GREEN Earth Program

Reversing desertification with green-engineering technologies and earth observation

Program established by Blue Horizon in 2022 along with our first pilot test in Western Africa, Burkina Faso

  • Reverse desertification, bring back vegetation to areas that have lost vegetation coverage
  • Provide a means for successful afforestation projects and a sustainable greener future
  • Develop technologies respecting the ecosystem functionality and soil biodiversity
  • Customize biomatrices that are in line with the environment and soil biota

Desertification on the macroscopic level

“Desertification is not the natural expansion of existing deserts but the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. It is a gradual process of soil productivity loss and the thinning out of the vegetative cover because of human activities and climatic variations" (UNCCD 2020)

12 million ha degraded per year (IPBES report 2018)

1.6 billion ha affected worldwide (FAO)

3.2 billion people negatively impacted (FAO, IPBES report 2018)

Desertification on the microscopic level:

  • Reduced soil biota, just a few different species → loss of biodiversity and loss of ecosystem functionality
  • Disturbed N and C cycles
  • Worldwide decreasing baseline of Soil Organic Carbon → loss of soil health

Green Earth Program

  • Boost the program through international partnerships/cooperations and the Green Earth Community
  • Feature key thought-leaders contribution to the central topic of Biological Soil Crusts and their contribution for the reduction of desertification and mitigating climate change by acting as carbon sinks
  • Develop and promote broad programs around induced Biological Soil Crusts and their large-scale application to reduce desertification
  • Discuss and implement follow on programs on ecosystem restoration