Desertification
Around the world the process of desertification is proceeding apace. As the planet heats up, from natural and man-made causes, the glaciers melt, the seas rise, but also the deserts expand. There is currently a conference on "Desertification and how to oppose it" taking place in Israel. Why Israel?
Israel has excellent experience in countering desertification. When the State was founded in 1948 a large proportion of the land was desert and treeless. During Roman times the Middle East had been a fertile area, and was a granary feeding Rome itself. The absence of trees was due to two main factors, the use of goats by the Arabs, which eat young tree saplings (apparently sheep and cows do not), and the historical process of the Turks cutting down the trees throughout the region for buildings and for ties for the Damascus-Cairo and Damascus-Mecca railways and for burning in the engines of the trains on those lines. These activities denuded the Holy Land of most of its trees.
The new State established the Jewish National Fund to plant trees and forests to overcome this situation. Many of you will remember the little blue JNF money boxes to collect money for planting trees in Israel. Anyone who has driven up to Jerusalem will have seen the forests that line the route that have been planted by the JNF. By planting forests, the moisture produced by the trees changes the climate from desert to a more moderate environment. In the south of Israel the whole ecology has been changed by the forests.
The attendees at the conference, experts on climate, forestation and desertification from around the world, were taken to see the Yakir Forest in the Negev, which is among the driest forests in the world. They said they were impressed by how much attention was paid to what trees were planted and where. It is this attention to detail that has made the JNF's programs in Israel so successful.
An expert from Italy said that now 5% of the area of his country in the south is experiencing desertification for the first time in history, and the Israeli experience and success would be a model for them to follow.
Israel has excellent experience in countering desertification. When the State was founded in 1948 a large proportion of the land was desert and treeless. During Roman times the Middle East had been a fertile area, and was a granary feeding Rome itself. The absence of trees was due to two main factors, the use of goats by the Arabs, which eat young tree saplings (apparently sheep and cows do not), and the historical process of the Turks cutting down the trees throughout the region for buildings and for ties for the Damascus-Cairo and Damascus-Mecca railways and for burning in the engines of the trains on those lines. These activities denuded the Holy Land of most of its trees.
The new State established the Jewish National Fund to plant trees and forests to overcome this situation. Many of you will remember the little blue JNF money boxes to collect money for planting trees in Israel. Anyone who has driven up to Jerusalem will have seen the forests that line the route that have been planted by the JNF. By planting forests, the moisture produced by the trees changes the climate from desert to a more moderate environment. In the south of Israel the whole ecology has been changed by the forests.
The attendees at the conference, experts on climate, forestation and desertification from around the world, were taken to see the Yakir Forest in the Negev, which is among the driest forests in the world. They said they were impressed by how much attention was paid to what trees were planted and where. It is this attention to detail that has made the JNF's programs in Israel so successful.
An expert from Italy said that now 5% of the area of his country in the south is experiencing desertification for the first time in history, and the Israeli experience and success would be a model for them to follow.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:16 AM
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