Desertification of Sahara and Gobi desert

Sahara and Sahel region

We have around twenty deserts in the world; the biggest one is Sahara with an area of 91,000,000 square kilometers.  The Sahara desert enlarges each and every year which is due to the desertification, overgrazing and no natural borders to stop continuing the desertification. Sahara is now home of four million of people and contains a partially fertile oasis. “The boundaries, however, are not clearly defined, and have been shifting for a thousand years. The limits of the Sahara Desert are the Atlantic Ocean on the west, the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea in the North, the Red Sea and Egypt in the east, and the Sudan and the valley of the Niger River in the south.” (Africatravelguide.com, 2010) There is a huge problem with the desertification in Sahara because of its expansion; many people have become environmental refugees due to this. In Sahara the sand is everywhere and there is basically no fertile land except some oasis, it is inhabitable and very inhuman region. However there are still some species that live in this area like camels, ants and foxes, the amount of people living in this area is 22,75 per square kilometer which is very few. The problem of the expansion of the Sahara is due to the degradation of the soil, overgrazing, continuous drought which doesn’t allow rivers to exist. The rivers around this area are used for watering the crops and are also endangered because of the high temperatures, very dry air and overusing.

Sahel is the region in Southern Africa from Senegal trough Niger to Sudan; it is the most endangered region in the Africa because of the desertification. “For centuries, the Sahel boasted some of Africa's most influential civilizations. An arrow band of semi-arid land south of the Sahara, the Sahel attracted both Arabs looking for gold from Sudan and Europeans looking for slaves from West Africa. The two influences merged with native ones, creating a culturally complex area. The Sahel is widely French-speaking, Islamic and takes its name ("shore") from Arabic. But the region, one of the poorest and most environmentally damaged places on earth, has deep troubles. In the 1970s, the Sahel captured international attention when drought and famine killed nearly 200,000 people. Though conditions have since improved, it has yet to shake a vicious cycle of soil erosion, insufficient irrigation, deforestation, overpopulation, desertification and drought.” (PBS.org, 2009) There is need to stop an expansion of the Sahara desert, because very culturally rich and populated Sahel region is endangered and can be damaged forever, Sahara also threatens a farming land which is the only thing those people have and cannot survive without. The best way how to protect this area is to teach people how to preserve it and with the governmental support build a green belt of trees and bushes so they will create a border and will not allow desert to expand.

The Gobi Desert and Great Green Wall of China

        The Gobi desert is located partly in the north of China and partly in the south of Mongolia; it is not a typical desert. Gobi is covered by rocks and by snow in the winter; the conditions are very severe with a big differences in the temperatures, very hot during the day and very cold during the night. “It has occupied an important cultural and economic role in both of these nations for thousands of years, and it is also a popular tourist destination. The Gobi Desert is characterized by harsh conditions and temperature extremes which can push most living organisms to their limits. Despite this, nomadic herders call the Gobi Desert home, and there are human outposts in many far flung regions of the Gobi. Although most people associate sand with deserts, the Gobi is not actually very sandy. Much of it consists of rock outcrops, gravel, and dirt, with scattered shrubs in some regions, especially those near the Kerulen River, which provides some water to parts of the Gobi Desert.” (Smith, 2010) The Gobi desert is very interesting and beautiful place on the Earth with very valuable historical and cultural heritage because of the mixture of two nations and the location on the oldest continent. “The total area of the Gobi Desert is around 500,000 square miles (1,295,000 kilometers), making it one of the largest desert regions in the world, after the Sahara. The Eastern region of the Gobi Desert has been used by nomadic herders for thousands of years, and some ecologists have grown concerned about the ecological stability of this region due to overgrazing and exploitation. Another region, the Bayanhongor, has a rich archaeological record of  fossils, along with a small population of rugged animals and plants.” Although Gobi desert is very dry region it has a small population of plant and animals which makes it a specific and very precious place on the Earth. The most remarkable plants of the Gobi desert are the saxaul tree which can be found in the form of the small shrub or a small tree, it has small yellow flowers. This tree stores the water in its thick bark and a big quantity of the bark can be pressed for the drinking water. The saxaul tree is the only source of the wood for the aboriginal nomad inhabitants, which they can use for cooking and heating. The most significant species are gazelles, wolves, wild asses, polecats, snow leopards, plovers, bears, camels and the Przewalski´s horses. Przewalski´s horse is in the Red List of Threatened Species as an extinct in the wild until the year 2008; nowadays it is “only” critically endangered. “Causes of extinction were hunting, harsh climate, loss of habitat, and loss of water sources to farm animals. However, successful reintroductions qualified this species for reassessment in 2008, and they are now classified as critically endangered. Currently, there are around 1,500 animals remaining in zoos and breeding facilities, carrying genes from 14 founders. Because loss of genetic diversity threatens their continued survival, the National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center and other institutions around the world maintain breeding populations that serve as a source of animals for reintroduction in Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan. Thanks to their effort nearly 400 horses now roam in re-introduction sites in Mongolia and China.” (National Zoo, 2010) In fact Przewalski´s horses have never been tamed for ridding which leaves them probably the last real wild horses on the Earth. Conditions of the Gobi desert are very harsh and it is amazing that there are still people living there with nearly no resources for building a shelters and food resources. “It tends to be very dry, with rain coming in brief and sometimes violent bursts. Because much of the Gobi Desert is in the north, it is also a very cold desert, with ice and snow covering large parts of it in the winter. The temperatures can get extreme, sometimes fluctuating wildly between day and night. Surviving in the unique conditions of the Gobi requires extreme adaptations, and life is sometimes found in surprising places in the Gobi Desert.” (Eden Foundation, 1994)

                The Gobi desert is very beautiful area with very special plants and animals it is a unique biotope which cannot be found anywhere else. However the beauty and animals cannot preserve the Gobi desert, the land is exhausted because of the overgrazing, soil erosion and soil degradation caused not only by humans but also by weather conditions. People of China and Mongolia know it and the government is putting an effort to save this country and the culture on the borders of the desert and semi- arid area around. Because if the desertification will continue it will destroy both culture and the biotope, desert expands and threatens also the big city of Beijing. The sand storms occur much more often and literally cover the city with the sand. “, but the problem's particularly bad in China. There, government officials say, 3,600 km2 of former grasslands and farms are overtaken by the sands every year - and they're probably downplaying the problem: one recent remote-sensing study suggests that the area being lost each year to complete desertification now exceeds 4 million hectares/ year (about 15,500 square miles - an area larger than the Netherlands). Whole towns and cities have been abandoned and environmental refugees number in at least the millions, and probably the tens of millions.” (Steffen, 2003) China´s government response to the problem of desertification of the Gobi is to build a green belt to stop the expansion of the desert; the Great Green Wall of China is a long time project. They plan for this project to take about 70 years. “The Great Green Wall is to fight the moving sands in the way the stone and brick Great Wall was built to hold back the Central Asian warrior horsemen. The Great Green Wall is a project to plant a 4,480km (2,800 mile) shelterbelt of trees across the northwest rim of China skirting the Gobi Desert. The first phase of this 73-year afforestation program is coming to an end this year, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.” (BBC.com, 2001) In the project of afforestation of the arid areas the saxaul tree is the most significant element and plays an important role in the establishment of the shelter beds and fixation of sand dunes. Although the idea of preserving the nature from desertification is very good and could possibly work out China has a complex problem with the desertification and it is hard for the plants to survive. “Desertification is a complex process: wind erosion, water erosion, overgrazing, salinization of soils through over-irrigation, plants made vulnerable to disease and drought by China's terrible air pollution and climate change all apparently play a part. But the Chinese effort has been top-down, poorly designed and weakened by massive corruption. Millions of trees have been planted, but few survive. Hundreds of thousands of herders have been forcibly relocated, but the grasslands continue to parch and blow away. Huge armies of local labor have been drafted to try to stabilize dunes and build sand fences, but the dunes keep coming.”(Steffen, 2003) It seems to be that China´s effort is really big and strong but somehow it doesn’t work. China is very specific country with its very powerful government party, they exist in their own world and China´s government often hides many facts and events from the outside world. “The Green Wall, like the Three Gorges Dam, is a top-down mega-project fix, while by most expert accounts; China needs a grassroots-driven mega-collaboration response. Local people need the power, information and tools to sculpt local efforts in the most effective ways. China's done the opposite: decision-making power has stayed in the hands of the Party hierarchy, information has been kept secret or distorted for political purposes, and the tools most commonly used are gun barrels and shovels.“ (Steffen, 2003) China needs to become more efficient in this project and change the old garnitures in politics to a new and fresh one who will care about the environment. If this will happen the Great Green Wall of China could become a wonderful project and will preserve these valuable locations and improve also the air conditions in China. However it is more a dream than the reality because China´s government hasn’t change for ages.

Beijing during the sand storm, and during the normal air conditions.

        Desertification is a complex problem of overgrazing, soil erosion, and wind erosion, overpopulation of the semi- arid and arid areas on the Earth. However desert is very inhabitable place it hides many of beautiful and unique elements from oases through plants which are able to survive in very severe conditions with only a few centimeters of rain falls per year to people and animals who live in precious symbiosis. Preservation of the Sahel area and areas around the Gobi desert is very important from cultural point of view as well as from ecologic. The Sahel region cannot be destroyed and became a part of Sahara there are people who want to survive there are plants which need to be preserved because we will lose them forever the animals which will extinct. The same is true for the Gobi and Gobi is maybe more special than the Sahara, because it is a real home to nomads who have lived there ever since and have no place else to live. They are environmental refugees and call for help, they cannot help ourselves because they are not educated to do so. They need a help from the government as well as animals and plants, they need to stop desertification and not to be removed from their natural habitat somewhere else. They already know that they cannot exhaust the land that much and cannot overgraze the grass because it is also a building material for them, they know the value of those basic things they need. The Chinese government and also African government have to know the value of the environment, because the Earth is the only place we can live at!

References

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