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permaculture - Re: African ( and Brazilian) deserts

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  • From: Marsha Hanzi <hanzibra@svn.com.br>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: African ( and Brazilian) deserts
  • Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 10:11:55 -0300


I would like to agree with both sides of this discussion. In Brazil, the
drylands
occupy 900,000 square kilometers, 40% of which are in frank desertification.
As
properties can be relatively large, a lot of this could be machine-swaled.
Almost
every small town has at least one machine for taking care of the dirt roads
which could
be used to do such work. So an enlightened mayor could help re-green a whole
municipality. I am always impressed how the slightest indentation in dry soil
accumulates material, water, and creates life, and we can think of using
machines for
these, where overland runoff is intense ( although I have a personal
aversion to
machines tearing the soil, it seems somehow to "hurt"). There is an argument
for these,
where nature no longer has the vitality to regenerate spontaneously. But if
there is no
change in people's way of seeing and working the land, especially in
understanding and
respecting Natures intense efforts to restore and maintain balance, if there
is no
change in the agricultural model ( which always implies a change in
understanding and
ethics in so far as the land owner takes responsability for the health of his
land) I
don't see much hope of real permanent progress..

Marsha

> We just want something other than a desert, we just want to jump-start
> succession again by restoring a little rainfall and biomass accumulation.
> Nature will do the rest. There's a lot of data out there on how to begin:
> many large-scale projects done by thousands of restoration ecologists,
> grassland restoration of hundreds of square miles by conscientious
> ranchers, and we can also evaluate several thousand years of indigenous
> land use, such as the regular burning of every major river valley in North
> America for most of the last 5000 years. We know a lot about what works,
> and we sure know what doesn't. Besides, *we* evolved in these systems, too:
> we know quite a bit about them if we just listen. And we couldn't do much
> worse than the desert that's already there.







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