Worsening sand, dust storms driving global land loss, says UN
Singapore Reuters The world is losing almost a million square kilometres of productive land a year to sand and dust storms made worse by human activities, the United Nations body in charge of fighting desertification warned on Wednesday. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said an estimated two billion tons of sand and […]
A “crazy” dream? How World Vision is leading efforts to rehabilitate a billion hectares of land over the next 10 years
Geelong, Australia Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo has a dream – to see trees regenerated on a billion hectares of degraded land within the next decade using a process known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration. “On a human level, that’s crazy…” said Rinaudo, noting that it equates to three hectares per second for every second over […]
A green island turns red: Madagascans struggle through long drought
ALKIS KONSTANTIDINIS and CHRISTOPHE VAN DER PERRE, of Reuters, report in a special photo essay on the drought facing the island nation off the east coast of Africa…
Malian villagers battle advancing sands after lake dries
Dakar, SenegalReuters Since Lake Faguibine in northern Mali dried up, communities on its parched shores have had to defend their homes from encroaching sand dunes while finding new ways to scratch a living from the degraded soil. The lake – once one of the largest in West Africa – used to be fed by annual […]
Postcards: Senegalese plant circular gardens in Green Wall defence against desert
CHRISTOPHE VAN DER PERRE and COOPER INVEEN, of Reuters, report on the creation of ‘Tolou Keur’ gardens to slow desertifcation…
Planning for dry times: Women plant ‘water farms’ to fight drying soil in north-east Brazil
FABIO ZUKER, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how women farmers are using the umbu tree, which stores water in its roots, to help reforest the country’s semi-arid north-east…
No trees, no crops, no jobs: Burkina Faso’s women fall back on hard labour
SAM MEDNICK, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on the impact of drought and desertification on women in the landlocked West African nation…
TURNING DESERTS INTO FARMLAND: HOW AN AUSTRALIAN AGRONOMIST HAS EMPLOYED AN ANCIENT FARMING PRACTICE TO CHANGE THE LIVES OF MILLIONS
DAVID ADAMS speaks to World Vision’s Tony Rinaudo, named last week as one of the winners of this year’s “alternative Nobel Prize”, the Right Livelihood Awards, about his passion for turning deserts into farmland…
More than a billion live on degraded land, at risk of hunger, says UN
Thomson Reuters Foundation More than 1.3 billion people live on agricultural land that is deteriorating, putting them at risk of worsening hunger, water shortages and poverty, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said this week. People’s use of the earth’s natural reserves has doubled in the last 30 years. Now a third of […]