It is officially announced as 21196.18km (13170 miles) in total after a more than 5 years’ measurement, among which 8851km (5,500 miles) still exist. Such human activity left much of the land unprotected against wind erosion and deposition from the surrounding deserts. Perhaps the A quarter of all landmass is desert in China, which until recently was rapidly expanding. Does everyone need to wear a mask outside? The African Union endorsed it in 2007 as the ‘Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative’ (GGWSSI). Deforestation, overgrazing, and overuse of water by people are some of the leading factors responsible for desertification. The first is that the Great Green Wall initiative is much more nuance d than simply planting a belt of trees across the continent. By donating us $100, $50 or subscribe to Boosting $10/month – we can get this article and others in front of tens of thousands of specially targeted readers. If afforestation continually exceeds the land’s carrying capacity, it will lead the trees to an eventual death. This targeted Boosting – helps us to reach wider audiences – aiming to convince the unconvinced, to inform the uninformed, to enlighten the dogmatic. Their research shows that deserts expanded in China from 1994 to 1999, but they shrunk from 1999 to 2014. A decade in and roughly 15% underway, the initiative is already bringing life back to Africa’s degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale, providing food security, jobs and a reason to stay for the millions who live along its path. The Three-North Shelter Forest Program (simplified Chinese: 三北防护林; traditional Chinese: 三北防護林; pinyin: Sānběi Fánghùlín), also known as the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, Green Great Wall or Great Green Wall, is a series of human-planted windbreaking forest strips (shelterbelts) in China, designed to hold back the expansion of the Gobi Desert, and provide timber to the local population. Other popular works include L. N. Hayes, The Great Wall of It adds that throughout the past 40 years, the Earth has lost a third of its arable land, mostly to erosion and degradation. All rights reserved, Why do male gorillas beat their chests? Sign up for more inspiring photos, stories, and special offers from National Geographic. Scientists predict that desertification will continue to increase as the Earth’s climate changes, proposing the withdrawal of human action and giving the ecosystem enough time to restore itself in the future. Also known as the “Great Green Wall,” the project’s end date isn’t until 2050; so far, more than 66 billion trees have been planted. Share on Facebook Share on Linkedin. Big winter snows in the North could be fueled by Arctic sea ice loss, 'Lost golden city of Luxor' discovered by archaeologists in Egypt, How the first pitch became baseball's Opening Day tradition, How Queen Victoria remade the British monarchy, Why the St. Vincent volcano has such a deadly reputation, Europe to review Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine over reports of rare blood clots. This process of desertification is particularly acute in China… Every spring, government … In an effort to combat the loss of its grassland to the Gobi Desert, the Chinese Government started the Three-North Shelterbelt Project, also known as the Great Green Wall in 1978. However, some say the Great Green Wall hasn’t been the perfect solution. Beyond the Great Green Wall, China has taken other measures against encroaching deserts. China has been dealing with an enemy for over 50 years, for its danger, it could be compared to the huge problem of overpopulation: we are … Against this new foe, China is building another Great Wall, this time a green one. THE GREAT GREEN WALL OF CHINA. But the problem isn’t unique to China: 24.1 percent of the Earth’s surface is made up of desertified lands, which are home to about one-sixth of the world’s population, Wang says. Scientists predict desertification will increase in some areas as the Earth’s climate changes, particularly where it gets hotter and drier. https%3A%2F%2Fearth.org%2Fwhat-is-the-great-green-wall-in-china%2F. Each year, dust storms blow off as much as 2,000 km 2 (800 sq mi) of topsoil, and the storms are increasing in severity each year.These storms also have serious agricultural effects for other nearby countries, such as Japan, North Korea, and South Korea. April is also high season for sandstorms, a result of desertification—the transformation of arable, hospitable land into desert. China’s other projects, like shutting down some coal plants and doubling new renewable energy capacity by 2030, will have much more of an impact. China Highlights offers you this advice and our service to plan a perfect Great Wall trip. Battle to control America’s ‘most destructive’ species: feral pigs. , associate professor at the institute of Desertification Studies at the Chinese Academy of Forestry states, “The main problem [China faces] is an oversized population living in the drylands that surpasses the ecological carrying and restoring capacity of this area.” However, this problem isn’t just unique to China. Share using Email. The Great Green Wall project is expected to continue until 2050 and aims to plant around 88 million acres of forests in a wall stretching about 3 000 miles and as wide as 900 miles in some places. Volcano tourism is booming, but is it too risky? The Great Green Wall’s success is not only important for achieving these goals. According to a 2013. by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification, land degradation and droughts have accelerated globally, especially during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, particularly in areas that are prone to arid, semi- arid and dry sub – humid climates. In April in the Gobi Desert, herders like Buyintegedele plant corn that they’ll harvest in October—if it survives. 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Germany officially approved the building of a pan-African Great Green Wall (GGW) in support of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification . This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. How is China working to tackle deforestation? But the Great Green Wall doesn’t hurt. the Great Wall of China. China plans to plant 88 billion trees for its Green Great Wall, which will stretch for almost 5,000 kilometres in a bid to hold back encroaching deserts. But we can stop desertification, Qingwei says. All rights reserved. Some causes and impacts of desertification include include “aeolian desertification,” caused by wind erosion after vegetation is destroyed, “water and soil loss,” caused by water erosion mainly distributed in the Loess plateau, “salinisation,” caused by poor water management and “rock desertification,” mainly occurring in the Karst region of Southwestern China. China’s largest tree-planting drive, the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, also called the Great Green Wall, is designed to halt that encroachment. Already, in northwest China, decreased precipitation and increased temperatures are causing grasslands to be less productive, says Sun Qingwei, formerly a China water and energy expert for the Woodrow Wilson Institute. “Today we are losing more than 12 million hectares of land every year, so the situation is worsening.”. “Of course a place without sandstorms would be nice,” he says. Soil Great Wall Sections. Share using Email. On March 12, China celebrates National Tree Planting Day each year by planting millions of trees across the country. “Behind the name or the brand ‘Great Green Wall,’ different people see different things. Some people saw just a stripe of trees from east to west, but that has never been our vision,” he says. 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