Some A Quantified Evaluation on Development of Sandy Desertified Land for Last 50 Years in the North China
Dr. Wang Tao (Director, Cold and Arid Regions Research Institute, China)
Abstract: Sandy desertification is major one kind of land desertification/degradation in the world. According to our research and practice on land degradation in the North China for near 30 years, we define the sandy desertification is land degradation mainly resulted from the human impacts through wind erosion in the arid, semiarid and sub-humid regions in North China. The results of monitoring, based on remote sensing and GIS, show that the total area of sandy desertified land was 38.57×10⁴ km² in 2000, of which the slight and potential land was 13.93×10⁴ km²，moderate land was 9.98×10⁴ km²，severe and very severe land were 7.91×10⁴ km² and 6.76×10⁴ km². The sandy desertified lands are mainly distributed in the interlacing agro-pastoral region, grassland, semiarid rainfed cropland and oasis irrigated cropland regions. To compare the analyses results of remote sensing data in late of 1950, 1975,1987 and 2000, we can summarize that the development of sandy desertified land in North China has been accelerated during last 50 years, as its annual expanded rate was 1,560 km² during late of 1950 and 1975, 2,100 km² between 1975 and 1987 and 3,600 km² from 1987 to 2000. The whole situation of sandy desertification comes to depravation and only part of it had been controlled. While most part of regions had been suffered continually by the spread of sandy desertified land, some desertified areas in the interlacing agro-pastoral region and rainfed cropland region had been improved to be avail farmland and grassland resulted from better policy and patterns of land use, which proved that the process of sandy desertified land could be managed when the manner and intensity of land use come to be reasonable.
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Approaches for Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands
Dr. Zafar Adeel (Assistant Director, UNU-INWEH, Canada)
Abstract: Drylands comprise more than 40% of the earth’s land area and are home to over 2 billion people. These drylands are marginalized and turned into wastelands through destruction of surface vegetation, poor management of water resources, inappropriate land use practices, over-use of chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides, and disposal of domestic and industrial wastes. Wise management of natural resources and protection of the water resources and quality must be central to dryland management strategies and can, in turn, lead to a significant improvement in human development and quality of life in these marginal areas. This presentation focuses on a multi-partner project that seeks to understand and enhance the sustainable management and conservation of marginal drylands in Northern Africa and Asia. This project is jointly organized and managed by UNU, UNESCO, ICARDA and eight countries (China, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia and Uzbekistan). The project uses a harmonised methodological approach for selected study sites in the countries involved to compare results and share knowledge. The project aims to identify people's adaptation and traditional knowledge in coping with adverse dryland conditions. It fosters the rehabilitation of degraded drylands using community-based approaches. Training, capacity building and interaction with landowners and farmers, with a focus on sustainable and indigenous dryland management practices, are key elements of the project.
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A Participatory Approach for Combating Sand Dune Encroachment in the Sahara desert: An Experience from Mauritania
Prof. Houcine Khatteli (Director General, Institut des Regions Arides, Tunisia)
Abstract: As it is the case of all countries bordering the great Sahara desert, Mauritania is considered the most vulnerable to drought and, thus, to sand dune encroachment which seriously threatened the public infrastructures and the agricultural lands and oasis. With the assistance of the international organizations, the Government of Mauritania launched large projects for sand dunes stabilization and rangelands development. For the first time in this country, the participatory approach has been successfully tested and adopted. In fact, all the local communities have been mobilized and worked enthusiastically with the government and international agencies for halting sand dune movement. This successful experience was later on adopted in other Sahelian countries such as Senegal, Niger, Mali, and Burkina-Faso.
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Reviving Ancient Water Tunnels in the Desert: Digging for Gold?
Ms. Joshka Wessels (Sapiens Productions, United Kingdom)
Abstract: The groundwater shortage of the Middle East is a well-known problem. The introduction of diesel operated pumps for irrigation in the 1960’s has caused a severe drop in groundwater levels. At the same time the demand for groundwater is still growing to alarming proportions. Alternative ways of groundwater water supply need to be found to halt major social and economical disaster in the future. Why not look at history? Qanats are human made subterranean groundwater extraction tunnels originating from ancient times. Is still subject to academic debate during which period the first qanats have been dug but generally it has been accepted that the first tunnels were dug in northern Persia, some 3,000 years ago. The technique is a highly sustainable method of groundwater extraction since it relies solely on gravity. Settlements that still make use of these ancient systems for their drinking water and irrigation are spread throughout the Middle East. In the summer of 2000, a pilot renovation to restore a qanat, was executed with support from the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) and international donors. The renovation was a demand driven community action that served as a pilot within a participatory action research project aimed at evaluating the use of qanats within the context of a changing world. The pilot project was scaled up to a nation-wide survey of Syrian qanats in 2001. Feasibility criteria for sustainable re-use of qanats were developed and qanat renovations on other sites have taken place in 2002 and 2003 with further international support. All renovations have been carefully documented using digital video techniques, to serve as a future knowledge resource.
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Port City, Monastery and Bedouins
Dr. Mutsuo Kawatoko (Near and Middle East Culture Centre, Japan)
Abstract: Arid land contributes an environment in which people cannot live by one occupation. People have lived in the Sinai peninsula by multiple occupations. For example, there has been not only fruit cultivation in the orchards (date palm and others), agriculture, nomadism (camels, goats and sheep), firewood gathering and charcoal burning and drug plant gathering in the wadis, but also hunting in the mountains (wild goats, desert lizards, birds, etc.), hawk capturing, turquoise mining, and fishing and shell gathering on the seacoast. In addition, the transportation of pilgrims and travelers, carrying supplies and guarding the monastery and the settled communities, along with the routes to them, were also significant sources of income. In particular, there is a Muslim pilgrimage route to Mecca between Qulzum (present Suez) and Ayla (present Aqaba) on the Sinai peninsula, and Mt. Sinai, an important landmark for Jews, rises in the central part of south Sinai, and the Monastery of Mt. Sinai (St. Catherine’s Monastery), built by Christians, stands at the foot of the mountain. Moreover, the port of Riya and the port of al-sr, staging areas of the Monastery of Mt. Sinai, were anchorage ports for the pilgrimage ships heading for Jeddah, staging area of Mecca, from Suez.
Due to these limited income sources and the right to distribute income, the system of control by the tribal chiefs has been retained, therefore, the Bedouin culture has in some ways remained. The building of the asphalt arterial road by Israel after 1967 and the construction of the asphalt road network by Egypt after 1982 gave rise to a rapid and massive influx and outflow of goods and culture, the nature of which had not been seen before. Furthermore, the “Twenty-year Project of the General Development of the Sinai Peninsula” was passed by the Egyptian parliament in 1995. Agricultural development in North Sinai and tourism development in South Sinai were started as part of this project and they have created an enormous population influx.
Under these circumstances the Bedouins changed and enlarged their occupations: from nomadism to livestock farming; from camel transportation to truck and taxi transportation; from the guarding of the monastery to the guarding of archaeological sites, tourist facilities and oil companies. The rapid increase of the population led to vast water utilization. Many wells were dug and even the fertile wadis were depleted. This situation caused a new aridity. Now the Bedouins bring the pasture grass for their livestock from the Nile Delta. The diversification and marked increase of income far exceeded the power of command, distribution and control of the Bedouin chiefs, and so their traditional culture was destroyed. It is necessary to reexamine and record the history, society and culture of the local people who lived with the desert.
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