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DESIRE colleagues hit by earthquake |
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Written by Erik van den Elsen
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 On February 27th an 8.8 Richter scale earthquake has hit Chili. This terrible event has also affected our DESIRE colleagues from INIA in Chillan; Carlos, German, Alejandro and many more colleagues. From Christian Prat (IRD), who is in regular contact with them, we have had news that luckily there were no serious personal injuries. Of course there were material losses: many houses and institute buildings have been damaged or lost and also equipment, laboratories etc. have been lost.
The DESIRE management team has contacted the EU to investigate what possibilities from within the project we have to support our project colleagues in any way. Christian has also asked our Chilean colleagues in what way we can best support them, and we are awaiting their response. We will continue providing updated information about the fate of our colleagues and the aid for them on this website. Our thoughts go out to our colleagues. |
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Great Green Wall stops the Sahara |
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Written by Erik van den Elsen
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 A gigantic wall stretching over thousands of kilometres is being erected in Africa, which has no parallels in human history except the Green Wall of China designed to hold back the Gobi desert.
The African fence -- named the 'Great Green Wall', which will run through 11 countries -- is purported to halt the southward advance of the Sahara. And it will be much more than a wall of trees stretching from Senegal to Djibouti.
This initiative, linked to sustainable development, is seen by its supporters to manifest a strong political will to conduct in well delineated regions of the Sahel-Saharan countries a set of concerted and coherent interventions with the aim of achieving simultaneously three goals: - Natural resource conservation, development and management; - Strengthening infrastructure; - Improving the living conditions of the resident communities.
The significance of the plan, approved by the 53-nation African Union in 2007, lies in the fact that the threat posed by desertification is particularly acute in Africa.
Read the complete article HERE.
(Source: www.global-perspectives.info) |
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Read more...
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Written by Erik van den Elsen
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 The new newsletter, issue March 2010, has been issued today. A new format has been used for this version. The newsletter is downloadable by clicking HERE [pdf, 550Kb]. |
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Fragile arid and semi-arid ecosystems are in urgent need of integrated
conservation approaches that can prevent and reduce widespread degradation.
