How China Turned the Desert Green (and why it went wrong)

the great green wall of china is the largest aforestation project in the world with over 66 billion trees planted in an effort to combat the expansion of the gobi desert but it's not all black and white regardless of intention when done improperly projects like this can have a devastating impact on local ecosystems and at this scale it's safe to say that success or failure will have global consequences but let's not get ahead of ourselves first we need to know why this initiative even started china has been fighting against desertification since at least the 1950s after a long period of unsustainable growth around 27 percent of the country is covered by deserts and in the year 2000 the gobi desert was estimated to be expanding at a rate of 10 400 square kilometers a year with farmland rapidly becoming desert and an ever-growing population it was clear that a future famine was inevitable unless immediate action was taken so in 1978 the chinese government drew up a plan a wall of trees around kilometers long built to block the expansion of the desert while also shielding against sandstorms and offsetting the country's carbon emissions according to the world bank as of 2020 china is 23.3 forest which is the 14.7 increase from the record low in 1949 and the project is far from over so how could this be a problem well the main issue comes with the planting of monoculture forests like many reforestation projects the great green wall utilizes fast-growing trees like aspen white birch and poplar to have as rapid of an impact as possible however due to a lack of variety these ecosystems often prove to be fragile and unsustainable in 2000 1 billion popular trees were lost to a single disease setting the project back by 20 years and in 2008 10 of the artificial forest was destroyed by winter storms in fact that isn't even the worst issue as planting species like these can actually have the exact opposite effect and intended when you don't take local conditions into account as many of these areas were never forested in the first place much of the land that's being planted is of poor quality but the tree species that have been used for this project need a lot of groundwater to fuel their growth given that these already bound conditions this often results in any smaller vegetation nearby such as native grasses and shrubs whiffering up and dying as a direct result from that that loosens the topsoil and it makes it even more susceptible to wind erosion which leads to even more nutrients being removed from the soil of course with consistent human intervention these plants could survive in environments that wouldn't normally be able to sustain them however particularly with a scaleless project it's an unrealistic option in fact according to a 2004 study by sooyong only 15 percent of the trees planted from 1978 to 2004 managed to survive the trees that do survive aren't really good for much aside from logging plant and a select few non-native species does not create a healthy forest and while they still offer a habitat they are nowhere near as biologically diverse as native old growth forests that's why when we undertake reforestation projects here at mossy earth our aim isn't only to combat climate change but to restore ecosystems and conserve biodiversity i don't expect you to take my word for that though and it's a good idea to think twice about what you hear in a random youtube video which is why we also aim to be as transparent as possible on our website you can find out more about our ethos and methodologies which includes assisting natural regeneration wherever possible it's a method of reforestation that's been largely ignored here but it remains the best option when it comes to creating rich biodiverse environments after all a fully fledged ecosystem already exists in those old forests you're just allowing them to reclaim land but unfortunately the opposite correlation is being seen with this project between 2000 and 2015 despite a 32 increase in tree covering southwestern china those native forests suffered a net loss of 6.6 research of the area found that local farmers were cutting down native vegetation so they could collect money from sowing non-native plants when financial incentives are introduced without proper guidance and restrictions there is a significant risk of schemes like this only doing more damage to the remaining old growth forests of china and the wealth of biodiversity that they support on the topic of biodiversity there's an important clarification to be made here when we talk of the encroaching desert you may be imagining that as a barren wasteland devoid of life but that couldn't be further from the truth the gobi desert houses a wide variety of flora and fauna including many species are under threat of extinction such as a snow leopard and battery and camel the goal isn't to beat the desert and it never should be conserving natural deserts is just as important as any other golem conservation and ironically enough the gobi desert is a significantly healthier ecosystem than the artificial forests created to stop its advance of course that's not to say stopping desertification is a bad thing there's no denying that something does need to be done to protect china's grasslands and lessen dust storms and this project was successful in reducing the frequency of dust and sandstorms by one-fifth between 2009 and 2014. the chinese government also claims of being successful not only halting the desert but that they're actually reclaiming 2 400 square kilometers a year it's unclear as to which specific areas are recovering and which are faltering but satellite data from nasa seems to back up their claims of success there is no denying that the great green wall has plenty of flaws but much of the issue simply boils down to attempting to quickly manage this problem at a large scale however recently it's been reported that local and national governments in china have changed their approach between 2014 and 2017 china rolled out a nationwide ban on felling natural forests and in 2020 they revised their forestry law to allow for more comprehensive protections it's also been reported that instead of solely planting fast-growing monocultures governments have been planting native trees shrubs and herbs that require less water crucially growing this native plant still comes with economic advantages for the locals but without the negatives that come with planting unsustainable non-native species if these reports are correct it bodes well for the future success of the great green wall and china's fight against desertification while reducing our carbon footprint is definitely the right idea neglecting issues like biodiversity in the pursuit of lessening emissions will only worsen the problem in years to come that's why it's important to evaluate any reforestation projects you might be contributing to so if you'd like to find out more about the right and wrong ways to go about planting trees then you should check out this video here until next time cheers

Channel: Mossy Earth

Views: 3,629,601

Keywords: desertification, great green wall, china, gobi desert, facts you didn’t know, china construction, great green wall china, great green wall initiative, great green wall trailer, china engineering, china tree planting desert, turning desert into forest, turning desert into farmland, turning desert into fertile land, desert to forest china, reforestation china, china reforestation desert, tree planting china, china desert forest, china monocultures, china bad forest, Mossy Earth

Id: yu_qTrxTEEA

Length: 6min 11sec (371 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 10 2022