<
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/>
"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 employees from the Forestry Agency are joining
hands to plant seedlings on the Aral Sea bed.
“I could not believe it when plans were going to transform the dried Aralkum
Desert into a forest,” says Gulzira, one of the locals now involved in the
afforestation project.
“But when tractors passed by our doorways, I was surprised to see the project
taking place.”
Over the past five years, 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of forest
have taken root at the bottom of the Aral Sea, on the Uzbekistan side of the
border. The Forestry Agency has gathered and prepared more than 190 metric tons
of seeds for sowing — desert-tolerant plants like saxaul, saltwort (
Salsola
spp.), ephedra (
Ephedra strobilacea) and tamarisk (
Tamarix spp.), among
others, across an area of 2,700 hectares (6,700 acres)."
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-global-life-expectancy-domestic-violence-australia-emissions-china/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
