The Nations Come to Learn How the Desert Bloomed

January 3, 2007

Around 300 attendees from 20 countries and 5 continents took several field tours into Israel’s reclaimed and existing desert areas to glean from her experience with the problem. According to BIDR, desertification is responsible for the loss of agricultural productivity, famine, and population displacement, as well as the escalation of poverty; it affects about 400 million people in developing regions, especially Africa.

Israel was selected as a uniquely appropriate venue for the desertification conference, due to its rich history of rolling back the desert through innovation and tenacity. When the state was established in 1948, much of its semiarid regions were degraded and the Negev Desert had expanded northward all the way to the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem corridor. Since then, a combination of intensive dryland agriculture, afforestation, and economic initiatives has reclaimed tens of thousands of acres for farming, residential construction, and industrial parks.

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