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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/desertification/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:23:21 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Desertification</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/desertification/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>UN recognition is latest boost to restoring spekboom across South Africa’s semidesert Karoo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 12:40:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joe Walsh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17121000/20250610_UNEP-Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration_South-African-Thicket_Todd-Brown_31-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314351</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Conservation, Desertification, Deserts, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Landscape Restoration, Plants, Reforestation, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Spekboom is everywhere, it’s all anyone talks about … what used to be an Angora goat farming town is now a spekboom town,” says field ecologist Rae Attridge. In the past two years, Nat Carbon, the carbon project developer Attridge works for, has planted 10,000 hectares (nearly 25,000 acres) of spekboom in the Klein Karoo, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Spekboom is everywhere, it’s all anyone talks about … what used to be an Angora goat farming town is now a spekboom town,” says field ecologist Rae Attridge. In the past two years, Nat Carbon, the carbon project developer Attridge works for, has planted 10,000 hectares (nearly 25,000 acres) of spekboom in the Klein Karoo, a semidesert region of South Africa. Their work is the first phase of an effort to restore 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of degraded land on five farms near Jansenville in Eastern Cape province. The company is one of more than 60 entities carrying out spekboom thicket restoration projects across 800,000 hectares (2 million acres), all loosely tied up under what the United Nations calls the Thicket Restoration Movement. The Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme was started in 2004 by the South African government with $8 million of funding intended to catalyze large-scale investment into thicket restoration efforts in the region. These were the first green shoots of a growing collection of projects now recognized by the U.N. In 2009, researchers had planted spekboom (Porticularia afra) on 331 quarter-hectare plots scattered across over roughly 7.5 million hectares (18.5 million acres) of the biome to evaluate the potential for restoration. These earlier experiments found that thicker stems would increase survival rates, but watering at planting time had a negligible impact. It also found that animals, both wild and domestic, easily found their way to these small poorly protected plots. An Angora goat in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314351</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change tests the resilience of people and desert-adapted wildlife in Namibia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-tests-the-resilience-of-people-and-desert-adapted-wildlife-in-namibia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-tests-the-resilience-of-people-and-desert-adapted-wildlife-in-namibia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2025 15:39:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/20152817/elephant-in-namibia-Emsie-Verwey-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304647</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Namibia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Climate Justice, Conservation, Desertification, Deserts, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Impact Of Climate Change, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Public Health, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SESFONTEIN, Namibia ­­­— “I want my children to see a rhino with their own eyes — not only in Etosha [National Park],” says Sofia /Nuas, a member of the Sesfontein Conservancy Committee, located in Namibia’s arid northwest. She’s sitting in the shade of a large sausage tree, yet even on this winter morning temperatures have quickly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SESFONTEIN, Namibia ­­­— “I want my children to see a rhino with their own eyes — not only in Etosha [National Park],” says Sofia /Nuas, a member of the Sesfontein Conservancy Committee, located in Namibia’s arid northwest. She’s sitting in the shade of a large sausage tree, yet even on this winter morning temperatures have quickly soared to more than 30° Celsius (86° Fahrenheit). Life in this hot and dry region is already tough, but climate change will intensify it. With a population of less than 3,000, Sesfontein is a small settlement located in the Northwestern Escarpment and Inselbergs of the Nama Karoo Biome. Cattle and goats meander across dusty roads, but tourists are also drawn to the desert-like outpost for its enigmatic landscapes and a chance to glimpse some of the world’s last free-roaming, critically endangered black rhinos (Diceros bicornis), as well as Namibia’s famed desert-adapted lions (Panthera leo) and African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). Their presence here is no accident. Once near-depleted, the wildlife is protected not only by fences and the government, but by the communities who share the land with free-roaming predators and herds of springboks (Antidorcas marsupialis), giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) and gemsboks (Oryx gazella). The Sesfontein Conservancy is one of more than 80 communal conservancies in Namibia. For decades, these conservancies have helped bring wildlife back from the brink, in a model of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) that has resulted in swaths of land conserving Namibia’s wildlife beyond government-run national parks. The model’s continued success&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-tests-the-resilience-of-people-and-desert-adapted-wildlife-in-namibia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-tests-the-resilience-of-people-and-desert-adapted-wildlife-in-namibia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304647</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Where war once raged in Iraq, Yezidi women plant hope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2025 15:25:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robert Bociaga]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/14123702/Yezidi-women-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297536</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iraq, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Desertification, Ecosystems, Education, Environment, Forestry, Gender, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Landscape Restoration, Restoration, Sustainable Development, Trees, War, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KHANKE, Iraq — In the wind-swept town of Khanke in northern Iraq, a fragile tree stands as a quiet symbol of resilience. Its slender trunk bends slightly in the dry breeze, its roots gripping soil once strewn with plastic waste. Beneath its shade, a group of women gathers: survivors of war, displacement, and unimaginable loss. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KHANKE, Iraq — In the wind-swept town of Khanke in northern Iraq, a fragile tree stands as a quiet symbol of resilience. Its slender trunk bends slightly in the dry breeze, its roots gripping soil once strewn with plastic waste. Beneath its shade, a group of women gathers: survivors of war, displacement, and unimaginable loss. Yet here, they are not victims — they are custodians of renewal. These women, many of them ethnic Yezidis who escaped the 2014 ISIS genocide in Sinjar district, are rebuilding not just their lives, but the landscape around them. Armed with shovels and buckets, they have turned barren spaces into green sanctuaries, planting more than 2,000 trees and nurturing hope in a place where despair once took root. Their efforts are part of Clean Green, a grassroots environmental initiative founded by Yezidi women determined to restore their surroundings. The project began with just five volunteers in 2023 but has since grown into a network of more than 40 members who plant trees, recycle, and teach children about environmental stewardship. For Suzan Haskani, a Yezidi woman who fled ISIS at the age of 14, joining Clean Green brought purpose. “When I first arrived in Khanke, I wasn’t thinking about trees or cleaning,” she says. “I was thinking about safety, like everyone else.” That sense of safety, however, feels fragile. Even as some displaced families now mull returning to Sinjar, they say their homeland has changed. “Even if Sinjar was safe, people can’t farm like before,” says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297536</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists study plant restoration in Argentina’s deserts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/scientists-study-plant-restoration-in-argentinas-deserts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/scientists-study-plant-restoration-in-argentinas-deserts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2025 15:17:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/14151711/3-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Desertification, Landscape Restoration, and Regenerative production landscapes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For a plant, life in Argentina’s Monte Desert is hard enough. Daily temperatures can fluctuate dramatically; it rarely rains, and there are few nutrients in the parched soil for a hungry plant. To add to their struggles: Across this desert, a long history of oil drilling and a new boom in fracking have left hundreds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For a plant, life in Argentina’s Monte Desert is hard enough. Daily temperatures can fluctuate dramatically; it rarely rains, and there are few nutrients in the parched soil for a hungry plant. To add to their struggles: Across this desert, a long history of oil drilling and a new boom in fracking have left hundreds of sites where plants have been completely wiped out, and the soil replaced with trucked-in, densely compacted dirt. When those drilling sites go quiet, plants often struggle to recolonize the places they once lived. In a 2024 study, researchers from the National University of Comahue examined whether a technique required by the local government to aid restoration helps plants regrow at these former drilling sites. They found that the technique, a type of assisted natural regeneration (ANR), is a bit of a mixed bag: The restored sites still had much lower plant density, diversity and plant coverage when compared with undisturbed sites. However, about 40% of the species that might be found in an undisturbed site were present in the ANR-remediated sites, including some species the researchers didn’t expect. “We were surprised,” says primary investigator Florencia del Mar González, a researcher at Comahue&#8217;s Laboratory of Rehabilitation and Ecological Restoration of Arid and Semiarid Ecosystems (LARREA). When looking at satellite images before their fieldwork, del Mar González and her team saw little regrowth at the former drilling sites. However, when they went into the field, “we began to find some response from the ecosystem in some&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/scientists-study-plant-restoration-in-argentinas-deserts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lake Chad isn’t shrinking — but climate change is causing other problems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lake-chad-isnt-shrinking-but-climate-change-is-causing-other-problems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lake-chad-isnt-shrinking-but-climate-change-is-causing-other-problems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2025 22:51:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/28223327/woman-flood-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295179</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Climate, Climate Change, Conflict, Desertification, Deserts, Drought, Environment, Fishing, Flooding, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Gender, Global Warming, Grasslands, Green, Lakes, Land Conflict, Reforestation, Social Conflict, Trees, Tropical Forests, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The communities around Lake Chad have always lived by its water rhythms. Now, as climate change impacts intensify, they must find new ways to adapt. The Lake Chad Basin lies in the Sahel, on the southern edge of the Sahara. The basin is enormous, covering 2.5 million square kilometers (965,255 square miles), or 8% of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The communities around Lake Chad have always lived by its water rhythms. Now, as climate change impacts intensify, they must find new ways to adapt. The Lake Chad Basin lies in the Sahel, on the southern edge of the Sahara. The basin is enormous, covering 2.5 million square kilometers (965,255 square miles), or 8% of the African continent, straddling eight countries. Lake Chad sits at the end point of this drainage basin, an unexpected bounty of water in a dry land. An estimated 3 million people live near the lake, and 49 million more live in the basin and depend on its resources. The amount of water in Lake Chad is closely linked to climate as it’s in a closed drainage system, with rivers leading into, but not out of, the lake. The volume of water going into the lake — via the Chari, Logone and other rivers — largely depends on the amount of rain in the catchment area. As the lake is wide and shallow, currently averaging less than 3 meters (9.8 feet) in depth, changes in rainfall have a dramatic effect on its size. The lake swells and recedes seasonally and between years. But the most dramatic changes happen over decades. Lake Chad straddles four countries: Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. Image captured Dec. 2024 by Planet Labs. In the 1960s, Lake Chad’s waters covered 25,000 km2 (9,653 mi2), making it the sixth-largest lake in the world. Then, in the 1970s and ‘80s, as drought gripped the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lake-chad-isnt-shrinking-but-climate-change-is-causing-other-problems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lake-chad-isnt-shrinking-but-climate-change-is-causing-other-problems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295179</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>We must prioritize rangeland conservation for planetary health and biodiversity (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/we-must-prioritize-rangeland-conservation-for-planetary-health-and-biodiversity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/we-must-prioritize-rangeland-conservation-for-planetary-health-and-biodiversity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 20:31:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dr. Igshaan Samuels]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/16144518/15060604824_94f3772b9b_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291753</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Desertification, Environment, Livestock, Pasture, Ranching, Sustainability, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, there has been an enormous increase in awareness about the importance of rainforests to global ecosystems and economies. Meanwhile, another biome – one that covers more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and is similarly important to tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation – has been overlooked. Rangelands, despite [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, there has been an enormous increase in awareness about the importance of rainforests to global ecosystems and economies. Meanwhile, another biome – one that covers more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and is similarly important to tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation – has been overlooked. Rangelands, despite their size and significance, have been historically under-appreciated in global sustainability discussions. However, as this “triple COP” year of three UN summits draws to a close, we have an opportunity to reverse this trend. By giving rangelands the consideration and support they deserve, their potential to help lower emissions, reduce biodiversity loss, and reverse land degradation can be realized. Rangelands cover more than 79 million square kilometers of grasslands, savannas, deserts, shrublands, and tundra globally. But they are more than just expansive open landscapes – rangelands are central to global economies, ecosystems, and cultures. Camels, cattle and goats are a common sight on the rangelands of northern Kenya. Image courtesy of Peyton Fleming. In some African countries, for example, rangelands are key to the livestock sector, providing natural forage for cattle, sheep, goats and camels. Globally, they provide over 70% of the forage consumed by livestock, underpinning a significant portion of the global protein supply – especially for 200 million pastoralists. Overall, rangelands support the food security and livelihoods of up to two billion people. They also foster some of the most biodiverse areas in the world and are home to 30% of biodiversity hotspots, including the Succulent Karoo biodiversity hotspot in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/we-must-prioritize-rangeland-conservation-for-planetary-health-and-biodiversity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291753</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study looks for success factors in African projects that heal land and help people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2024 22:09:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/13220001/Cheetahs_tracking_scents-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291546</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burkina Faso, Central Africa, Namibia, Niger, Southern Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Critically Endangered Species, Desertification, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Argan oil cooperatives in Morocco. Regreening Niger. Revitalizing a national park in Madagascar. Wildlife conservancies in Namibia. Cashew plantations in Burkina Faso. Beach management in Kenya. Agroforestry in Ghana. These are but a smattering of the many initiatives that have tried to reverse land degradation in Africa while improving people’s lives. Some succeeded, others failed, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Argan oil cooperatives in Morocco. Regreening Niger. Revitalizing a national park in Madagascar. Wildlife conservancies in Namibia. Cashew plantations in Burkina Faso. Beach management in Kenya. Agroforestry in Ghana. These are but a smattering of the many initiatives that have tried to reverse land degradation in Africa while improving people’s lives. Some succeeded, others failed, and as a recent study finds, the outcomes are devilishly difficult to predict. Nearly half of Africa is affected by desertification, and two-thirds of productive land is degraded, according to a 2021 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); yet, 60% of people in Africa depend on their land and forests. The Torra Conservancy, northwest Namibia. Much of the arid landscape is unsuitable for farming, and income from tourism, including a partnership with Wilderness Safaris, provides substantial benefits for conservancy members. Image by Sonse via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). “I do a lot of projects where I go to the communities, and I work with people to change things, and to imagine how we could improve things,” says Camille Jahel, a researcher at the French Agricultural Centre for International Development (CIRAD). “At one point we wanted to know, but is it possible? Is it even possible to have a sustainable change?” To be clear, this is not an entirely new question. But Jahel says that while there’s a trove of theoretical work, few studies have looked at on-the-ground projects in Africa and holistically considered the complex combination of local dynamics,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291546</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroecology offers blueprint for resilient farming in northern Ghana</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agroecology-offers-blueprint-for-resilient-farming-in-northern-ghana/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agroecology-offers-blueprint-for-resilient-farming-in-northern-ghana/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2024 13:49:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caleb Ahinakwah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/04140642/40099205142_33faee2270_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291163</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Environment, Forests, Reforestation, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Farmers in Ghana’s Upper East region traditionally decided when to plant and harvest their crops in rhythm with regular rainfall cycles. But the rains now come at increasingly odd times, farmland is turning into desert, and farmers have been forced to endure temperatures high enough to melt tarmac. Amid these impacts, agroforestry is offering a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Farmers in Ghana’s Upper East region traditionally decided when to plant and harvest their crops in rhythm with regular rainfall cycles. But the rains now come at increasingly odd times, farmland is turning into desert, and farmers have been forced to endure temperatures high enough to melt tarmac. Amid these impacts, agroforestry is offering a glimmer of hope: by integrating trees, crops and livestock on their fields, farmers are finding ways to restore their land and secure livelihoods. Climate change is increasingly visible in the Upper East, a savanna landscape in northern Ghana that usually experiences five months of rain between July and August, tapering off by October. Isaac Papanko grows millet near the small town of Bongo. “When I was a child, the rains came when they were supposed to, and the land could hold water. Now, the soil cracks under the sun, and crops wither before they can even grow,” he told Mongabay by phone. His story is reiterated by many others, highlighting the uncertainty that’s replacing once reliable cycles. In the fields that spread beyond the mud-walled compounds of Bolgatanga, the regional capital, Ibrahim Tuzee acknowledged the ways that residents have exacerbated the impacts of changing weather. Like many others, his family supplements its harvest of millet, sorghum and maize with income from selling firewood. “We cut trees down to make space for farming, but we didn’t know it would bring this kind of hardship. The winds are harsher without the trees, and the soil gets blown&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agroecology-offers-blueprint-for-resilient-farming-in-northern-ghana/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agroecology-offers-blueprint-for-resilient-farming-in-northern-ghana/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291163</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local NGO RAINS brings relief to Ghana’s semiarid north with regenerative farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2024 13:35:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/16123119/40132068671_aea784cf4a_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288824</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In northern Ghana, communities are facing food insecurity and declining livelihoods due to erratic weather, degraded soils and loss of forests. Among those working on ways to unpick this complicated knot of challenges in the Northern Savannah Zone is an NGO called the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems, or RAINS. The NSZ stretches 97,000 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northern Ghana, communities are facing food insecurity and declining livelihoods due to erratic weather, degraded soils and loss of forests. Among those working on ways to unpick this complicated knot of challenges in the Northern Savannah Zone is an NGO called the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems, or RAINS. The NSZ stretches 97,000 square kilometers (37,500 square miles) across northern Ghana, where people have long grown maize, millet, yam, groundnuts and soybeans in a landscape dominated by shea nut, baobab and acacia trees. Home to more than 5 million people today, the ecological balance of this semiarid ecosystem is in danger: forest cover here declined by 77% between 2001 and 2015, according to the United Nations Development Programme. “Evidence abounds in Ghana that temperatures in all the ecological zones including the Northern Region are rising, whereas rainfall levels and patterns have been generally reducing and increasingly becoming erratic,” Hardi Tijani, executive director of RAINS, told Mongabay via email. “Soil degradation and erosion caused by alternating floods and droughts are leading to creeping desertification.” He said these changes have affected residents&#8217; harvests, prompting many to turn to felling trees for timber and charcoal to earn additional income, further aggravating damage to the landscape. Charcoal production near Chiana, Kassena Nankana District &#8211; Ghana. Image by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). To counter the threats and break this cycle, RAINS is explaining and supporting regenerative agricultural practices to farmers across the region, including intercropping, the planting of cover crops,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288824</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Madagascar, Taniala Regenerative Camp aims to heal deforestation scars</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-madagascar-taniala-regenerative-camp-aims-to-heal-deforestation-scars/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-madagascar-taniala-regenerative-camp-aims-to-heal-deforestation-scars/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2024 16:57:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/03144815/TanialaPhoto5-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288164</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Madagascar, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, NGOs, Protected Areas, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Menabe Antimena Protected Area in midwestern Madagascar is badly scarred by deforestation; farmers from the surrounding communities have encroached on this unique dry forest ecosystem in search of new and fertile land to grow crops like maize and peanuts. But amid the damage, in the village of Lambokely, is a carefully tended exception. Roland [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Menabe Antimena Protected Area in midwestern Madagascar is badly scarred by deforestation; farmers from the surrounding communities have encroached on this unique dry forest ecosystem in search of new and fertile land to grow crops like maize and peanuts. But amid the damage, in the village of Lambokely, is a carefully tended exception. Roland Frédéric Tahina and a group of volunteers tend baobabs, Indian siris and a range of indigenous species they’ve planted on a small plot they’ve named the Taniala Regenerative Camp. Local communities in Menabe depend on agriculture, hunting, charcoal production and the extraction of timber and non-timber forest products for their livelihood and income. Because of limited rainfall, poor soil quality and an increasingly arid climate, they face acute food insecurity. Their primary farming method — using fire to clear new areas to grow crops — depletes the soil and accelerates desertification. Additionally, migrants from the south are increasingly involved in this practice in forested areas, leading to severe deforestation, especially in the Menabe Antimena Protected Area. Preparing holes for tree lines on an agroforestry test plot. Image courtesy Roland Frédéric Tahina. Menabe’s dry forests include numerous endemic tree species, including rosewood, hazomalany (Hernandia voyronii) and baobab. The protected area is also a refuge for critically endangered species like flat-tailed tortoises (Pyxis planicauda), giant jumping rats (Hypogeomys antimena) and Madame Berthe’s mouse lemurs (Microcebus berthae). This unique ecosystem is projected to vanish by 2050, making it one of the most endangered protected areas in the country.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-madagascar-taniala-regenerative-camp-aims-to-heal-deforestation-scars/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-madagascar-taniala-regenerative-camp-aims-to-heal-deforestation-scars/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288164</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why I quit the film industry to work on ecological restoration (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/why-i-quit-the-film-industry-to-work-on-ecological-restoration-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/why-i-quit-the-film-industry-to-work-on-ecological-restoration-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2024 18:58:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John D. Liu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/12174551/restoration-in-Spain-1-768x392.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287373</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, East Asia, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Conservation, Desertification, Ecosystems, Environment, Erosion, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Landscape Restoration, Natural Resources, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I&#8217;ve spent a significant part of my career exploring and documenting how ecosystems function, and the profound impact humanity has on nature. Over time, I&#8217;ve come to recognize that not only is the way we treat the environment critically flawed, but so too is our current economic system. Conventional economic theories, like Keynesian economics, focus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I&#8217;ve spent a significant part of my career exploring and documenting how ecosystems function, and the profound impact humanity has on nature. Over time, I&#8217;ve come to recognize that not only is the way we treat the environment critically flawed, but so too is our current economic system. Conventional economic theories, like Keynesian economics, focus on transactions — the buying and selling of goods — as the primary measure of wealth. They insist that to prosper, societies must continually extract more resources, manufacture more products, and engage in more commercial activities — it’s all about ‘growth.’ However, there&#8217;s a fundamental problem with this approach: it overlooks the intrinsic value of nature. True wealth is not found in the commodities we trade, but in the functionality and health of our ecosystems. These provide us with “services” like clean air, water and fertile soil, which are the real foundations of our economy and very survival. Unlike the limited and often destructive traditional economic model, we must foster an economy that places higher value on natural systems and benefits all life — not just the interests of the 1%. Climate breakdown and biodiversity loss affect us all in the end. No one will be immune if we run out of soil to produce food, or clean water to drink. Ecological restoration work on Redonda Island, Antigua and Barbuda. Image courtesy of Olivier Raynaud/Environmental Awareness Group. Whose responsibility is it to make change? When I was setting up a CBS news bureau in China&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/why-i-quit-the-film-industry-to-work-on-ecological-restoration-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/why-i-quit-the-film-industry-to-work-on-ecological-restoration-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287373</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In a desertscape in Brazil, science brings farms to bountiful life</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/in-a-desertscape-in-brazil-science-brings-farms-to-bountiful-life/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/in-a-desertscape-in-brazil-science-brings-farms-to-bountiful-life/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2024 10:38:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rafael Martins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/16103502/1.Ze-Capemba-1-e1717596313528-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284384</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Dry Forests, Environment, Farming, forest degradation, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When José Rodrigues do Santos first saw the enormous canyons in Gilbués, in Brazil’s Piauí state, he didn’t imagine that he would spend the rest of his life there. He had walked some 20 kilometers (12 miles) across a red sea of desertified land from the place where he was born to arrive in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When José Rodrigues do Santos first saw the enormous canyons in Gilbués, in Brazil’s Piauí state, he didn’t imagine that he would spend the rest of his life there. He had walked some 20 kilometers (12 miles) across a red sea of desertified land from the place where he was born to arrive in the heart of Gilbués with his family. The red landscape here is like something out of a science-fiction film. That’s what makes the occasional pocket of green peeping through the raw earth such a surprise. “The land needs to be cared for, just like we do. It’s a living thing too,” says Santos, better known as Zé Capemba in these parts. He tells of the difficulties involved in working the dry soil, including having to carry water every day. But things are much better today than they were a few years ago, he says. “Our well and the technology improved our life a lot.” Gilbués is located in one of the four main geographical zones currently undergoing desertification according to the Brazilian government. All which are located in the semiarid northeast of the country, an 805-square-kilometer expanse (311-square-mile) expanse of degraded Caatinga dry forest straddling 14 municipalities in Piauí and home to some 149,000 people. Family farmer José Rodrigues do Santos, also known as Zé Capemba, outside his home in Gilbués, Piauí state. Image by Rafael Martins for Mongabay. The Gameleiro, a creek, runs through Zé Capemba’s land. Its course has been altered by the large&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/in-a-desertscape-in-brazil-science-brings-farms-to-bountiful-life/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284384</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uzbekistan plants a forest where a sea once lay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2024 15:38:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/29125751/7-plantation-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282631</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Afforestation, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Desertification, Drought, Environment, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Nature-based climate solutions, Solutions, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Between the borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in both countries, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust that’s now taking a heavy toll on the health and farmlands of these very communities. Since the Aral Sea, technically a lake, began shrinking in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Between the borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in both countries, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust that’s now taking a heavy toll on the health and farmlands of these very communities. Since the Aral Sea, technically a lake, began shrinking in the 1960s, governments on both sides of the border led initiatives to revive tiny fractions of it. But Soviet-era dams, diverting waters feeding the sea to cotton monocultures, squelched the dream. As the Aral Sea dried out, a desert, the Aralkum, emerged and continues to expand on what used to be the lakebed. Today, the bed is caked with a thick layer of salt and of pesticide runoff that crystallized, creating a toxic cocktail of sediment on the ground. When the wind blows, this salt and dust can coat entire communities. Now, instead of trying to restore the lake, officials from the Uzbekistan Forestry Agency and locals are trying to plant a new forest where it once rested. The main purpose of the afforestation project it to curb the harmful sandstorms and improve the ecosystem by planting desert-tolerant plants like saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) on the lakebed. The current plan is to establish forests covering a total area of 150,000 to 200,000 hectares (371,000 to 494,000 acres) in 2024. Karakalpakstan, an Uzbek region that’s home to the Karakalpak people, is one of the most sandstorm-impacted areas in Uzbekistan. More than 300 residents of Karakalpakstan and around 150&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282631</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shining a spotlight on the wide-roaming sand cat ‘king of the desert’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2023 15:28:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/11130750/sand-cat-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276459</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, and Sahara Desert]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Desertification, Deserts, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Research, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The sand cat is small, elusive and adapted to life in some of Earth’s most inhospitable deserts — that makes it hard to study and conserve, with lots of unknowns about its behaviors and populations across its range.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The sand cat flourishes in arguably some of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Felis margarita, also called the sand dune cat, is superbly adapted to the extreme heat and drought of the African Sahara, the largest desert on the planet. But while the species also inhabits a vast home range stretching across the driest parts of Southwest and Central Asia, the individual animals are nearly impossible to see by day and challenging to track by night. They rarely if ever drink water, relying on the prey they eat for the H2O they need. Their creamy striped coats blend perfectly into sand and rock landscapes. Their tiny bodies, weighing no more than six pounds, slip easily under the small bushes that shade them from scorching desert sun, or into underground burrows that hide the cats from prying eyes. Thick black fur between their toes protects paws from the burning sand. This, and strong howling desert winds, are why these nocturnal hunters leave no prints behind. Their large ears can swivel and funnel desert sounds to an exceptionally large middle ear cavity, allowing the cats to hear the faint scratching of burrowing rodents up to 600 feet away, as well as detect and evade scientists who want to radio collar and study them. A sand cat (Felis margarita ) seeks shelter in a tiny patch of shade in the Sahara Desert. Image courtesy of Alexander Sliwa. When ‘stars align’ Little is known about F. margarita. Historical records are rare, with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276459</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Battling desertification: Bringing soil back to life in semiarid Spain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2023 18:53:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jaime VelázquezXaume Olleros]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/11100759/3.-BANNER-As-it-protects-the-soil-with-green-covers-regenerative-agriculture-helped-Santiaga-Sanchez-farm-to-better-withstand-drought-and-runoffs-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274179</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Crops, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Drought, Extreme Weather, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, Food Industry, food security, Impact Of Climate Change, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Meet the rural farmers in southeastern Spain fighting the encroaching Sahara Desert through regenerative agriculture and landscape restoration.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LOS VÉLEZ, Spain — Much has been reported about the Sahara Desert’s inexorable shift southward into Africa’s semiarid Sahel, and of dogged efforts by local villagers to grow a Great Green Wall as a buffer against encroaching sands. But little has been written about the Sahara’s northward advance into Spain. Farmers here, though, are deeply aware of the swift changes coming to their orchards, crops and pastures, as these agricultural lands turn dryer and dryer. In 2023, these farmers endured both a record parching drought and dangerously destructive downpours — both likely intensified by global warming. In Almería, in southeasternmost Spain, rural residents continue grappling with the consequences of human-driven desertification, marked by dwindling rainfall due to a changing climate, punctuated by disastrous deluges, shrinking forests, and severe soil degradation. The lasting effects of torrential rain. Runoff washed away all the soil here, until the erosion reached down to the bedrock. Image by Xaume Olleros for Mongabay. This year, Spain suffered its worst drought in almost a century. The Los Vélez region in Almería, with average precipitation of just 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) annually, didn&#8217;t receive a single drop of rain for more than 150 days. Then, in May, more than 200 mm (7.9 in) fell in a single week. This drought-deluge cycle did serious harm to soils. In the first half of 2023, scorching sun dried up the soil, then torrential rains washed away its nutrient-rich organic matter, turning once-productive croplands into barren sand. Today, struggling groves of almond&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274179</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cut down once again: Uncontrolled logging puts new Sahel reforestation projects at risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/cut-down-once-again-uncontrolled-logging-puts-new-sahel-reforestation-projects-at-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/cut-down-once-again-uncontrolled-logging-puts-new-sahel-reforestation-projects-at-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2023 07:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Georges MessiSabré Na-IdeyamYannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/05143313/Photo-6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273969</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Chad, Sahel, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[charcoal, Conservation, Corruption, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, forest degradation, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Poverty, Protected Areas, Reforestation, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This report was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Fund in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. MOKOLO, Cameroon — The sun is already beating down this morning, a Saturday in July, at Mansour-Sabongari village. Young locals sit chatting in the shade of a forest plantation developed by the  Reforestation 1400 project. The project [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This report was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Fund in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. MOKOLO, Cameroon — The sun is already beating down this morning, a Saturday in July, at Mansour-Sabongari village. Young locals sit chatting in the shade of a forest plantation developed by the  Reforestation 1400 project. The project helped regreen the village’s landscape in northern Cameroon, a savannah with a very hot desert climate — much to the delight of local residents. “Before, even during the rainy season, it was hot as soon as the sun came out. Now, we don’t feel the heat as much, and the trees can shade us from the sun,” says Idrissou Saliou, a local resident. Further out in Gaoui, near Chad’s capital N&#8217;Djamena, Roger Alkali relaxes in a reforested garden created by the Great Green Wall project. By 2030, the project aims to restore 100 million hectares (about 247 million acres) of degraded land across 11 African countries in the Sahel. “We can breathe much cleaner air now than in other places. We are called to protect this green barrier to save us from the very hot climate,” says Alkali, a local resident. A “Reforestation 1400” reforested site in Mansour-Sabongari in Cameroon, now the pride of local residents. Image by Yannick Kenné. Several initiatives, just like the Reforestation 1400 and the Great Green Wall projects, were launched in these two Central African countries with the aim of restoring deforested sites and combating desertification in the Sahel. As&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/cut-down-once-again-uncontrolled-logging-puts-new-sahel-reforestation-projects-at-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/cut-down-once-again-uncontrolled-logging-puts-new-sahel-reforestation-projects-at-risk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273969</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can land titles save Madagascar’s embattled biodiversity and people?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/can-land-titles-save-madagascars-embattled-biodiversity-and-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/can-land-titles-save-madagascars-embattled-biodiversity-and-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2023 10:29:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/10183840/Villagers-traverse-the-Baobab-Avenue-on-their-way-to-work-in-the-fields-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272018</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Biofuels, charcoal, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Flooding, Forest Loss, Forests, Fuelwood, Governance, Human Migration, Mongabay Data Studio, Protected Areas, Solutions, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AGNARAFALY and MENABE, Madagascar — For Soja and his family, who escaped starvation bred by drought, the December rain hammering their corrugated metal roof should be welcome. But rains are a mixed blessing even in this parched region. The downpours turned the Agnarafaly camp for drought-stricken families into a swamp, flooding the shelters. Agnarafaly, in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AGNARAFALY and MENABE, Madagascar — For Soja and his family, who escaped starvation bred by drought, the December rain hammering their corrugated metal roof should be welcome. But rains are a mixed blessing even in this parched region. The downpours turned the Agnarafaly camp for drought-stricken families into a swamp, flooding the shelters. A flooded shelter at the Agnarafaly camp. Image by Malavika Vyawahare / Mongabay. Agnarafaly, in the rural commune of Ifotaka, lies on the border between Anosy and Androy, two regions hit hardest by the drought gripping Madagascar’s deep south, or Grand Sud. Policymakers and experts blame internal migration from the arid south for everything from rising insecurity and social tensions to devastating forest loss in one of the planet’s most biodiverse places. The Malagasy government established the Agnarafaly settlement under its Titre Vert, or Green Title, initiative, an attempt to find a lasting solution to a complex problem. By providing a desperate few with the essentials­ — a roof over their heads and a slice of land to till — the government is leaning on potential migrants to remain in the south. In regions where migrants are already present in large numbers, Titre Vert settlements aim to soothe conflicts with locals and safeguard rapidly disappearing forests. “You have sheep, goats and poultry. All your cultivation plots are equipped with drip [irrigation] systems,” Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina said, speaking at the inauguration of the Agnarafaly settlement in May 2021. “The aim is to ensure your livelihood so you&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/can-land-titles-save-madagascars-embattled-biodiversity-and-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/can-land-titles-save-madagascars-embattled-biodiversity-and-people/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272018</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Villagers turn to charcoal made from bamboo to save a protected forest in Madagascar</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/villagers-turn-to-charcoal-made-of-bamboo-to-save-a-madagascar-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/villagers-turn-to-charcoal-made-of-bamboo-to-save-a-madagascar-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2023 15:52:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Valisoa Rasolofomboahangy]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/07143226/planting-bamboo-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270668</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bamboo, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Fuelwood, Governance, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Ankarafantsika, a primary forest in Madagascar’s northwest Boeny region, is the site of a vicious cycle where declining livelihoods and its environmental impact aggravate one another. Rice paddies, which form the base of local communities’ income, are silting up due to logging in the protected forest, pushing impoverished locals to turn further to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Ankarafantsika, a primary forest in Madagascar’s northwest Boeny region, is the site of a vicious cycle where declining livelihoods and its environmental impact aggravate one another. Rice paddies, which form the base of local communities’ income, are silting up due to logging in the protected forest, pushing impoverished locals to turn further to the forest to make a living — causing more silting. To protect the forest, locals have come together to grow exotic bamboo from Asia as a source of charcoal instead of the trees in Ankarafantsika, hoping to protect surrounding watersheds. The Boeny region is home to Madagascar&#8217;s second biggest &#8220;rice bowl&#8221; and the Ankarafantsika National Park, where logging is illegal. As the silting of the rice paddies has a considerable impact on communities, they’ve had no choice but to illegally exploit the forest’s resources to make charcoal and earn some money, locals told Mongabay. However, as the forest dwindles, the alluvial plains and the Betsiboka River which feeds their paddies, silt up. “Unfortunately, it is these same communities around the park that are destroying the forest. As their rice fields have silted up, they have turned to other activities,” says Jean-Yves Razafindrakoto, director of the Valiha Diffusion, a reforestation association in Madagascar. Between 2000 and 2021, the Boeny region lost 117,000 hectares (nearly 290,000 acres) of tree cover, according to Global Forest Watch. According to Razafindrakoto, Ankarafantsika’s main forest — one of the region&#8217;s biodiversity hotspots — has suffered losses of up to 70%. Area identified&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/villagers-turn-to-charcoal-made-of-bamboo-to-save-a-madagascar-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/villagers-turn-to-charcoal-made-of-bamboo-to-save-a-madagascar-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270668</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nigerian refugees in Cameroon turn biomass into charcoal to spare trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/nigerian-refugees-in-cameroon-turn-biomass-into-charcoal-to-spare-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/nigerian-refugees-in-cameroon-turn-biomass-into-charcoal-to-spare-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2022 14:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amindeh Blaise Atabong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/27133953/nigerian-refugees-cameroon-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258604</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Biofuels, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Desertification, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Fuelwood, Governance, and NGOs]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MINAWAO, Cameroon — On market day in the Minawao refugee camp, every necessity is spread out beneath the mid-morning sun: vegetables, dried fish, soap, new and used clothes, farm implements. It could be any other market in Cameroon&#8217;s Far North region, but for one detail: at the market&#8217;s southern end, beside bundles of firewood, are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MINAWAO, Cameroon — On market day in the Minawao refugee camp, every necessity is spread out beneath the mid-morning sun: vegetables, dried fish, soap, new and used clothes, farm implements. It could be any other market in Cameroon&#8217;s Far North region, but for one detail: at the market&#8217;s southern end, beside bundles of firewood, are tidy pyramids of briquettes. The camp occupies 623 hectares (1,539 acres) on an open plain amid rolling hills. The temperature is 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), and the landscape shimmers as though it were even hotter. Like many other parts of the Sahel, the band of semiarid scrubland bordering the Sahara, this part of northern Cameroon has experienced frequent, intensifying drought in recent years. In Minawao, this has been aggravated by the stripping of virtually every nearby tree for fuel for a local population swollen by the presence of nearly 60,000 refugees fleeing an Islamist insurgency in neighboring Nigeria. About 80% of people in Cameroon depend solely on wood for cooking, according to one estimate by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). It puts the amount of firewood burned in the country every year at 2.2 million metric tons. Minawao refugee camp occupies 623 hectares (1,539 acres) on an open plain amid rolling hills where the temperature is 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), and the landscape shimmers as though it were even hotter. Image by Amindeh Blaise Atabong for Mongabay. Less than a quarter of households in Cameroon have electricity, and domestic gas is expensive or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/nigerian-refugees-in-cameroon-turn-biomass-into-charcoal-to-spare-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/nigerian-refugees-in-cameroon-turn-biomass-into-charcoal-to-spare-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258604</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon’s Nigerian refugees who degraded their camp are now vanguards of reforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cameroons-nigerian-refugees-who-degraded-their-camp-are-now-vanguards-of-reforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cameroons-nigerian-refugees-who-degraded-their-camp-are-now-vanguards-of-reforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2022 11:32:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amindeh Blaise Atabong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/21113010/7-nursery-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257546</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Afforestation, Agriculture, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Desertification, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Fuelwood, Landscape Restoration, NGOs, Plantations, Reforestation, Resource Conflict, Restoration, Social Conflict, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MINAWAO, Cameroon — The refugee camp comes to life soon after dawn, some residents shouldering tools and exchanging greetings as they head out to the small farms they&#8217;ve established on the outskirts, others opening stalls selling breakfast, an aroma of yeast and sugar rising as the day&#8217;s first “puff-puff,” a yeasted fritter, is scooped out [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MINAWAO, Cameroon — The refugee camp comes to life soon after dawn, some residents shouldering tools and exchanging greetings as they head out to the small farms they&#8217;ve established on the outskirts, others opening stalls selling breakfast, an aroma of yeast and sugar rising as the day&#8217;s first “puff-puff,” a yeasted fritter, is scooped out of hot oil. Joshua Bejeme selects a chewing stick and pulls on his boots and heads toward a nursery near the heart of the camp. The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) set up the Minawao camp in July 2013 to house a growing number of refugees fleeing violence from the Islamist group Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria. It anticipated housing around 15,000 people on a 623-hectare (1,539-acre) site here, 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the border. By September 2015, it was home to more than 58,000, and the sparse woodlands around it had been cut down for firewood or to make shelter. When Sani Habu arrived at the camp in 2014, he was one of those who cut down the trees, selling the wood to make ends meet. “I couldn’t imagine the damage I was causing. I was only interested in making money to take care of my family,” the Nigerian refugee says. Today, he’s one of the most enthusiastic beneficiaries of a reforestation initiative operating from the camp. His mud-walled house with a thatched roof is surrounded by trees he has planted. Thanks to the reforestation initiative, the Nigerian refugees&#8217; mud-walled houses are now surrounded&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cameroons-nigerian-refugees-who-degraded-their-camp-are-now-vanguards-of-reforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cameroons-nigerian-refugees-who-degraded-their-camp-are-now-vanguards-of-reforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257546</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can wonder plant spekboom really bring smiles back to sad South African towns?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/can-wonder-plant-spekboom-really-bring-smiles-back-to-sad-south-african-towns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/can-wonder-plant-spekboom-really-bring-smiles-back-to-sad-south-african-towns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jun 2022 12:33:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Weekes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/07111709/8-Steunenberg-next-to-thicket-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Conservation, Desertification, Deserts, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Impact Of Climate Change, Landscape Restoration, Plants, Reforestation, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KIRKWOOD, South Africa — About 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, inland from the coastal city of Gqeberha, a brilliant patch of green stands out against a landscape recovering from six years of drought. The rudimentary fence of wooden poles and chicken wire surrounding it has been knocked over in places by kudu, steenbok and other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KIRKWOOD, South Africa — About 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, inland from the coastal city of Gqeberha, a brilliant patch of green stands out against a landscape recovering from six years of drought. The rudimentary fence of wooden poles and chicken wire surrounding it has been knocked over in places by kudu, steenbok and other local antelope species, as well as a neighboring farmer’s goats, all eager to get at the dense stands of an indigenous succulent: spekboom. This fenced-off area on the Steenbok Vlakte game farm is one of 300 similar plots of spekboom (Portulacaria afra), scattered along 800 km (500 mi) of South Africa&#8217;s Eastern and Western Cape provinces, in a million-hectare (2.5-million-acre) band that was once dominated by mixed thickets of this remarkable plant. In a restoration project launched in 2009, botanists from Gqeberha&#8217;s Nelson Mandela University tried out 13 different methods of planting spekboom in plots measuring 50 by 50 meters (164 by 164 feet), intended to assess how to restore the entire strip. Underneath each of the now-12-year-old plants in the test plot, the branches that grow laterally along the ground have sprung roots wherever the plant’s leaves touch the ground, birthing hundreds of new spekboom, what the botanists fondly call the skirt of the plant. The plot is so successful that the farm&#8217;s owner, Johannes de Lange, has planted another 9 hectares (22 acres) of his land with cuttings he and his workers took from the plants on the trial plot. Researchers have planted&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/can-wonder-plant-spekboom-really-bring-smiles-back-to-sad-south-african-towns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/can-wonder-plant-spekboom-really-bring-smiles-back-to-sad-south-african-towns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256890</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Getting African grasslands right, for people and wildlife alike: Q&#038;A with Susanne Vetter</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/getting-african-grasslands-right-for-people-and-wildlife-alike-qa-with-susanne-vetter/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/getting-african-grasslands-right-for-people-and-wildlife-alike-qa-with-susanne-vetter/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2021 11:01:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kang-Chun Cheng]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/31105345/Two-Maasai-boys-tasked-with-bringing-the-herd-home-in-Amboseli-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251364</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Culture, Desertification, Deserts, Ecosystems, Environment, Grasslands, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Land Conflict, Landscape Restoration, Livestock, Pasture, Politics, Research, Restoration, Savannas, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[All across the arid and semi-arid landscapes of Africa, grasslands meet the eye. These ecosystems provide a wealth of environmental services, sequestering immense amounts of carbon (grazing lands store up to 30% of the world’s soil carbon, by one estimate) and harboring tremendous biodiversity. This includes some of the world’s most iconic remaining megafauna, such [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[All across the arid and semi-arid landscapes of Africa, grasslands meet the eye. These ecosystems provide a wealth of environmental services, sequestering immense amounts of carbon (grazing lands store up to 30% of the world’s soil carbon, by one estimate) and harboring tremendous biodiversity. This includes some of the world’s most iconic remaining megafauna, such as elephants, rhinos and lions, and epic annual migrations of 1.5 million thundering wildebeest. These immense swaths of grass also sustain people practicing one of the world’s most ancient occupations: livestock herding. Some 268 million pastoralists live in Africa, contributing an estimated 10-44% of the GDP of African nations, according to a 2013 African Union report. Out of necessity, herders are resourceful, innovative and resilient. They require large areas of land to graze their livestock, which is why many pastoral communities across the world are nomadic or semi-nomadic. Their cows, goats, camels and sheep convert what other people may dismiss as wasteland into milk and meat. At times, these animals are the only viable way to make a living in remote, dry landscapes. Yet as populations of both people and their animals burgeon, as grasslands become segmented through fencing, property privatization, development projects and extractive industries, and as government policies encourage shifts away from pastoral livelihoods, both herders and the grasslands they depend on are facing new challenges. At the same time, pastoralists often take much of the blame for declining grasslands. Conservationists and farmers accuse herders of having too many livestock that trample sensitive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/getting-african-grasslands-right-for-people-and-wildlife-alike-qa-with-susanne-vetter/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251364</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mali&#8217;s centuries-old pastoralist traditions wilt as the climate changes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/malis-centuries-old-pastoralist-traditions-wilt-as-the-climate-changes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/malis-centuries-old-pastoralist-traditions-wilt-as-the-climate-changes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2021 09:11:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/31084825/Livestock-in-Mali-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251358</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mali, Sahara Desert, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conflict, Conservation, Desertification, Deserts, Environment, Extreme Weather, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Pasture, Politics, Social Conflict, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Movement is a way of life among the Kel Tamasheq of northern Mali. Living near Timbuktu, the transhumance traditions of this branch of nomadic Tuaregs (or Touaregs) who speak Tamasheq have persisted since before the 15th century. According to Aboubacrine ag Mohamed Mitta, a member of the Kel Tamasheq people, their ancestors were pure nomads. They [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Movement is a way of life among the Kel Tamasheq of northern Mali. Living near Timbuktu, the transhumance traditions of this branch of nomadic Tuaregs (or Touaregs) who speak Tamasheq have persisted since before the 15th century. According to Aboubacrine ag Mohamed Mitta, a member of the Kel Tamasheq people, their ancestors were pure nomads. They lived as nomads, following their animals in the middle of the desert. Mitta is also the president of the Network of Pastoral Peoples in the Sahel, known by its French acronym RPPS, and one of the authors of the most comprehensive report on Indigenous food systems published by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). &#8220;We try to follow in their footsteps,&#8221; he told Mongabay in a video interview. Faithfulness to tradition isn&#8217;t just a matter of reverence for the Kel Tamasheq. Living amid the unforgiving Saharan sands, it’s essential for survival. The region receives less than 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rainfall a year, and temperatures exceed 45° Celsius (113° Fahrenheit) in the summer. A nomadic pastoralist lifestyle may appear out of place in a world that thrives on the subjugation of the natural system, particularly the control of food production. But the Kel Tamasheq&#8217;s ability to mold their lives around their environment could hold the clues to navigating a planet thrown out of whack by rapid warming. By 2100, northern Mali could itself be, on average, 4.7°C (8.5°F) hotter, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N.&#8217;s top climate research&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/malis-centuries-old-pastoralist-traditions-wilt-as-the-climate-changes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/malis-centuries-old-pastoralist-traditions-wilt-as-the-climate-changes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251358</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmers regreen Kenya’s drylands with agroforestry and an app</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/farmers-regreen-kenyas-drylands-with-agroforestry-and-an-app/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/farmers-regreen-kenyas-drylands-with-agroforestry-and-an-app/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2021 15:08:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Njagi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/26145433/DRYLAND-AGROFORESTRY-16-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246380</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Global Agroforestry]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burkina Faso, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, and Niger]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Community Development, Conservation Technology, Desertification, Development, Sustainable Development, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MAKUENI, Kenya — A quarter of the world&#8217;s 4.4 billion hectares (10.9 million acres) of cropland is degraded, often due to drying, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Just over a hectare and a half, or 4 acres, of that dried-out land have for years been located at Benedict Manyi&#8217;s farm in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MAKUENI, Kenya — A quarter of the world&#8217;s 4.4 billion hectares (10.9 million acres) of cropland is degraded, often due to drying, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Just over a hectare and a half, or 4 acres, of that dried-out land have for years been located at Benedict Manyi&#8217;s farm in southeastern Kenya. Manyi, 53, watched helplessly as his land lost productivity due to the multiple factors of overuse without restoration, erratic rains, and prolonged droughts. By 2016, the land could not even sustain a blade of grass. Lately, though, he is changing that. Manyi is among the more than 35,000 farmers in Kenya who have joined the Drylands Development Programme (DryDev), a donor-led project that is turning arid Kenya into green farms which works in concert with the IFAD-EU funded Drylands Restoration Project. &#8220;I hardly harvested enough before I started practicing dryland agroforestry. Now I get surplus, value and more,” says the father of four, adding that he can harvest up to six 90-kilogram (200-pound) bags of produce from a 0.8-hectare (2-acre) plot, whether the rains are adequate or not. Benedict Manyi, a farmer from southeastern Kenya, checks his trees. Image by David Njagi for Mongabay. According to the FAO, the world&#8217;s agricultural productivity increased by up to 200% by 2010. But in Kenya, inadequate rains and degraded soils mean less than 20% of the area is suitable for crops, says Dikson Kibata, a technical officer with the country&#8217;s Agriculture and Food Authority. So, farmers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/farmers-regreen-kenyas-drylands-with-agroforestry-and-an-app/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/farmers-regreen-kenyas-drylands-with-agroforestry-and-an-app/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246380</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mexico devises revolutionary method to reverse semiarid land degradation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/mexico-devises-revolutionary-method-to-reverse-semiarid-land-degradation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/mexico-devises-revolutionary-method-to-reverse-semiarid-land-degradation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2021 15:15:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/10125311/degraded-land-agave-Mexico-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=245732</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Global Agroforestry]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Deserts, Drought, Environment, Farming, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Nature-based climate solutions, Nitrogen Cycle, Plants, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Sustainability, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[About a quarter of the world’s land is degraded. A new farming system intercrops agave and mesquite, then ferments it into cheap fodder, promising restored semiarid croplands and a peasant farming revival.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Land degradation is recognized as one of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, with about a quarter of the world’s total land area already degraded, according to the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This adverse land use change has seriously harmed the livelihoods of more than 3 billion people, almost 40% of the world’s population, while exacerbating climate change due to the release of long-sequestered soil carbon and nitrous oxide — a powerful greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere. Worse may lie ahead. Scientists warn that 24 billion tons of fertile soil are being lost each year, largely due to unsustainable agriculture practices. If this trend continues, they say, 95% of Earth’s land area could be degraded by 2050 — a dangerously unsustainable situation. However, practical solutions exist, according to Gary Nabhan, a professor at the University of Arizona and one of the world’s leading experts on farming on arid land. “Over the last 50 years, most top-down rural development projects, have failed terribly,” he explains. “But there are guys trying out new ideas at the margins of conventional agriculture, which is where all lasting innovations in agriculture come from. We have to listen to them.” A woman tending to an agave plant on Mexico&#8217;s degraded lands. When agave grows to this size, the plants require maintenance. The woman is pruning old and damaged pencas, removing “offspring,” so that the mother plant will conserve energy. she then plants the seedlings elsewhere. Image courtesy of Alejandro Vasconcelos. Troubled times are the mother&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/mexico-devises-revolutionary-method-to-reverse-semiarid-land-degradation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/mexico-devises-revolutionary-method-to-reverse-semiarid-land-degradation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-245732</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cerrado desertification: Savanna could collapse within 30 years, says study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/cerrado-desertification-savanna-could-collapse-within-30-years-says-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/cerrado-desertification-savanna-could-collapse-within-30-years-says-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2021 14:15:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/28132618/Cerrado-Brazil-Rural-Soybeans-Owl-Crop-Plantation-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=245286</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Cerrado]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Business, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Grasslands, Impact Of Climate Change, Land Speculation, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Plantations, Politics, Soy, Temperatures, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nearly half of Brazil’s savanna biome has already been lost to agriculture. Scientists say further deforestation may bring biodiversity collapse and disastrous drought, putting Brazil’s water supply and agricultural economy at grave risk.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of the world&#8217;s biodiversity hotspots and a vital source of much of Brazil’s water, the Cerrado biome may collapse in less than 30 years if agribusiness keeps advancing at its current frenetic pace. That is the key finding of a primary research article presented by 12 Brazilian scientists and recently published in Global Change Biology. The tropical savanna, which lies south and east of the Amazon rainforest, is an immense biome covering 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles), or an area the size of Mexico, and inclusive of all or parts of 10 Brazilian states. With a dry season that lasts roughly from June to September, and soils poor in nutrients, the savanna’s native vegetation is composed mainly of grasslands dotted by dry forest patches. While the biome lacks the gigantic rainforest trees of the neighboring Amazon, that doesn&#8217;t prevent the Cerrado from being a very rich bastion of biodiversity. It is home to more than 4,800 plant and vertebrate species found nowhere else in the world. This frog species Physalaemus nattereri (posterior view shown) is found in the open Cerrado, but not in adjacent gallery forests. Image by Felipe Gomes via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5). &nbsp; &#8220;We are talking about entire lineages of life that will disappear, not to mention several insects that only exist in Cerrado,&#8221; warns Gabriel Hofmann, a doctor in ecology and postgraduate student in geography at Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (UFRGS). The desertification of the Cerrado: Hotter, drier … deadlier&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/cerrado-desertification-savanna-could-collapse-within-30-years-says-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/cerrado-desertification-savanna-could-collapse-within-30-years-says-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-245286</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A novel tree nursery gives the Caatinga a fighting chance against desertification</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/a-novel-tree-nursery-gives-the-caatinga-a-fighting-chance-against-desertification/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/a-novel-tree-nursery-gives-the-caatinga-a-fighting-chance-against-desertification/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2021 10:12:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Luís Patriani]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/04100719/11_Por_do_sol_experimento-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243330</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Caatinga, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Desertification, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Landscape Restoration, Plants, Reforestation, Restoration, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Caatinga is the most densely populated semiarid region in the world and the only exclusively Brazilian biome. The region needs assistance to prevent it from becoming an immense desert. Nearly half of the Caatinga has already been destroyed — some 840,000 square kilometers (324,300 square miles) — and there are indications that this symbol [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Caatinga is the most densely populated semiarid region in the world and the only exclusively Brazilian biome. The region needs assistance to prevent it from becoming an immense desert. Nearly half of the Caatinga has already been destroyed — some 840,000 square kilometers (324,300 square miles) — and there are indications that this symbol of resilience — home to diverse and endemic species — is undergoing a desertification process that has already consumed 13% of its territory. The Caatinga is home to plants that have adapted to seasonal rainfall extremes, like the iconic umbu tree (Spondias tuberosa) that stores water in its roots. But the biome can no longer rely solely on evolution and the peculiar transformations of its vegetation to survive as it comes up against deforestation and global warming. But one simple and innovative idea from the Restoration Ecology Lab at Rio Grande do Norte Federal University’s Ecology Department could turn the tables on failed Caatinga restoration projects, in which 70% of the seedlings transplanted by traditional methods are often lost The method developed at the UFRN lab has reversed that, raising survival rates to 70% on average. It uses PVC pipes to accelerate and lengthen root growth in native plants that have difficulty drawing water from degraded and salty soil. Monitoring an angiko tree (Parapiptadenia rigida) in the experiment area. Image by Gislene Ganade. From pasture to forest In the first management phase, the seedlings are germinated in a greenhouse inside PVC pipes with small bags&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/a-novel-tree-nursery-gives-the-caatinga-a-fighting-chance-against-desertification/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/a-novel-tree-nursery-gives-the-caatinga-a-fighting-chance-against-desertification/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243330</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Humanity’s challenge of the century: Conserving Earth’s freshwater systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/humanitys-challenge-of-the-century-conserving-earths-freshwater-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/humanitys-challenge-of-the-century-conserving-earths-freshwater-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 May 2021 19:48:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Saul Elbein]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/10130449/banner1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242451</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Arizona, California, Global, Libya, Middle East, Oman, Sahel, Southwest United States, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Cities, Climate Change, Conservation, Desertification, Deserts, Drinking Water, Drought, Environment, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Natural Resources, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Technology, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From Tripoli to Phoenix, the world’s thirst in great desert cities is deepening, even as agribusiness guzzles more water to feed them. Humanity’s arid urban places are colliding with a key Planetary Boundary, scientists warn.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On April 11, 2020, a band of fighters stormed and seized a water control station in the Libyan Sahara. Taking employees prisoner, they occupied a key nexus that helps move 1.2 million cubic meters (317 million gallons) of water per day — 480 Olympic-sized swimming pools — from freshwater aquifers beneath the desert down to the coast. The raiders flipped a switch and at a stroke, 400 kilometers (250 miles) away, in the capital Tripoli, 2 million people&#8217;s taps went dry. One of many such attacks, this battle in the intensifying global water wars has dire portent for Libya and the world. The country’s water system had once been a crown jewel of 20th century hydraulic engineering, part of a global constellation of megaprojects that allowed cities in water-starved regions to grow into the millions. In the 1980s, with Libya&#8217;s coastal cities outpacing the region&#8217;s sparse rainfall, and its aquifers depleted by overuse, tainted by pollution, and salted by rising seas, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi completed an enormous network of pipes — the so-called Great Manmade River — linking desert aquifers and urban coasts; it now supplies 70% of Libya&#8217;s water. Digging a trench for Libya’s Great Manmade River in the 1980s. The Great Manmade River is formed by a network of pipelines that now supplies 70% of Libya&#8217;s water — an aging infrastructure network at risk of failing. Image by Jaap Berk via Wikimedia Commons. That Manmade River today demonstrates just how fast a world-ranked freshwater supply system can fall&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/humanitys-challenge-of-the-century-conserving-earths-freshwater-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242451</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nigeria pledges to restore nearly 10 million acres of degraded land</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/nigeria-pledges-to-restore-nearly-10-million-acres-of-degraded-land/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/nigeria-pledges-to-restore-nearly-10-million-acres-of-degraded-land/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Dec 2017 14:49:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/12/07141820/16355913053_984c43b6e2_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=201915</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Environment, Finance, forest degradation, Forests, Politics, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The government of Nigeria has announced its plans to restore four million hectares, or nearly 10 million acres, of degraded lands within its borders. The West African nation is now one of 26 countries across the continent that have committed to restoring more than 84 million hectares (over 200 million acres) of degraded lands as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The government of Nigeria has announced its plans to restore four million hectares, or nearly 10 million acres, of degraded lands within its borders. The West African nation is now one of 26 countries across the continent that have committed to restoring more than 84 million hectares (over 200 million acres) of degraded lands as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), an effort that aims to bring 100 million hectares of land under restoration by 2030. These commitments also support the targets of the Bonn Challenge, a global initiative to restore 150 million hectares by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. Nigeria’s economy is the largest in Africa, but deforestation has become widespread amidst the country’s rapid pace of urban development and population growth. “Nigeria is happy to be associated with the AFR100 initiative and Bonn Challenge. We are committed to restoring degraded forests to improve citizens’ livelihoods through food security, poverty alleviation, a sustainable environment and the achievement of the [UN] Sustainable Development Goals,” Bananda Aliyu, the director of the Drought and Desertification Amelioration Department at Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment, said in a statement. “Our government understands the environmental benefits of restoring degraded forest landscapes and hopes to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions, Land Degradation Neutrality targets and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of Nigeria.” Climate mitigation efforts around land use, land-use change, and forestry are included in 83 percent of the climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), submitted by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/nigeria-pledges-to-restore-nearly-10-million-acres-of-degraded-land/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/nigeria-pledges-to-restore-nearly-10-million-acres-of-degraded-land/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-201915</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>UNEP official calls for ‘coherent planning’ as Aichi falters in Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/unep-official-calls-for-coherent-planning-as-aichi-falters-in-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/unep-official-calls-for-coherent-planning-as-aichi-falters-in-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2017 15:33:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sophie Mbugua]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/10/05153036/kenya_elf_0980-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=199646</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Desertification, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Politics, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forests cover about 40 million square kilometers – around 30 percent – of the Earth’s surface. They provide habitat for countless species, as well as important ecosystem services for human communities. Tree roots prevent land degradation and desertification by stabilizing soils, and help maintain water and nutrient cycling in soils. The UN Food and Agriculture [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Forests cover about 40 million square kilometers – around 30 percent – of the Earth’s surface. They provide habitat for countless species, as well as important ecosystem services for human communities. Tree roots prevent land degradation and desertification by stabilizing soils, and help maintain water and nutrient cycling in soils. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that about 1.6 billion people depend on forests for employment, income generation and subsistence. The FAO warns that deforestation sparked by an ever-increasing demand for food, materials and fuel is degrading ecosystems and diminishing water availability. Forests are also huge carbon sinks and, as such, feature prominently in international strategies to combat climate change. According to a report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), forests may be capable of absorbing approximately 10 percent of all global emissions by 2050. Research indicates that, globally, an estimated 570 million hectares could be available for forest restoration. If restored, these areas could sequester about 440 billion metric tons of CO2. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. Because of the ability of forests to sequester large amounts of carbon, forest restoration has become a critical part of the Paris Agreement. The multinational accord, signed by 195 countries in 2016, seeks to keep global temperatures from rising 2 degrees or more above a preindustrial baseline in the hopes of staving off the worst effects of climate change. The Paris Accord wasn’t the first global effort by governments to tackle forest conservation. The 1992&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/unep-official-calls-for-coherent-planning-as-aichi-falters-in-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/unep-official-calls-for-coherent-planning-as-aichi-falters-in-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-199646</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Healthy soils can boost food security and climate resilience for millions (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/healthy-soils-can-boost-food-security-and-climate-resilience-for-millions-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/healthy-soils-can-boost-food-security-and-climate-resilience-for-millions-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Sep 2017 11:37:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Inger Andersen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/09/06110840/Horses-Mongolia_credit-Goska-Bonnaveira-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=198864</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Commentary, Deforestation, Desertification, Deserts, Drought, Environment, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Grasslands, Livestock, Politics, Research, Savannas, Soil Carbon, Subsistence Agriculture, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tougou village in northern Burkina Faso has a challenging climate for farming. During the dry season, which lasts from November to May, the Harmattan blows — a dry, dusty wind coming in from the Sahara. Drought alternates with periods of flooding, sapping soil fertility and destroying crops. Despite the climate, villagers in Tougou have recently [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tougou village in northern Burkina Faso has a challenging climate for farming. During the dry season, which lasts from November to May, the Harmattan blows — a dry, dusty wind coming in from the Sahara. Drought alternates with periods of flooding, sapping soil fertility and destroying crops. Despite the climate, villagers in Tougou have recently been able to double their crops of millet and sorghum within just a year, largely thanks to a checkerboard pattern of pits filled with manure they dig across their fields. These pits, known as zaï, help concentrate precious water and nutrients at the plant’s base and attract termites, whose tunnels break up the soil, bringing it back to life. Drylands take centre stage this week as world leaders gather in Ordos, in the Inner Mongolia region of China, for the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP13). When healthy, drylands like those stretching across northern Burkina Faso are covered in a rich but fragile fabric of life, most of which is hidden underground. Rain-fed agriculture in these regions depends on underground ecosystems of bacteria, fungi, termites, and other species that keep the soil fertile. But the health of many dryland ecosystems has declined dramatically over recent decades, largely due to unsustainable farming methods, increasing drought, deforestation, and clearance of natural grasslands. Burkina Faso is hardest hit of all of Western Africa, with 40 percent of its soils severely degraded. Desertification is costing the country nine&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/healthy-soils-can-boost-food-security-and-climate-resilience-for-millions-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-198864</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pressure over water in Brazil puts pulp industry in the spotlight</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/pressure-over-water-in-brazil-puts-pulp-industry-in-the-spotlight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/pressure-over-water-in-brazil-puts-pulp-industry-in-the-spotlight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Mar 2017 05:32:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ignacio Amigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124510/Eucalyptus_dives_new_and_old_bark-768x510.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193579</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Desertification, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Monocultures, Rainforests, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CORREGO GRANDE RESERVE, Brazil &#8211; Brazil’s southeast coastal state of Espírito Santo is rapidly heading toward desertification. In just a few decades, the region has gone from being one of the last refuges for the seriously threatened Atlantic Forest, to having 36 percent of its territory officially considered susceptible to desertification, according to Brazil’s Ministry [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[CORREGO GRANDE RESERVE, Brazil &#8211; Brazil’s southeast coastal state of Espírito Santo is rapidly heading toward desertification. In just a few decades, the region has gone from being one of the last refuges for the seriously threatened Atlantic Forest, to having 36 percent of its territory officially considered susceptible to desertification, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Environment. The government has long been aware of the issue, but potential solutions are complex. A 2004 report by Brazil’s Ministry of Environment noted the desertification process in the northern part of Espírito Santo. The report pointed to the displacement of native forests by eucalyptus plantations for the pulp industry as a major driver. However, little has been done since then. “[Desertification] is a growing problem,” said Geraldo Fereguetti, president of the Society of Agronomist Engineers of Espírito Santo, by email. “But except for isolated actions by some producers and associations, nothing is being done to tackle it.” Of the 11 Brazilian states affected by desertification mentioned in the report, Espírito Santo is the only one that still hasn&#8217;t elaborated on a State Action Desertification Plan. The aim of these plans is to identify the specific problems of each region and articulate appropriate responses to tackle them. “The north of Espírito Santo was a land of plenty, rich in Atlantic Forest, full of trees and mighty rivers,” said Daniela Meirelles, a spokesperson for Brazilian non-profit FASE. Her organization works with local communities to tackle problems that come with the exploitation and use of natural&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/pressure-over-water-in-brazil-puts-pulp-industry-in-the-spotlight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193579</doi>				</item>
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