ONLINE CURRENTS VOL3 - Flipbook - Page 43
Oversights like these are especially easy to make at higher levels of management. Many treeplanting projects fall prey to carpeting land with saplings without taking a fine-grained look at
local needs and environmental conditions.
Take for instance the Great Green Wall, China’s ambitious plan to halt the rapid expansion of
the Gobi Desert by planting the world’s largest artificial forest. This scheme, which began in
1978 and is now essentially complete, illustrates some of the most common pitfalls that largescale tree-planting ventures face. The majority of the new forest consists of monoculture
plantations, which are far more vulnerable to disease and pests than diverse balanced
ecosystems.8 Furthermore, planting enormous swathes of new trees in such an arid area will
significantly deplete groundwater supplies. While the project is a remarkable example of rapid
environmental action, these underlying issues threaten the wind belt's long-term durability.
Scientists working on the project have pointed out that in some regions, planting shrubs and
grasses would prevent desertification just as well, without causing such a drain on resources.
The same problems have cropped up in replanting efforts elsewhere, time and time again.
Tree planting has to be carefully thought through, taking into consideration the need for
species diversity and choosing sites that can support their growth in the long run. In reality,
however, competing financial, political and social interests mean that this is often not the
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