Local and Global Implications of Ecosystem Restoration in Degraded Arid Farmland.

Project Wadi Attir is a groundbreaking initiative of the Hura Bedouin community to establish a model sustainable agricultural operation on heavily degraded abandoned farmland in the semiarid Northern Negev, Israel. Previously designed and tested rehabilitation technologies aiming at maximizing environmental and economic benefits have been applied to 40 hectares of heavily degraded farmland. Strict protection from grazing, erosion control by terracing, soil conservation and planting of native and agroforestry trees resulted in dramatic recovery of the local ecosystem within five years. Soil fertility, productivity and biodiversity of conserved restored plots inside the farm boundaries were compared to comparable, unprotected plots outside of the farm fences. Soil organic matter increased by about 1% compared to untreated control plots in most of the protected area amounting to a greenhouse gas sequestration rate of about 3-6 tons CO₂ per hectare and year. Key nutrient pools gradually increase in the conserved plots. Better water infiltration into the soil of the conserved plots and lower evaporation due to soil litter cover lead to significantly increased soil moisture in the conserved plots. The three factors contributed to significantly higher herbaceous biomass productivity in the restored areas. In spring 2016 between 2.5 to 5 tons of herbaceous biomass per hectare\ were measured in the restored plots, compared to about 0.6 tons per hectare in the unprotected control areas. Soil conservation together with sustainable land management and ecosystem restoration enables sustainable agricultural exploitation of degraded drylands under significant gains in productivity, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Similar approaches can contribute to mitigation of global warming, restore resilient and diverse agro-ecosystems, and provide food, fodder and income to the inhabitants of marginal dryland areas worldwide.