The greening of the desert
How to battle desertification with enormous livestock herds
Alan Savory calls it the perfect storm. We are talking about climate change. While I fundamentally agree that we need to take better care of the planet, I am not in favour of alarmism and panic. Nothing sustainable comes from that, only fear. Fear has never been a good counsellor and it won’t be in the future either. Fear leads us to close our minds to alternative views, possibilities and even facts. Unfortunately, I often see this in today’s discussions about climate change. It goes so far that some voices go so far as to suggest that we should throw democracy overboard to take the necessary steps. The result is strict bans, no incentives and an attempt to solve everything with technology.
This is where I come back to Alan Savory. He did not use technology, but took nature as his model. The result is the greening of the savannah without relegating democracy to the books of dreamers. On the contrary, the greening is only made possible by the community.
The following picture shows the areas of the earth affected by soil degradation. They make up a large part of the earth’s land surface.
Some of these areas are dry all year round. The Sahara, for example. However, there are also some areas that are first exposed to heavy rainfall and are completely dry again shortly afterwards. This effect can even be observed within a single day. Many 100 litres of water per square metre hit the ground and are gone the next day. This water has simply evaporated again, as the soil is not covered by organic matter. However, this also means that CO2 bound in the soil is dissolved and escapes into the atmosphere.
One of the main drivers of soil degradation is agriculture and livestock farming. The herds are kept on small grasslands and eat them up. The grassland is left damaged and releases more methane gas.
Does that mean we have to reduce our livestock population in order to stop desertification and climate change in the future? No, that would be the wrong approach. Sorry Ireland, you’re killing 200,000 cows for nothing and aren‘t achieving your climate targets either.
Unfortunately, Alan Savory was also of the same opinion at the beginning of his research career. He came to the conclusion that there were too many elephants. This led to 40,000 elephants being killed. The realisation that it was not helping and was actually getting worse came quickly. This did not stop the desertification. This led Alan to look at other areas of the world. National parks where herds of animals had not grazed for centuries were still becoming deserted.
We all know that a meadow is cooler during the day and warmer at night than dry soil. This means that it is important that we green as much of the earth’s surface as possible. The earth’s flora not only binds CO2, it acts like an air conditioning system. The greatest advantage of the Amazon jungle for the climate is not the binding of CO2, but the cooling effect of the humidity. In addition, green areas reflect sunlight better and do not absorb it.
So why is desertification increasing? If we go back thousands of years, the planet was much greener. But the animal population was also many times higher. Large herds of wildebeest, for example, grazed over very large areas. These naturally occurring large herds hardly exist on the planet anymore. For example, the population of bison on the North American continent was decimated from 60 million in the late 18th century to 541 in 1889. However, these large herds are now essential for revegetation. The animals eat the grass. After the grass has been digested, they urinate and defecate on the ground. They then move on over long distances. It is important that the herds moved on. This prevented the pastures from being overgrazed. At the same time, the mixture of grass, dung and urine was trampled together and covered the ground.
A counter question could now be what would have happened, if the grassland was there but the animals were not. Then, in times of drought, the grass would die off biologically bit by bit and be broken down. But not completely before the next wet period. This means that there is no room for new plants and the remains of the old plants go from a biological decomposition process to oxidation. However, this process of decomposition takes even longer. As a result, the soil can absorb less and less water and gradually dries out. Ultimately, dry soil remains, which releases CO2 and becomes poorer in nutrients. Biodiversity also decreases. Only the most robust plants and the animals that feed on them survive.
What I also didn’t realise is that fires are deliberately set to prevent the oxidation process. This is to create space for new plants. The problem, however, is that this releases an enormous amount of pollutants and CO2 and ultimately exposes the soil arch without protection.
So what is left? The large herds of wildebeest or bison no longer exist. But the large herds of cows, sheep and goats do.
Alan Savory had a great idea: holistic planned grazing. Farmers were taught that it makes sense to group their herds together and graze over larger areas. This meant that the grasslands were not overgrazed, but fertilised by the process and protected for a sufficiently long time. The aim of holistic planned grazing is to imitate the large herds of the past and their behaviour.
Alan has started such projects all over the world with enormous success. Some of the successes are shown below in the form of before and after pictures.
The large herds can now rebuild the natural cycle and bind the CO2 in the soil.
Initial projections assume that only by greening half of the grasslands that are drying out will enough CO2 be absorbed from the atmosphere to reduce its amount to pre-industrialisation levels.
At the same time, a growing number of people are supplied with food. Areas that were previously unsuitable for growing vegetables are becoming usable for vegetables again. This in turn means that fewer animals are needed to feed a civilisation. This in turn means less CO2 and methane emissions. All through a more efficient use of farm animals. The secondary effects are immense. Poverty and hunger decrease. Wars caused by hunger decrease. At the same time, planning and pooling large herds promotes direct democracy and social cohesion.
So there is no need for sophisticated, expensive technologies that extract CO2 from the atmosphere. After all, CO2 must first be emitted again to produce these technologies and this will not eliminate desertification and famine in many regions.
Finally, I would like to add that, in my opinion, this does not mean that we should all eat a lot of meat because this increases demand, which in turn leads to more farmed animals and does something good for the climate. No, quite the opposite. In my opinion, we as humanity should consume less meat. But the meat that we continue to consume should be reared and kept in such a way that it is as beneficial to nature as possible. So it’s a combination of greening desert landscapes to create a livelihood for animals, plants and people in these areas, but also freeing up land that is already green and is now to be used for farm animals, such as jungle, mangroves, river basins, etc. I’ll save the question of how the wilding of landscapes can save our climate for another article.
I hope that with this article I have been able to bring a little hope into the sometimes very gloomy subject of climate change and, above all, broaden the horizon of possibilities.
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Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing herein shall be construed to be financial, legal or tax advice. The content of this text is solely the opinions of the speaker who is not a licensed financial advisor or registered investment advisor. The author does not guarantee any particular outcome.
