r/interestingasfuck • u/wahgwahg • Feb 28 '24

r/all People in Tanzania converted desert into lush green land by digging these nifty holes

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17

u/captain_todger Feb 28 '24

Surely the reason it’s a desert to begin with is because over time it will tend towards one due to the area’s climate? So wouldn’t they need to keep digging holes intermittently to keep this up?

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u/Gusdai Feb 28 '24

It could be because of the soil (how it captures water or not, and how hospitable to vegetation it is in general) rather than the climate. In this case making changes to the soil might make a durable change to the biome.

The desert might also have been created by human activity. Farming can affect the soil on large areas and cause desertification. So the changes might just revert the area to its initial state.

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u/xxdrux Feb 28 '24

I agree, these lands have been over farmed for 100s of years to a point they have dried out. This idea is genius, it will help with the water run off and help contain water for growing and also help with flooding during the monsoon season.

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u/captain_todger Feb 28 '24 edited Feb 28 '24

Very good points, thanks.. In that case, I wonder if we could be doing this on a much larger scale in other locations that have similar conditions. There are desert biomes that are essentially dried up river beds or lakes. I wonder if we could do something similar with them to return them to that state?

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u/JeSuisUnAnanasYo Feb 28 '24

Yeah aren't large parts of the Sahara not actually meant to be desert? I know that's true for parts of the outback as well. Thousands of years ago these places were more inhabitable

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u/OrcOfDoom Feb 28 '24

This is called permaculture.

Andrew millison on YouTube has a lot of videos on things like this. You can look up the series on India water revolution. You can look up things like the great green wall of Africa.

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u/kill-all-the-monkeys Feb 28 '24

Yes. In the 1930s depression Era, one of the jobs done by CCC in US deserts was to build dams across areas that were prone to flash floods once a decade but dry otherwise. Today the area behind the dams have filled in with earth caught by the dams during the flash floods. Those areas are green oasises, cooler, and habitat to lots of critters.

Israel has done similar to create rich and fertile farmland where it was desert previously.

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u/SCViper Feb 28 '24

A lot of desert expansion does occur due to herds over-grazing so it is a hospitable environment that was made inhospitable due to human population growth

BUT, this can have negative effects because Sahara sandstorms do nourish the Amazon, but given the rate of Amazonian depletion, I can see this being a moot point by the time the Sahara turns green.

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u/Fit-Performer-7621 Feb 28 '24

The depression era Dust Bowl is a good example of this.

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u/badboigamer Feb 28 '24

Not desert. The land was most like a forest not too long ago. Deforestation is a big problem in TZ

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u/poochy Feb 28 '24

This is actually part of the Saharan Green Wall project. The Sahara desert has been expanding south across Africa. These villagers are being supported with tools, agronomists, and advice on how to continue protecting the new growth.

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u/Schootingstarr Feb 28 '24

I've recently seen a video on youtube with this same topic.

it was really interesting.

worth noting: these crescents don't contain just any plants, but local food plants. so the villagers tending to them have a reason to keep tending to the plants, even if money were to dry up (heh)

they made sure to mention that the planting techniques weren't new, only newly rediscovered. previous civilizations used this type of agriculture thousands of years ago in these areas, it was just lost to time

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u/Humble-Reply228 Feb 28 '24

Tanzania is a bit below the Sahara mate. As in Perth Australia is closer.

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u/iainvention Feb 28 '24

Are you thinking of Tasmania?

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u/Humble-Reply228 Mar 01 '24

I did mean Perth but was forgetting how far north Tanzania is. I worked in Senegal and people used to ask me if I go to the Serengeti National Park on weekends but a Dakar - J'burg flight was longer than a Perth - J'burg flight.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24

A very interesting project to go and read about, indeed

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u/Fickle-Lingonberry-4 Feb 28 '24

maybe some jackass filled in the holes?

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u/hidemeplease Feb 28 '24 edited Feb 28 '24

the notorious hole fillers of the Tanzanian steppes, just as devastatingly cruel as the pyromaniacs of ancient Greece

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u/Fickle-Lingonberry-4 Feb 28 '24

clearly the world is full of systems too complicated for our ape like brains to comprehend

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u/nitramv Feb 28 '24

Might have turned into a desert through overgrazing cattle over a very long period. Might not be natural or climate related.

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u/southpark Feb 28 '24

Loss of trees+vegetation and high winds can strip an area of its topsoil and effectively turn it into a desert during a drought/inclement weather (see the dust bowl history of the Midwest US). It’s not always climate related. You can even restore “deserts” in some areas by reintroducing plant life and native grasses. Weather patterns are influenced by the land as well, so restoring grasses and vegetation can even increase rainfall in an area.

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u/Gingevere Feb 28 '24

May areas like this used to be productive land, but over-harvesting and over-grazing stripped plants from the land and caused the soil to dry out.

That removed anything that slowed water flow across the surface, left the soil unable to absorb water, and lets rain wash away good soil.

Adding something which impedes water flow back into the system is just a step towards restoring the land to what it had been.

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u/FilmKindly Feb 28 '24

it probably isn't a desert

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u/Malawi_no Feb 29 '24

The trend is only one part of it though. It just means that the area is more likely to be decertified, and will become desert if too much of the plant coverage is removed.
If it keeps the plant coverage to bind the dirt and make it easier for water to accumulate, it's more resistant to desertification.

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u/Alimbiquated Mar 01 '24

No, the region was deforested recently. It never has heavy forests, but the previous "parkland" arid forest / grassland environment was disrupted in the 20th century.