Egypt: The Amazing Forest in the Desert | Global 3000 

this is not solution, search videos from Masanobu Fukuoka, natural agriculture, recovering soils for permanent use

I second that emotion. Also, look into what the Anglo/Australian permaculturalist Geoff Lawton does in Jordan in his video 'Greening the Desert'.

north africa botherhood ...... much love back from egypt..... we should build a bond between north africa based on mutal interest and common goals economicaly instead of worthless slogans

Research: Groasis You can try it cheap at some of your land. Record and in a few years, it can start revolution in forestry of Algeria! :D Cheers

And in Morocco too my Algerian brother...

I was thinking the same thing, but another issue at stake here is that these leaves - for now - represent a massive fire hazard. Once it burns, for whatever reason, everything will go up in flames quickly. The buried plastic and metal pipes, together with a tree type that is not going to survive without artificial watering, make this project somewhat less sustainable - and inferior to what China is doing in the Gobi desert.

@@creamcheese3208 At some point the soil will start to build up enough to support the trees.

The microorganisms should be imported from the ground where these trees grow as natives. We cannot expect the organisms to find their way on their own. I don't think you need to bring lots of soil. But bring a wide variety of samples of the native soil. Then I think the trees could grow even faster.

It's a lovely idea, I am gardener too. I believe this desert can't transform to fertile soil. First of all, the climate of Egypt is too dry for organic matter to decompose and sustain microorganisms as well as make soil fertile. These trees are sustainable only with artificial water pumping witch can also transform this forests into a dead forests in a matter of months once water pumps stop. Why? Because they were watered since the beginning and their roots did not penetrate deep enough to find underground water. The only idea for reviving such severe deserts with extremely deep sand, I see only in Groasis system of desert planting trees. After I've seen progress in Saudi Arabian sand deserts without watering the plants but encouraging them to develop deep roots, I believe it could work in Egypt as well.

The problem is, leaves need water/rain to break down. In Australia for example, leaves don't break down much/at all - and instead present a fire hazhard like someone above said.

ur name look Indian...greetings

Great thinking!

By the time the water gets to the fruit through the roots of the trees and to the leaves, I wouldn't worry too much about sewage. Now in the US it's different, because the waste water if full of toxic chemicals, that people ingest as medications.

World should look into this

Na! This makes too much sense for California to do. Besides, it's cost efficient, and our California politicos would never get behind anything that didn't have high expenses, low yield. How would they be able to graft any substantial amount? Waste of their time. 😁

they do used gray water in california

Save some of the land for Solar Electricity generation ! Energy suitable for the irrigation pumps as well as for domestic and industrial use.

@@lesadams647 If it was possible to forest 99% of the desert, you'd still have an abundance of viable land for solar power

Imagine a floating solar powered reverse osmosis plant pumping water to the desert.

that would be amazing

Sprinkleofwilly it's actually a very bad idea, pine and eucalyptus are the worse trees to plant. This is just a tree farm.

As this is in the middle of the Sahara, that doesn't really matter. But you are right about pine and eucalyptus being horrible invaders. If the project is replicated in other non-desert areas(and it must!), local tree species need to be planted

Akshay vaidyanathan think of the forest fires, and waste of water

I think the waste of water happens when we shit in it, Bruce V. Forest fires could indeed be an issue in hyper-dry climates where eucalyptus and pines are being planted. Why aren't they planting local and historic trees though, like date palm, acacia, cedars of Lebanon?

you should watch "green gold" a documentary by john d. lui, it's amazing what we can accomplish if we put our hands to work.

this most of the climate change and desertification in the Middle East is human made. 10 thousand of years of lifestock farming and centuries of war have caused this. The first years these trees will need water supply support but as shown in an Ethiopian example with time natural rivers might and will probably be born.

If the western part of the Saudi peninsula can be targeted with terraces and water retention projects, all the coasts of the Red Sea and North African continent planted with mangroves and use inland sea water farming techniques (like done in Egypt right now) and the southern part of the Sahara Desert kept in check by the Great Green Wall and the water retention techniques employed in the Sahel further expanded across the continent, the resulting circle of green will draw in extra moisture rich clouds to the southern part of the desert and allow the techniques used in recharging the underground aquifers to replenish and be used to replant the area till the desert shrinks and turns back to grassland. This could be the biggest biggest geoengineering project, but with an area 3-4 times the area of the USA it will allow the earth to cool back down to levels not seen since the beginning of industrialization

@@imoneixusa9742 I have read some stuff that claims that reclaiming those deserts could hurt other places like the Amazon.

@@chor2336 very unlikely according to all my research. It would have to literally change the direction the winds of the Southern Atlantic blow

@@imoneixusa9742 higher umidity in the air can change how it flows.

But it will never spread beyond the irrigation pipes

Sahara ones was a green lush. But if Sahara gets green then the Amazonas forest will die. Alot of sand/nutrients travel with winds from Sahara to the Amazonas forest.

@@anklepick9524 I wish they would stop telling people this. It's utterly ridiculous. There are jungles and forests all over the world that do just fine without the Sahara sands. The Amazon alone has plenty of biomass to build on. It's all a matter of being wise stewards.

Joe Day Not necessarily true. Trees help to create climate change. No, I don’t know science, but there’s an incredible video on Utube. I believe the name is Selah. A real event where creating the elements for life and natural water restoration to old springs reared an exemplary paradise. I am sure it can be replicated in many arid places on the planet.

Tesla Kuhn Agreed!

Jesus V. Same for colonizing Antarctica

Jesus V. "Without the recycled water the forests die" and no amount of trees or your "reclaiming" can change this. Desert is Egypt's climate. Highschool should of taught you about this.

@Jesus V. Who said that we need to make a choice. We should do both.

@Rusty Pudder Have you seen what China has done to reclaim what desertification has taken away? And they don't teach you that in high school.

trees and grass will change everything, rain and ground water will start appearing in places that hasn't seen rain in a long time, Egypt climate wasnt always like this, there are projects like this happening all over the world and they have seen results, water streams appearing, animals coming back, this kind of thing also prevents floods,

That is such an obvious solution, I wonder if there is a less obvious reason for not doing it.

@@wisconsinfarmer4742 Cost?

A: Many plants can’t grow with brackish water B: many food forests are grown in temperate, cold, and tropical climates - places with stable amounts of fresh water and high amounts of nutrients

I think that the problem is the heavy metals not the bacteria. The contamination is low enough not to kill the plants, but you wouldn't want to eat food grown in water with mercury, lead, etc.

Like the idea even fruit trees can be grown considering its treated water as earth will add micronutrients on its own.

@@mishap00 Heavy metals would be my first concern and also some of the complex organics along with pharmaceuticals. But still a study of date palms and other food plants for possible uptake of pollutants should be done.

@@loquat44-40 I agree that a study would be a good thing I just think that unless they are doing something radically different with their sewage such as letting the heavy metals settle out of water undisturbed the standard practices tend to concentrate both salts and heavy metal. I've also heard of a city in Washington state that created an artificial wetland to further treat sewage water. From what I understand the top (sewage outlet) of the wetland would tie up and hold the heavy metals making them basically inert. While the middle and lower portions would break down the bacteria, pathogens, chemicals, and organics and the out flow was actually cleaner than the river it flowed into. How this would translate into the Egyptian climate I don't know, what I do know is that in the Nile Delta region the have historically had large and extensive wetland areas that are now degraded and damaged extensively. What I was wondering is if they could use this model and instead of the outflow returning to the river Nile have it directed into groundwater and subsurface flow that would allow a forest to grow without extensive irrigation and might allow them to grow more drought tolerant species such as the tree that argon oil is made from. This tree and the oil made from it is native to Morocco which shares a similar climate it would also allow a cash crop that is in high demand that does not require the trees be cut down.

This. Plus the Eucaliptus demanda too much water.

Ethiopia blocking from egypt, we are not brothers...

Growing much larger and replicated in different sites. Thanks

sisi cut them all

@@melihaydogan9383 that's probably the reason why they started this so they could cut them down for profit.

@@JM-yx1lm you have a forest in the desert and you cut it for money rly dude is this a logical move ?

@@melihaydogan9383 they werent cut actually

some desert areas don't have underground water so forget it. I lived in one area that had water at 600 feet--useless except for deep wells that are too expensive.

Here in 2134 You know what we say about those turning point years of the 2050's? "Glad we finally got off the instant result treadmill".

+Leila Youssef The underground desert reservoirs would eventually deplete - to nothing. An issue the State of California had been experiencing the last seven years (had not been for El Nino). With little rain fall there is nothing to replenish the water deep underground. The water that exist in those deep underground lakes in Egypt and the rest of the Sahara- are remnants from when the Sahara was not a desert (some 10000 years ago). The Sahara actually had three of the largest lakes on earth and quite lush in vegetation. The wobble in the earths axis - shifted the poles, ended the last ice-age - and thus climate change.

Also the water in desert underground resivoirs is a lot more salty then fresh water

+Dave Drewett Its difficult enough to manage the workers to do the basic tasks required to make this work, ideally you would want the least complicated process put in place to run a commercial operation. I just don't see your solution here as a viable option when you need to keep down complexity and costs.

If it were up to me, I'd opt for selective thinning, thereby avoiding clear-felled areas during the harvesting process. Having continuous canopy cover can only be beneficial in such an arid climate. Also, by having a forest there, as opposed to desert, there will be a continuous addition of leaves, twigs and branches, which will add to the organic matter in the soil over time.

Are you there working on the project?

Dave Drewett No, I'm in Scotland!

Sorry mate I meant to reply to the other fella.

The only ecualaliptis trees they plant in Australia, are for carbon trade off. large companies pay land owner's to plant trees.

+Leila Youssef my guess would be, it doesn't matter, they're growing it in sand, no nutrients to speak of, they use sewage for fertility. If the trees eat it all up, that's all the better, and any leaf/branch fall will add to the top soil being built .

Leila Youssef yes it takes up high amounts of nutrients, but in return it makes huge amounts of leaf litter, also eucalyptus is a hardwood so it would be terrible for making paper with