To do this, we will need to incorporate contemporary ecological science and to dismantle the colonial and capitalist conceptions of deserts as ruined and valueless. These benefits include livelihood enhancements for a large portion of the poor, greater food sovereignty which will help reduce famines during times of drought, improved quality of life, and a better condition of the physical environment.
By working to understand the complex and long-standing relations of power imbricated in environmental stories such as that of desertification, we can begin to understand how to build a more equitable and more sustainable future.
We may also gain insight into how to deal better with other environmental problems such as biodiversity loss and climate change. There is too much at stake not to take these resplendent drylands more seriously. Diana K. Davis , a geographer and veterinarian, is Professor of History and Geography at the University of California, Davis, and author of several books, including The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge, from which this article is adapted.
Read the original here. However, as Sharon E. My focus here is on these countries, their governments, and their colonial experiences because they have dominated global development policies in arid lands to the present. See the discussion in William M. It is crucial to note that a great majority of past efforts to develop and manage drylands that are described here as failures were done with the best intentions and with no conscious effort to inflict harm.
This article is adapted from Diana K. This reforestation project in Morocco shows the degree to which the soil and the native vegetation are often disrupted in the preparation and planting of trees. Photo by Diana K. Afghan nomad boy with camels in eastern Afghanistan. Source: Collection of the author. In these arid, variable environments, even heavy grazing of an extensive nature will not usually cause degradation. Extensive grazing is highly mobile grazing that covers a lot of land and is typified by nomadic pastoralism.
French colonial forester Louis Lavauden, like so many before and after him, mistakenly believed that indigenous deforestation and overgrazing had created great swaths of desertified land and desiccated environments in and around the Sahara, causing it to spread.
Source: Wikimedia Commons. You can become a friend! Join us on all social networks. Are you ready and willing to finance an afforestation - reforestation project in your dry home country? Making our world greener via implementing perpetual afforestation - reforestation projects. The amount of CO 2 carbon dioxide which is currently produced by human activity, has gone far beyond the acceptable level. ASRC works on wide range of international, national, regional, and local projects in which advanced airborne and satellite remote sensing data and other geospatial information technologies are utilized to help address both fundamental and applied issues in natural resource management.
The UA-led Santa Catalina Mountains and Jemez River Basin Critical Zone Observatory aims to improve understanding of the function, structure, and co-evolution of biota, soils, and landforms that comprise the critical zone by examining and measuring geomorphic, hydrologic, and biogeochemical interactions within it.
The mission of CESM is to develop educational, specialized professional training, and research initiatives that address environmental issues related to mining activities in arid and semi-arid urban environments.
The Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill is a culturally important acre ecological preserve in Tucson, conducting environmental studies which include physiology, ecology, restoration ecology, and arid lands. The Desert Research Unit performs basic and applied research to evaluate and promote methods for reclamation of water and land in arid and semiarid environments.
DSCESU is a UA-based cooperative network of federal, university, and non-governmental agencies studying and managing natural and cultural resources across California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, with emphasis on involving communities and under-represented groups. The Tree-Ring Lab is recognized worldwide as a preeminent center for the advancement of tree-ring techniques and the broad application of dendrochronology in the social and environmental sciences.
The NPC conducts interdisciplinary research leading to the discovery and development of useful natural products from plants and micro-organisms. The Southwest Center seeks to define, illuminate, and present, through research, teaching, and publishing, the character of the Greater Southwest: the heartland of Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, and Chihuahua, and its peripheries. The SW CASC provides objective scientific information, tools, and techniques that land, water, wildlife, and cultural resource managers and other interested parties can apply to anticipate, monitor, and adapt to climate change impacts in the southwestern U.
ARIZ is a research collection of over , dried plant specimens, with emphasis on the plants of the Sonoran Desert region and adjacent areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It demonstrates low-cost arid land design principles of water harvesting, water reuse, mitigation of desert microclimates and reduction and re-direction of runoff for passive and active storage as well creating an enchanting desert oasis.
The Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture YCEDA is an innovative public-private partnership that addresses high-priority issues identified by industry stakeholders to improve all aspects of desert crop production systems and economics. Stefanie Hermmann. Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Hermann investigates techniques for incorporating local land user perspectives in assessing and understanding land degradation in drylands of the developing world.
Katherine Tuft. Ines Badman. Emily Jenke. Genevieve Hayes. Milly Breward. Martin Smith. Tori Wilson. Jannico Kelk. Nathan Manders. Hugh McGregor. Katherine Moesby. Mammal Monitoring. Want to learn more about mammals of Arid Recovery? Are you available to volunteer your time from May 8th - 16th? Dr Steve Morton. Photo: Threatened Species Recovery Hub. Heather Campbell. Photo: Bush Heritage Australia. Sandy Carruthers. Professor Megan Lewis. Photo: University of Adelaide.
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