It’s occurrence not only reduces the amount of farmland available, but also widely affects the biodiversity that existed in that habitat. This is why possible solutions for the problem (besides preventive factors) are of great importance both as a method to prevent any more harm done to natural resources, as to the local people that now has to live in more hard-enduring conditions
This is why the incredible idea of Magnus Larsson, a student from London’s Architectural Association, presents one of the most ingenious and potentially effective ways of dealing with this problem. His solution: a 6,000 km long wall of artificially solidified sandstone spanning the Sahara Desert from east to west, where the combination from the sandstone and the dunes will provide a refugee housing and a block against the desert.
(continued)
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DESERTIFICATION 
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