WISE OWL PRIVATE SCHOOL

Grade: 9 SNC1W SCIENCE

Unit 1: Sustainable ecosystems
TOPIC: Sustaining terrestrial ecosystems
Assessment of Learning: Analyzing soil erosion initiatives (2%)

Name: _______________ September 29 , 2023

Soil is one critically important component of terrestrial ecosystems. You learned
what soil is made of and how it is naturally structured in layers. You saw how soil
erosion is a global problem and how human activities can make it worse. You
also learned of some solutions to the problem, and how effective they can be at
preventing another Dust Bowl like the one that Canada experienced in the 1930s.

Soil erosion is a problem worldwide. In this learning activity, you looked at

solutions used in Canada and the United States. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
shares stories of soil degradation and erosion and how it has impacted
communities around the world.

Read the story “ Degraded Land: Holding the Line on Brazil’s Resources,” or
choose one of the ones available on the WWF website, and consider the
solutions being proposed to help improve the situation.

Answer the following questions in reference to the story you choose:

What issue caused the soil degradation or erosion?

Who is impacted by this soil degradation or soil erosion?

What solutions are being tried or proposed to help the situation?

List some benefits and downfalls of the solution(s) proposed

Allan Savory is President and Cofounder of the Savory Institute and a Zimbabwean biologist, farmer,
soldier and environmentalist.

As a boy growing up in Africa, I loved wildlife.

One day, sitting alone on the bank of a river in full flood, I watched as
swirling, muddy water rushed past, carrying trees and dead animals from
Rhodesia to Mozambique. I began to cry. This was my country. Everything
dear was washing away. In that moment, I dedicated my life to finding
solutions to save all I loved.

So I left my government research post to become an independent

scientist working with hundreds of farmers, ranchers and other scientists,
till we discovered that only through properly managed livestock could we
regenerate desertifying land. Most people believe that degradation is
caused by having too many animals on the land. But overgrazing actually
is prevented by timing, not by reducing animals.

With a holistically managed grazing plan, I guarantee improvement—

social, economic and environmental. That’s a bold statement for a
scientist to make. But it’s been proven repeatedly for 30 years, and most
recently by the results we’ve achieved at the Africa Centre for Holistic
Management’s Dimbangombe Ranch.

Here, we herd livestock over land frequented by wildlife such as elephant,

buffalo, zebra, impala, kudu, giraffe, cheetah, wild dog, lion and hyena. All
are faring better. How? Each day the herded livestock are moved based
on a long-term plan which addresses social, cultural, environmental and
economic considerations while integrating wildlife and livestock.
Overnight, livestock are enclosed in portable predator-proof enclosures
where their concentrated hooves and manure till and fertilize the land.
This process is used to regenerate the land and improve the habitat for
both humans and wildlife.

Despite years of average to below average rainfall, we’ve grown more

grass in each of the last two seasons than in any season in the past 35
years, and increased our livestock by 400%. And we continue to increase
livestock numbers further to keep pace with production and prevent the
land from sliding back once more.

RESTORING SOIL CARBON

Soil carbon—or organic matter—is key to conserving farmland for future

generations. One of the best metrics of sustainable agriculture is
maintaining or increasing soil carbon levels. However, half of the world’s
topsoil has been lost in the past 150 years.

Organic matter helps soil retain water, fertilizer and other inputs, thereby
increasing both productivity and profits. To help farmers conserve their
soils, we must place a greater emphasis on tree crops and deep-rooted
grasses, which build soil carbon and reduce erosion.

We also need to support a carbon market for agriculture. Purchasers of

commodities like milk, coffee, cocoa or palm oil could also buy the
carbon that farmers sequester or avoid releasing during production,
creating an economic incentive to keep carbon in the soil.
Marcelo Viera is Director of Sugar, Ethanol and Energy Operations at Adecoagro.

Expansion of sustainable agriculture into Brazil’s frontier regions is a key

part of the country’s environmental policy, called “protection plus
production.” Protection comes from preserving Brazil’s natural
environments, like the Amazon, our conservation units, legal reserves and
permanent preservation areas. Production comes from converting
inefficiently used farming areas to produce grain and sugarcane for
biofuels and biomass energy. If we convert half the area currently
occupied by ranching in Brazil—about 500 million acres—to efficient
farming, we can harvest two to three times our current food production.
And current meat production can be easily maintained in half the current
area if good standards are widely adopted.

In 2005, Adecoagro began expanding into agricultural frontier regions in

the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, a region traditionally used for cattle
ranching. I have been a farmer for 40 years, so it was painful for me to
see underperforming land when the best part of Brazilian agriculture is
very efficient.

Local ranchers were initially unsure about converting their land from
cattle to crops. Years later, most have joined us, some producing
sugarcane, some leasing their land for us to produce it. Adecoagro farms
nearly 250,000 acres there on land previously used for cattle ranching.
The ranchers are enthusiastic about the initiative because it has greatly
increased incomes and created some 5,000 new jobs in the region.

Today, I am proud that my country and my company are leading the way
in transforming underperforming land into state-of-the-art agriculture.

RESTORING DEGRADED LANDS

Globally, anywhere from 3 to 5 billion acres of land are considered

severely degraded or “underperforming.” And that number is
increasing every year.

With scarcer land and more expensive food, farmers can find it more
profitable to grow crops on degraded land than to clear rain forests, peat
swamps and high-biodiversity savannas for planting. And doing so is
possible with new technologies, improved understanding of genetics and
better management practices.

In Brazil, some 25 million acres of degraded land have been rehabilitated

and planted with crops. Based on current trends, we expect an even
greater area to be rehabilitated in the coming years. What if more
countries followed this model?
In Nepal, the steep land above Devendra Jung Gurung's house in
Tanahun District’s Aamdanda village is prone to landslides. But now,
he no longer worries as much about this potential danger. Devendra
Jung has planted fodder trees and broom grass, a local plant known
as amriso, whose strong root system binds the soil. Broom grass
received its name because people construct sweeping brooms out of
the large flower heads. It is a multi-purpose plant. Besides creating
hillside stabilization and serving as household brooms, its leaves
provide fodder for livestock during the dry season, and people can burn
the stalks as fuel or use the broom grass as mulch to protect the soil.

Broom grass is transforming steep, degraded slopes above the Trishuli

and Seti rivers in this area. The lower-income, indigenous communities
who inhabit these valleys previously subsisted through shifting
cultivation by clearing and burning extensive areas of forest to plant
low-yielding crops until the soil became exhausted and invasive exotic
weeds invaded, prompting people to clear another area. This practice
led to deforestation, soil erosion, and landslides, increasing silt in
rivers—the sediment is deposited in flatter areas downstream,
worsening floods and sometimes change the course of the river.

©
WWF Nepal, Hariyo Ban Program/Nabin Baral
An access path winding through broom grass in Sisre Khola Leasehold Forest. On these steep hillsides there are no roads and all
transport is on foot.

Recognizing the link between poverty and environmental degradation,

the Tanahun District Forest Office wanted to work with local
communities to establish leasehold forests, whereby local
communities lease government land for a period of 35 years, agreeing
on sound management practices such as planting trees and growing
broom grass, so that people and the environment would both benefit.
Through the USAID-funded Hariyo Ban Program, WWF partnered with
the Forest Office and communities to provide support for this initiative.

The win-win approach is already working. Local communities are

earning more money than before and traders are visiting the villages to
purchase brooms. Community members proudly recount that when it
rains, the streams and water supplies run clear instead of red with
sediment. Often, women make and sell the brooms. With support from
Hariyo Ban, the women now have more income to help feed and clothe
their children and purchase uniforms and school supplies so they may
attend school . “Earlier, we had to buy brooms from the market,” says
Nanumaya Gurung from Aamdanda. “But now we are capable of selling
brooms to the market instead.”
A pile of completed brooms

Shanti Bote in her class at Shree Janata Primary School. Her family used money from broom grass sales to pay her school
expenses.

© WWF Nepal,

With USAID Support, Haryio Ban:

 Planted nearly 2.1 million broom grass rhizomes planted on 497 acres in Devghat and
Abukhaireni Village Development Committee (VDC) areas in Tanahun District
 Benefitted 338 households in 49 leasehold forest user groups
 Generated approximately $30,000 made in income within the first four years

Prior to the broom grass initiative, some men had to seek work outside
of Nepal to support their families and were absent from their
communities for significant periods of time. Families are reunited now
since these men have returned to make a better living by assisting
with the broom grass. Hillsides are turning green, and the forest is
regenerating. People report that they are seeing wildlife in the area
again.

In addition to helping local communities thrive, Hariyo Ban is laying

the foundation for restoring a major ecological corridor along the river
valley between the low-lying Chitwan National Park to the south and
Annapurna Conservation Area with its high Himalayan peaks to the
north-west. Migrating birds and fish already use the corridor. As
climate change advances and temperatures increase however, the
restoration of the ecological corridor will become more important as
plant and animal species migrate uphill to cooler places.