An initiative is being coordinated to restore flora and fauna to at least 13,500 square miles of the Sinai Peninsula
Ties van der Hoeven’s ambitions are high to say the least. The Danish engineer wishes to transform a vast area of inhospitable desert into a green, fertile land teeming with wildlife.
His sights are set on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, an arid triangle-shaped stretch of land that connects Africa to Asia. “Thousands of years ago it was teeming with life,” Ties van der Hoeven told CNN. “However, years of agricultural exploitation and other human activities contributed to its transformation into barren land.”
The ambitious regeneration plan
Van der Hoeven is convinced he can bring the peninsula back to life.
He has spent years coordinating an initiative to restore flora and fauna to at least 13,500 square miles of the Sinai Peninsula, an area slightly larger than the state of Maryland. The goal: to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide, increase rainfall, and bring food and jobs to locals.
He believes it is the answer to a number of huge global problems. “We are destroying our planet in a terrifying way,” he told CNN. “The only way out of this situation is a large-scale ecological regeneration.”
So-called desert revitalization projects are not new, and this is one of many around the world that seek to transform barren landscapes. Many aim to halt desertification – the creeping degradation of drylands – a phenomenon the United Nations calls “a silent, invisible crisis that is destabilizing communities on a global scale.”
But the idea is also controversial. Critics say desert transformation is unproven, highly complex and could adversely affect water and weather in ways we can’t predict.
“Green Gold” showed the way
Van der Hoeven’s idea may sound too ambitious, but it has been done before.
While feverishly planning the Sinai project, he came across the film Green Gold, made by cinematographer and environmentalist John Liu. The film documents a massive desert revitalization project on the Loch Plateau in northern China.
The area, which is almost the size of California, had been greatly degraded by chronic overexploitation of the land and overgrazing. With sparse vegetation, the soil was very prone to erosion.
In an effort to transform the land, the Chinese government and the World Bank launched a large-scale revitalization program in the 1990s, planting trees and shrubs and implementing grazing bans.
In the decades since, the Loess Plateau has flourished. Parts of the land are now covered with greenery, soil erosion is reduced and less water flows into the area’s Yellow River, which reduces flood risks.
Source: Skai
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