World Soil Day – 5th December 2024
Building Sustainability in Emerging Markets: Education Led Indigenous Nature Based Practices at Continental Scale in Africa, the Middle East and Beyond
Exams by the Trees (photo credit: Chris Simwinga, Co-founder SEPDA TANZANIA/ Co-founder & Chief Technical Officer, Study with a Tree).
Please note: Statements in this article reflect the views and opinions of the authors credited and they do not always represent the views or policies of SocEnv. The articles shared on the SocEnv website and Issuu platform are intended to be thought-provoking articles for informative and educational purposes only.
Acknowledgements: The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Jonathan Atkinson CEnv, Robert Earl CEnv and Jane Gilbert CEnv, members of the SocEnv Soils and Stones project executive team, in shaping this article.
Building Sustainability in Emerging Markets: Education Led Indigenous Nature Based Practices at Continental Scale in Africa, the Middle East and Beyond
Paul Dumble CEnv, Volunteer, Soils and Stones Project, Society for the Environment. United Kingdom.
Nagwa El Karawy, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Why Impact, UAE and Member of UNEP GEO7 Multidisciplinary Expert Scientific Advisory Group (MESAG)
There is a lot to be learned from ancient and historical indigenous practices from around the world. One notable example is the indigenous adapted anthropogenic soil known as Terra Preta that supported city sized communities in the forest. This review and analysis looks at how the anthropogenic soil produced might have been composed and adapted, to what we see today as a nature-based solution that protects biodiversity. The findings are presented in the context of a Tanzanian education led agroforestry initiative needing to move into its pilot stage and which demonstrates an intergenerational approach, passing on the learning from indigenous practices of their ancestors. These practices are being disseminated through local schools (to students of 15-17 years), passing on their agroforestry knowledge and newly developed skills within their own and indigenous communities. This will enable small landholders to maintain the soil fertility and food productivity of their own land and address high levels of food poverty and deforestation. This action addresses issues such as water stress, soil erosion and degradation. Implementing this action on a national, international and continental scale requires significant international and philanthropic aid. Yet despite the lack of this aid and other resources, the project is being driven by the needs and knowledge of the Tanzanian people and their government, as well as other African Nations. It is critical that the loss of soil biota and wider biodiversity does not extend to become an existential crisis affecting food production. The coordination of an education led approach by UNEP is an essential tool in scaling up climate action. This is crucial across Africa, West Asia and with desertification northwards, Southern Europe. We can all contribute to address these threats, wherever we are and in whatever we do on this planet that we call home. Let us make this a strength in numbers, respecting indigenous knowledge and practice to guide those that lead us.
Introduction
A key aim of the Society for the Environment’s Soil and Stones Project Executive Team is to identify and disseminate best practice by using the team’s in-depth knowledge and experience, built up during their professional careers. Often, we can learn from indigenous practice from ancient societies that learned to live with nature, but how can we apply that knowledge in today’s world?
Our ancestors have landfilled waste for 2 or 3 million years, and certainly from 300,000 years ago when Homo Sapiens first appeared to become the dominant species. This was in a period characterised by stable paleo cycles, with CO2 levels varying between about 168 ppm (ice age) to 280 ppm1 (WB 24th Nov 2024 424.54ppm-Mauna Loa2) Early humans learned from the beasts they hunted that bury and cover their waste to hide their scent in the ground, protecting them from predators.
1 See: https://opengeology.org/historicalgeology/paleoclimatology-earth-systems-change-throughtime/
2 Trends in CO2 - NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory.
As hunter gatherers we would have learned these lessons and how to propagate plant species such as herbs, yams, mushrooms, fruit, nuts, and berries in the soil, making use of food waste, green waste, livestock and human waste. These wastes would have been highly valued by early indigenous communities, thriving communities sustained by increasing and maintaining crop yields. This enabled the development of storage and preservation methods such as drying, to extend food availability beyond traditional seasonal limits
In 2002, a Horizon documentary presented The Secret of El Dorado - Discovery of Terra Preta that is set around the 1541 expedition, led by a Spanish Conquistador that sailed up the Amazon looking for gold. It found lush forests and flourishing city sized communities along the banks of the river that had existed for over 1000 years, despite the tropical forest soil that was identified by the documentary makers as too poor for modern intensive cultivation3 . How did these large communities exist in the tropical rainforest?
How was the anthropologic (man-made) Terra Preta produced?
Along the banks of the Amazon River where these large communities existed were swathes of rich dark fertile earth – Terra Preta - that was found to be anthropogenic soil. The biggest question raised and unanswered by the documentary was: how was the anthropogenic soil produced? For this, let us first look at the general composition of the soil:
1. The dark Terra Preta soil was similar in composition to the tropical forests yellowcoloured low carbon soil that had been mixed with organic waste.
2. It contained particles of charcoal throughout the soil
3. Broken ceramics described as “exquisite” pottery were found throughout the soil.
As waste managers we think of anthropogenic soil as compost A rich nutrient rich compost that is made up of animal waste, green wastes and food wastes, to which charcoal or biochar can be added, helping retain moisture in the surface soil. In the Middle East, such combinations of these wastes are used to mix with soils in the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, allowing refugees to grow their own food and sell the surplus produce4 . Lessons were likely learned from a strip of land known as the Fertile Crescent (today largely deforested), extending along the Eastern Mediterranean coastline along the borders of Syria and Türkiye, and down along the great Tigris and Euphrates rivers, taking us back in time to the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon and beyond towards the Arabian Sea5 .
The organic animal, green and food waste streams degrade rapidly in humid tropical conditions (around 15 days), as observed in uncollected municipal street waste in an urban area in equatorial Nigeria6. In the yellow tropical soil, the soluble mineral nutrients would be washed by
3 See: The Secret of El Dorado - Discovery of Terra Preta, Horizon, 2000 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUAEa4ORAkY.
4 From discussions on refugee crisis and impacts on waste management in Lebanon in 2017. See also: UNEP Waste Management Outlook for West Asia, The development of value-added integrated waste management systems in West Asian countries. Consideration 5 (a), pp79-80: https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/waste-management-outlook-west-asia.
5 Breasted, James Henry. Ancient times, a history of the early world: an introduction to the study of ancient history and the career of early man. Boston: Ginn. p. 100–101. 1916. Available at: https://ia800307.us.archive.org/0/items/cu31924027764996/cu31924027764996.pdf
6 Balogun-Adeleye R,M., Longe E.O., and Aiyesimoju K.O. Model for the accurate determination of methane emission from landfills. Nigerian Journal of Technology (NIJOTECH) Vol. 38, No. 3, July 2019, pp. 784 – 791, http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v38i3.1.
the tropical rain into the subsoils - the destination of the main roots of the lush Amazon Forest trees, though the slowly degrading organic carbon would remain (lignin7).
The extent of the Terra Preta soil throughout the city scale communities suggests widespread management and disposal of these organic wastes in the soil, with human waste becoming part of this regime. The protection of increasingly needed food supplies from scavenging animals and pests would see practices develop for the management and maintenance of the land.
There is some doubt as how the wastes were managed by the indigenous communities leading to the physical presentation of the anthropogenic soil displayed in the The Secret of El DoradoDiscovery of Terra Preta documentary. The broken pottery which is made from clay (a subsoil) was used to cook, store, and protect food. The exquisite design and decoration of the pots illustrates how this was precious to the indigenous communities, being buried in the soil they all depended on.
The clay pots require temperatures starting at about 700oC to 812oC, in order to become hardened ceramic, and up to and over 1000oC for glazing. This heat is generated from charcoal produced from dried forest and crop wastes using earth kilns (see picture at top of page: 695oC in an open earth kiln as charcoal is produced). The charcoal wastes after firing would become fines of charcoal, with ash that appears when the fibrous woody waste is first lit as a white coating on the surface of the wood. The ceramics produced will contain nutrients from the mineral rich clay that they are produced from, such as phosphates.
Natural clay catalyses and lowers the pyrolysis activation temperature and energy for thermal decomposition8 of dried organic wastes. Whilst this high temperature thermal method has been used over thousands of years, sundried clay bricks are produced in dry climates, but less so in wetter climates, due to absorbance of moisture in high humidity conditions. For soil, clay has good moisture retention and thermal resistance and embedded energy of about 30 KWh/m3
7 Barlaz MA. (2006) Forest products decomposition in municipal solid waste landfills, Waste Management 26 (2006) 321–33. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2005.11.002.
8 Ali G, Nisar J. Kinetics and Thermodynamics of the Pyrolysis of Waste Polystyrene over Natural Clay. Adv Environ Eng Res 2022; 3(4): 044; doi:10.21926/aeer.2204044.
(Reinforced concrete 2985 KWh/m3) Construction material combinations with clay include earth, straw, mud, animal manure and aggregates such as sand9 .
The role of nature
The ancient indigenous communities were adding to the primordial mix of minerals and nutrients – phosphates and nitrates, fungi and algae. Blue green algae known as cyanobacteria absorb CO2 within the soil (acting as a carbon sink), influenced by the constantly changing aerobic and anaerobic surface conditions of a hot tropical forest drying, as well as heavy rainfall cycles with the nutrient rich wastes. These conditions affect the changes in nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria as well as the phyto remedial action of the fungi expelling toxins at the surface (e.g., toadstools). This is balanced by the generation of edible fungi from wood (lignin) degradation, including the antibiotic behaviour of the fungi in controlling the balance between the good and bad bacteria, and the other vital minerals (vitamins) that sustain the creation and growth of living ecosystems within the degrading organics. Nature is balanced by the biota that help us grow and manage our waste and adapt us to the environment in which we live.
The cyanobacteria lead to the breakdown of CO2 to oxygen and the development of plants, proteins and early genetic forms of biotic life in our world. The potash is derived from the presence of potassium from firing the clay with charcoal that is used to make the ceramic pots, adding to the principal nutrients (phosphates and nitrates), the fuels that are energised by solar irradiation (photosynthesis). The bio-ceramics formed in the natural environment by (paleo) volcanic heat action on the organic surface layer, clay and minerals, to create the oxygenic stone in the bedrock that emerged in the first phase of the Great Oxygenic Event 3 billion years ago10,11,12,13. The oxygenic bio-ceramic initiated the early development of shells and bone supporting osteogenesis14 in early biota.
In modern times bio-ceramics are used to encourage bone growth on implants used in hip replacement surgery The clay and pot ash created by the burning charcoal are a source of potassium. Indigenous knowledge, skills, preparation and application of substances for trees and plants across the globe over thousands of years form the basis of modern medicine15. The lifecycle of the Terra Preta soil is shown in Figure 1.
9 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562, Volume 11, Number 6 (2016) pp 4628-4633 © Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com.
10 See: N. J. Planavsky et al., Evidence for oxygenic photosynthesis half a billion years before the Great Oxidation Event. Nat. Geosci. 7, 283–286 (2014).
11 Baumgartner, Raphael J.; Van Kranendonk, Martin J.; Wacey, David; Fiorentini, Marco L.; Saunders, Martin; Caruso, Stefano; et al. Nano−porous pyrite and organic matter in 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolites record primordial life. Geology. 47 (11): 1039–1043. 2019. doi:10.1130/G46365.1.S2CID 204258554.
12 N. J. Planavsky et al., Evidence for oxygenic photosynthesis half a billion years before the Great Oxidation Event. Nat. Geosci. 7, 283–286 (2014).
13 R. M. Soo, J. Hemp, D. H. Parks, W. W. Fischer, P. Hugenholtz, On the origins of oxygenic photosynthesis and aerobic respiration in Cyanobacteria. Science 1979, 1436–1440 (2017).
14 See: D. Kim K and C. Lee C (2023) Osteogenic Cells and Microenvironment of Early Bone Development and Clinical Implication. Frontiers in Spinal Neurosurgery. IntechOpen. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1002037.
15 See: https://youtu.be/IIw2O_Hfr-s.
How does this fit into today’s world?
The ancient indigenous communities used their wastes to create a naturally regenerative fertile healthy and fertile soil. Today, across Europe we started to adapt nature-based solutions (NBS) in restoring carbon sinks to peatlands and forestry. This indigenous intervention is one of the earliest examples of adapting a living soil system that removes pollutants such as heavy metals, fundamentally restoring the delicate balance in the forestry and soil ecosystem that has created the world we see today. In essence the indigenous intervention retained and managed the carbon sink role of the forest in the Terra Preta soil. However, with modern intensive farming methods we are destroying the life support ecosystems and habitats and life sustaining evolutionary systems, which are essential for biodiversity.
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Figure 1: The sustainable lifecycle management of Terra Preta - balancing human activity with natural ecosystems.
Today in tropical rainforests we see the logging of 300 million trees annually, many of which are over 1000 years old. This logging is done to produce anthropogenic cellulosic fibres for viscose tee shirts, amounting to a huge loss of biodiversity and carbon storage capacity in the forests, even if the tree is replaced by a sapling16. In the Amazon, the poor soil on the cleared land can only last 4 or 5 years with intensive farming methods. Restoring the natural balance between the soil and the forests is crucial.
The key global impacts demonstrating the natural imbalance from anthropogenic activity in soil and forests is illustrated by the degradation of 52% of agricultural land. Agriculture also accounts for:
• The use of 70% of freshwater supplies
• 80% of deforestation
• 29% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
16 See: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/article/2024/jul/01/surely-we-are-smarter-than-mowingdown-1000-year-old-trees-to-make-t-shirts-the-complex-rise-of-viscose?ref=upstract.com.
The factors together have seen the loss of terrestrial and aquatic species, through 70% loss of land biodiversity and 50% loss of freshwater biodiversity (UNCCD Global Land Outlook 2022). In 2022, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) called for a reversal in soil degradation17 . Soil health, structure and fertility is dependent on water and carbon storage, releasing the necessary nutrients for plant growth, supporting the micro and macro biota Further benefits include climate mitigation and resilience to drought and flooding Erosion of the world’s soils is made worse by extreme weather events that lead to depletion of organic contained nutrients in soil including organic manures, after consideration of chemical fertilisers. Africa, South America and Eastern Europe have the highest P depletion rate due to the affordability of chemical fertilisers and inefficient organic P management18 The highest agrifood emissions are produced by middle-income countries19
It is claimed that the dark Terra Preta soil has a soil structure that maintains nutrients for periods of “ undreds of years”. Moisture in t e surface soil provides climate resilience t at, once matured, becomes an adapted natural auto-generating medium that incorporates forest floor biota (detritus) and other natural wastes.
Making better use of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
In today’s world, the management of Terra Preta requires practical development to resolve the issue of a system functioning as a stable hydroponics medium (Tropical Forest rainfall) in other climate regions. The Global %MSW food waste ranges from <32% to >56%, an average of 44% with about 1 billion tonnes per year arising globally including commercial wastes (e.g. restaurants and hotels). Food waste presents the biggest barrier to achieving a truly circular economy, due to poor quality recyclables caused by food contamination and mixed plastic packaging, littering, uncontrolled landfilling and disposal20 . The Amazonian anthropogenic soil incorporates dried forest wastes and crop wastes that are used to create charcoal and ash, clays from ceramic wastes, food and crop wastes, green wastes, forest wastes, animal wastes, stones, and ceramic wastes including for example, crushed brick wastes21. These are hoed or ploughed into the top 10 to 15cm of poor or degraded soil.
17 See: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/agriculture-soils-degradation-FAO-GFFA-2022/en.
18 See: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18326-7
19 See: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/publication/recipe-for-livable-planet.
20 See: What a Waste 2.0 at https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/d3f9d45e-115f559b-b14f-28552410e90a.
21 The use of construction wastes such as crushed brick formed from clay should be investigated as part of the composition of man-made soils. These may provide surfaces for growth of micro and macro biota
Figure 2. Annual global forestry changes (Source: FAO 2020)22
Once established the anthropogenic soil reproduces itself in the tropical rainforest, as is shown near the end of the The Secret of El Dorado - Discovery of Terra Preta documentary. This solution offers hope to addressing and reversing the rapid rate of global soil degradation. Globally every 5 seconds the equivalent of one football field of soil is eroded. It can take up to 1,000 years to produce 2 to 3 cm of soil with over 53% of t e eart ’s crop soil already degraded through intensive agriculture, deforestation, over grazing and poor land-use practices. The loss of surface forestry biota across the globe is shown in Figure 2, with Africa losing 3.9 million ha in 2020. Biodiversity loss is illustrated in the change of the Red List Index categories, with a 2015 study assessing the decline of pollinating birds and mammals. This study found that more species are moving towards extinction than away from it.
Figure 3. Drivers of declines in status for pollinator birds (1988–2012) and mammals (1996–2008, Source: Reagan et al., 2015, Open Access23).
22 See: https://www.fao.org/interactive/forest-resources-assessment/2020/en/ 23 See: https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12162.
In recent decades about 2.5 species per year have moved one Red List category toward extinction. The key drivers of the decline are shown in Figure 3. The lead author Eugenie Regan of UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre says, “It s ows a worrying trend t at may be impacting negatively on global pollination services, estimated to be worth more than US$215 billion”. T e interaction wit ey uman activities including management of forestry requires solutions to be properly managed to increase and sustain biodiversity.
So where do we start?
Globally 1 in 4 children live in severe child food poverty that is caused by inequality, conflict and climate crisis24 . This is significantly more in Asian and Sub-Saharan Africa where smallholders (<1to10ha) can produce up to 80% of the food25 (See Figure 4) The most water stressed regions are in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa and the Gulf states 26 In the pilot stage of t e education led initiative “Study with a Tree”, forest gardens up to 1 a ave been created in about 5ha of land set aside by the Tanzanian government for the school forest. There are plans being proposed to develop a variety of anthropogenic soils that can be regenerated in the African forests. Lessons learned from the pilot will be disseminated in local indigenous communities, then up to 17,000 schools nationally across rural Tanzania.
Once forestry and forest gardens are established, this will in the early years establish community hubs with the capacity and capability to service indigenous small holders, increasing productivity of the land used for grazing and cultivation.
Education will become the driver of the economic and intergenerational aspect of the Terra Preta cycle as shown in Figure 5. There are further expansion proposals across Central and West African countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya and Zambia28.This
24 See: https://www.unicef.org.uk/press-releases/1-in-4-children-globally-live-in-severe-child-foodpoverty-due-to-inequity-conflict-and-climate-crises-unicef/.
25 See: https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/nr/sustainability_pathways/docs/Factsheet_SMALLHOLDERS. pdf
26 See: https://www.wri.org/insights/highest-water-stressed-countries.
27 See: https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Child-food-poverty-map.png
28 See: https://www.c-logical.com/opportunities/study-with-a-tree/.
demonstrates how a wider programme, linking up to other UN agroforestry projects (of which there are currently 65), can be used to scale up healthy soil generation.
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Figure 5: Terra Preta cycle showing an education and economic led community engagement model
The project could be expanded into the sub-Saharan region, north and west of Tanzania, North Africa and Arabian West Asia and the deforested fertile crescent.
Figure 6. Food waste generated in Arab League in 2015
These countries are influenced by the Arab League and African Union. Could we start to reverse desertification in the oases of this region? The food waste generated from each country in the Arab League is shown in Figure 6, with the relationship with country population for middle- and low-income countries shown in Figure 7. The data on food waste generation presented in both charts relates to Sustainable Development Goal SDG 11.6. The country income levels drop significantly across the chart from high to low MSW food wastes per capita. High (HIC), Upper
Middle (UMC), Lower Middle (LMI) and Low Income (LIC) Countries are shown in their subregions.
Figure 7. Controlled and uncontrolled food waste fraction of municipal waste in the 22 Arabian West Asian and African countries.
MSW Food Waste estimates are shown in Table 1 for the Arabian Gulf (GCC countries including Yemen), the northern UNEP West Asian Countries (Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Syria) and a possible high and low range for continental Africa. The figures include collected and uncollected wastes, less scavenged wastes taken by the informal sector. The quantities estimated are a small fraction of total agricultural land, used for grazing and cultivation, in Tanzania alone (44million Ha). This illustrates that food wastes with the necessary safeguards can be fully utilised, alongside other organic waste streams (plant and animal wastes).
The estimates for healthy soil generation using African and West Asian country food wastes is shown in Table 1; these could be considerably higher as food wastes can include cultivation losses. The “Study wit a Tree” approach enables 15- to 17-year-olds trained in agroforestry to develop their learning in school within their own family groups and indigenous communities will re-establish the sustainable relationship with biodiversity, forestry, grazing and cultivation providing multi- and inter-generational food security and economic status for indigenous and wider community activity29. This will benefit women in Tanzania, with about 26% managing small family holdings or more, as other family members take on other employment opportunities to generate household income30 .
29 See: https://www.c-logical.com/opportunities/study-with-a-tree/.
30 See: https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5438ce09-e44e-40b1-8bfa299ab9985ee0/content.
Notes:
* 2 to 3 cm depth is the natural soil regeneration rate over 1000 years31 . 2.5 cm is about 34 kg (25 litres) of naturally composted soil (supplement) per square metre annually, though coverage could be extended with lower annual applied quantities over many years e.g., <10kg/m2 per year – this needs to be determined from soil trials. However, once the topsoil and upper subsoil moisture levels achieve the required range of moisture retention and porosity in the upper soil layers, periods of annual maintenance are likely to be extended over many years (to be determined) ** the total coverage can be further extended using animal manures and in coastal areas, seaweed.
Grazing lands
Reforestation is essential to restore, purify and protect the ground waters (phytoremediation) Rivers create watersheds with water collected, held and released into the soil in periods beyond the traditional rainy seasons. Grazing (and cultivation) areas are generally large areas of open land below the tree lines on the mountains and hilly terrain.
The Maasai have traditionally grazed their cattle on grasslands known as the Maasai Mara in Northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya. Seasonal movements of the cattle are necessary to allow the grazing land to recover. The traditional nomadic Maasai system of livestock and land management, moving grazing livestock seasonally to allow surface vegetation to recover, provides resilience and flexibility to natural disasters. These include frequent droughts and disease. The Maasai are also recognised for their tolerance of the presence of wildlife.
In the last 25 years, the Maasai have rapidly changed semi-arid grazing areas to agricultural croplands that are more vulnerable to natural disasters. Livestock herds have also increased, accompanied by an ever-increasing loss of grazing land, in order to cultivate crops and feed livestock Crops fail 2 out of every 5 years, due to poor soil protection measures. The situation is becoming worse because of decreasing soil moisture levels. Ploughing on cultivated land whilst removing surface vegetation leads to increased soil erosion, water runoff, and greater moisture evaporation.
32 The work of Alan Savoury in Zimbabwe offers a solution to this with
31 See: https://twitter.com/i/status/1334905210016292866
32 See: https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/lead/pdf/05_article01_en.pdf.
holistically planned grazing management implementation using livestock as both a means of sustainably managing livestock on the land and of addressing the loss of grazing land33 .
Crop growth is affected by changes in retained soil moisture which explains the 30 to 120% annual yield variations as rainfall models do not account for evaporation, infiltration and runoff34. In Tanzania, the 44,000,000 ha of grazing land is about 4 times more than the land used for cultivation.
Clay
In tropical regions, the fraction of horizon clay is controlled by high precipitation levels of >1000mm, where higher kaolinite fractions are found in regions with high annual precipitation (See Figure 8) and higher mean annual air temperatures of >12°C.
In the ancient Amazon, it is likely that the poor forest soil has been manually tilled (10 to 15 cm) into the surface vegetation, with food waste, animal and pottery (clay, charcoal, ash) wastes. This then maintained soil moisture storage, creating the rich organic medium needed to produce the anthropogenic Terra Preta. High permeability from weathered kaolinite soils is due to their stable micro-aggregated structure and low dispersibility. This may indicate the inclusion of fresh clay in the soil horizon, increasing water retention due to the relationship between the soil moisture retention and higher hydraulic conductivity (increased porosity), particularly in kaolinite soils. This enables the balance between moisture storage and transport of the mineral nutrients.
Figure 8 Global distribution of kaolinite clay in soil by precipitation and fraction. (Source: Lehman et al 2021. Open Access).
33 See: Running out of Time | Documentary on Holistic Management - YouTube.
34 See: https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2022/09/better-understanding-crop-yields-under-climatechange.
Poor yields of cereal crops result from the absence of irrigation and precipitation in the fallow and cultivation cycle. Fallow practices till cereal residues into the soil with the aim of improved weed control, soil porosity and hydraulic conductivity. However, with little or sparce rainfall, the soil moisture in the tilled horizon evaporates, and organic matter is lost by erosion with very low to low crop yields reported. Tillage methods cause structural changes measured by lower soil (horizon) density that result in varying degrees of degradation affecting soil biological activity and variability of climatic factors 35, 36 . A 2022 study demonstrates the sensitivity exhibited by transient changes in soil moisture. This is related to changes in the Aridity Index based on the annual precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ETo) measured as rolling monthly P/ETo)37. In California, the entity CIMIS uses data from its Statewide monitoring stations, advising farmers on irrigation and the selection drought resistant crops across the state for cultivation38 .
Despite the high rainfall levels experienced, the Terra Preta soil maintains a good soil retention in the crop and plant growing zones, growing with greater resilience to extreme weather events (Figure 9).
The key to adaptation appears to be increased and maintained soil moisture retention in the upper topsoil and subsoil layers, with sufficient porosity (drainage) to prevent flooding of the surface soil layers and erosion. Moisture retention is important because it creates the nutrient feed and hydraulic pressure that allows the stems and shoots to push through the less dense aerated soil, irradiated by sunlight initiating photosynthesis and organic growth. The available moisture determines the yields of crops and produce. Too much precipitation is balanced in healthy soil by the available porosity within the soil (drainage), as in the case of the Terra Preta adaptation.
35 See: https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2389.1983.tb01044.x
36 See: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-1987(01)00171-4.
37 See: https://www.lidsen.com/journals/aeer/aeer-03-04-054
38 See: Https://cimis.water.gov.ca.
The cycle of agricultural soil
“Water is sustenance for every living being on earth. Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water” (Szent-Györgyi, 1971)39
In the present day, if an extended dry or drought period occurs (particularly after tillage of the surface soil horizon), the soil will dry out due to the mechanical breakdown in the structure and decreased bulk density of the soil (see; Figure 10)40 41 , as low levels of precipitation are captured in the dry soil with little retention. The residual moisture evaporates back into the atmosphere and the untilled subsoil loses moisture that is taken up by the growing crops. Put simply, if the moisture at the surface of the untilled soil is not replenished in the rainy season, the untilled subsoil will dry out, losing structure and bulk density, with the drier upper part of the untilled subsoil incorporated deeper into the tilled horizon in the following year.
In an extended or decadal drought period, this will contribute to cumulative soil erosion and degradation. Intensive high yield cultivation techniques will make the situation worse as each crop plant competes for available water with its neighbour, reducing not only the yield, but the quality of the grain.
Adaptation of the soil horizon and adjoining upper subsoil layer
Is it possible to design an anthropogenic Terra Preta adaptation by modifying the clay content in the tilled horizon layer? Can this be achieved with the charcoal and activated charcoal to increase surface soil moisture retention and improve the passage of the moisture into the untilled denser soils beneath the tilled surface horizon?
It must be considered as to what clay type or combination of clay type should be used to improve soil moisture resilience. This may be the Kaolite clay present across West and Central
39 Szent-Györgyi, A. (1971). Biology and pathology of water: Perspectives in biology and medicine. Johns Hopkins University Press, Volume 14, Number 2, Winter 1971. pp. 239-249 doi: 10.1353/pbm.1971.0014.
40 See: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-1987(01)00171-4
41 See: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02783811/document.
Africa or smectite, a clay susceptible to swelling and found mainly in Sudan, South Sudan and in the Fertile Crescent42 , in relation to the prevailing climatic conditions.
Just as we plant trees in urban environments along streets to reduce the impacts of higher temperatures, we may need to plant rows of trees into cultivation areas to reduce the higher daytime temperatures due to rising global temperatures. In this sense, large scale open field cultivation may become unsustainable.
Livestock manure spreading (poultry, cattle, pigs) at 4 to 5 tonnes per hectare have seen crop yields increase from 50% to more than doubling in Nigeria, Milawi, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Zambia43 . The moisture content of the manure from cattle and pigs is up to 85%, sheep and horses 66% and poultry 62% (Brady 1974, p52844) that with evaporation and composting/ degradation may be less. The ideal manure moisture is 40 to 50% for composting45
The 500 sc ools in t e Tanzanian “Study wit a Tree” pilot trials will mix compositions that could include clay, charcoal and activated charcoals with manure or food wastes for spreading on land in the forest gardens (about 1 ha per school). The students will learn, assess, share data and identify best practices that increase fertility and productivity of the soil with the help of teachers, experts and University researchers. There are a range of considerations, including:
• Soil composition, use and preparation.
• Timing and application of animal manure and charcoal prior to tillage of surface soil, to create compost conditions in dry soil.
• Seasonal timing of application, type of application and seeding (e.g., before the first rain of the rainy season)
• Maintaining vegetation and crop growth (moisture retention)
• Crop selection (soil moisture demand)
• Crop yields (moisture availability)
There is a need to manage and maintain the positive impacts of a carbon storage strategy in soil and forestry by focusing on emission reduction. Wider policy applications can be framed to support naturally balanced habitats, enable growth and improve biodiversity. Such an approach can be used in relation to:
1. Land-use planning and development.
2. Maintaining healthy soil.
3. Naturally balanced agricultural practices.
4. Logging activity and reforestation
This approach makes use of compatible wastes, whilst maintaining biota diversity, healthy soil and forests, with small landholders adapting the learnings elsewhere to their own microclimates. The intergenerational skills and knowledge are shared as the learning programmes are implemented and developed:
• Within local and regional communities.
42 See: https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2017103
43 See: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-foodsystems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2019.00029/full
44 Reference from - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charles-Cravotta/publication/263350735.
45 See: https://grdc.com.au/resources-and-publications/grdc-update-papers/tab-content/grdc-updatepapers/2014/07/use-of-manures.
• By networking and liaising with learners and key stakeholders across schools to adapt and scale up to national level across Tanzania
• Disseminated internationally across Africa, West Asia and beyond
Addressing issues in the Maasai Mara
The shortage of grazing land on the Maasai Mara is caused by the phasing out of traditional seasonal rotational practices for grazing stock and growing grain on land formerly used for grazing to feed livestock. There is a need to sacrifice the surface horizon of soil by tillage of the grazing soil, in order to create the compost conditions in the surface soil (through oxidation of methane) and maintain healthy soil. Generally, this will be needed for enteric manures, as their high moisture content when mixed (tilled) with dry soil will produce a soil moisture content of about 50% or less. This creates ideal starting conditions for creating heat in the soil, with high temperatures enabling natural control of weeds and other biota in the soil that may damage food crops and reduces the soil moisture to a range of about 30+/-5%. Soil and upper subsoil moisture saturation levels in excess of 40 to 50% are unable to drain the moisture further into the subsoils, creating higher methane levels that go beyond the natural balance that the soil ecosystem has already adapted to.
More than 40 to 50% moisture in manure on the surface of the soil generates increasing quantities of methane Such conditions can be created through increased livestock numbers and decreased land availability, exacerbated by the need to grow crops to feed the cattle. To restore the natural balance of the CO2 and methane, the increased manure output must be tilled (mixed) into the dry soil to mitigate the excess methane generated. Other soil supplements to maintain soil moisture retention can be added, that may include combinations of:
• Crushed charcoal – helps to retain water.
• Charcoal ash (pottery, earth kiln) – provides nutrients.
• Activated charcoal – balances and purifies the moisture flow to the upper and lower subsoils and groundwater
• Clay and crushed ceramics – balances porosity and moisture flow, providing micro habitats for biota development
• Aggregated (graded or crushed) stones – helps with drainage and provides nutrients.
• Crop and natural wastes – help provide organic and residual nutrients.
This could be accomplished by segregation of grazing areas with planned movement of livestock to enable implementation of remedial action, in order to minimise excess methane emissions. By mixing in dry soil and with the necessary guidance and good management, this can improve soil health, moisture retention and vegetative productivity, reducing dependence on intensely cultivated animal feed by extending the grazing seasons
Soil trials will be required to determine types and standards of materials and wastes used, composition, appropriate methods to work into the soil composition, the spreading rate, and repeat annual applications (if necessary). Source of appropriate wastes include:
• Sundried fibrous crop wastes to make charcoal.
• Citrus wastes pressed to extract residual juice (used to activate the charcoal) from fruit farmers and local markets. Trials are needed to assess the suitability of dried fruit skins to create charcoal.
• Clay from waste sundried bricks or demolition wastes (commonly used in construction of buildings in Africa before the Second World War and still used today)
• Ceramic wastes – pottery and crushed kiln fired clay bricks
• Waste aggregates and stone
Resilience to drought will be built into the soil, reducing future erosion. The clay and charcoal will form cohesive small clumps of soil mass to retain and absorb the moisture, that will hold in soluble nutrients. The activated charcoal will help capture and immobilise pollutants, allowing water flow from the retained moisture in the surface soils into the upper subsoils. Similarly, mineral aggregates (ceramic and stone) will help facilitate necessary drainage. The grazing animals in the small holders farming communities will need to provide the organic manure.
Temperate climates
The enhancement of soil fertility with manures in temperate climates of Europe has been known from Neolithic times in Switzerland 46, with domestic waste used in the Netherlands,47,
46 Nielsen, O, Ma ler, asmussen, P 2000 ‘ n art ropod assemblage and t e ecological conditions in a byre at t e Neolit ic settlement at Weier, Switzerland’, J rc aeol Sci, 27, 209–18: https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0448.
47 a els, C C 1997 ‘T e beginnings of manuring in Western Europe’, ntiquity, 71, 442–5: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00085057.
Interestingly seaweed was used as a manure on Neolithic soils48 (described as phosphate rich) and more recently on islands and coastal areas of Scotland in the preindustrial times49,50 .
Healthy soil hosts a resilient and competitive dynamic life support function. This includes moisture and nutrient retention; carbon degradation; toxin and disease treatment (antibiotic); containment of pollutants and/ or removal; and carbon creation (food and biota growth). The Amazonian indigenous intervention restores the natural balance that continues to sustain life in the soil and biota, allowing communities to thrive. It creates a net healthy fertile growth medium and habitat for a diverse and essential range of micro and macro biota.
Structural degradation is the result of the interaction of tillage-tool effects on soil disturbance, soil biological activity and vulnerability to extreme weather and climatic factors Methods of tilling and surface soil mixing, as well as grazing management, need to be established. These methods will help to minimise the biota damage and critically, to mix fresh manures from livestock into the soil, in order to mitigate the methane generated in the high moisture discharges.
Coordinating community led agroforestry education
In Tanzania, the Government is providing about 8ha of land to support each school in Agroforestry education. About 1ha of land will be put aside to be developed as forest gardens. The learning will be led by community elders, providing a lifetime of intergenerational knowledge and experience of land, soil, food and waste practices.
For example, the composition and adaption of the soil supplements in topsoil will be developed based on past indigenous and local practice. The elders, supported by agroforestry experts, teachers and universities, will set out the necessary frameworks to support intergenerational continuous development, learning and skills training in the schools.
Equity and inclusion across all age groups will be achieved through active community involvement, as the outcomes of the educational initiative are applied within the communities and small holders of land (up to 5 ha). A key aim of the project is to eliminate food poverty that is rife in too many African communities.
The dissemination of the learning materials is to be enabled through the development of online learning, training and development modules, supported by necessary equipment provision and IT infrastructure development. This will be rolled out across Tanzania, Africa, West Asia and possibly in Southern Europe as desertification moves northwards. Translation and adaption of learning materials to country specific cultural practices, language and educational management systems will be required. A provisional outline road map is shown in Figure 11.
48 aggarty, M 1991 ‘Mac rie Moor, rran; recent excavations at two stone circles’, Proc Soc ntiq Scot, 121, 51–94. https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.121.51.94.
49 Bell, M, 1981 Seaweed as a prehistoric resource, in D Brothwell & G Dimbleby (eds), Environmental Aspects of Coasts and Islands. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 94, 117–26: http://library-cat.swheritage.org.uk/archive/ARC228688
50 Guttmann, E. B. A., Dockrill, S. J., & Simpson, I. A. (2005). Arable agriculture in prehistory: new evidence from soils in the Northern Isles. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 134, 53–64: https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.134.53.64.
Scaling up: Intergenerational Education ed Programme
Number of sc ools are indicative and may vary based on funding and available resources
Tanzania: gricultural indigenous communities
35% female farmers in 2020 ender: 50 % emale, 49 4% Male groforestry trainee s: 15 17 ge group
otes
on e t hase an ania n ear
14 sc ools
14 orest ardens and secured
37,000 trees planted
77 learning groforestry annually ilot hase an ania
500 sc ools
500 orest ardens and area to be allocated 1 3M trees planned substantially more as learning applied into communities
Up to 31,030 learning annually IT systems development and modular learning for online learning and s ills training
alin hase est and entral fri a 0,000 sc ools
150M trees
alin hase ast fri a 40,000 sc ools
100M trees
alin hase an ania
11,050 sc ools
11,050 forest gardens 2 M trees planted 0 7M farmers trained annually
Inward investment 1
Community added value 11 2 evenue ssets
Scaling up into Sout ern frica, MEN region and Sout ern Europeto be developed out of p ase 3 and 4 as funding is secured
Number of trees planted wit in communities is not included, t oug will be many more times t e estimates given, as will extending t e food cultivation in supporting local communities
Estimated economic values do not includewider developments t at will grow as surplus food is traded and as sustainable supply c ains are developed wit value added goods orth fri a est sia o thern ro e o thern fri a
Figure 11: Provisional Road Map for Education led roll out
Can the Fertile Crescent in West Asia be restored?
Much of the high ground in the Fertile Crescent has been deforested and the desertification has encroached into the summer grass lands on the inside of the crescent51 Restoration is needed including of the forests on the high ground along the eastern Mediterranean, the Cedar forests of Lebanon52 and across the Zagros mountains. Restoration will enable development and maintenance of healthy soils and restore great rivers, helping to rebuild the carbon sink, and facilitate adaptation to the increasingly extreme heat in the summer periods.
In the Waste Management Outlook for West Asia, there is a chapter on Special Regional Features included under the subtitle: ‘Managing waste in conflict situations: ebuilding from t e as es’53. The Arab League has a unique position in being able to bring together an outlook that will build long term peace and prosperity across their own land, within the African Union and the whole of Africa This can be achieved through extending the education led healthy soils and relationship with forests into West Asia, oases and the Fertile Crescent countries.
Would this work in desert oases, coastal hilly and mountainous communities?
In Saudi Arabia the road map for planting 10 billion trees across the Kingdom is already in place54 If combined with heathy soil strategies, food growing areas could become established. Similar landmark forestry and soil strategies could be applied in the UAE in Al Ain and Al Lima. Egypt too has plans to run sea water from the Mediterranean or fresh water from the Nile at Rosetta to fill the Qatarra Depression in the western desert region and border with Libya,
51 Mansour, A., A. Saad & N.M. Shariff (2011). Estimating Desertification in the Arab World Using GIS Approach. Middle East Journal of Scientific Research, 8(6): 1046-1053. Available at: http://www.idosi.org/mejsr/mejsr8(6)11/7.pdf
52 See: rom land mines to lifelines, ebanon’s S ouf is a rare restoration success story mongabay.com .
53 See: https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/waste-management-outlook-west-asia
54 See: https://www.spa.gov.sa/en/4ee9ea2d6bl.
running out into the Mediterranean55. The Saharan Oasis on the southern Libyan and Algerian border could also be developed. Egypt is reliant on annual flooding on the Nile and would benefit from the creation of forest watersheds between the Nile and the Red Sea.
The coastal hilly and mountainous regions around the Red Sea (across Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan), the southern Gulf (Yemen and Oman) and the Arabian Sea provide opportunities for development of forestry and heathy soil.
The Sub-Saharan region, t e “Great green wall” , is being built along the existing borders of the Northern limit of the African rainforest across 11 countries, 8000km and 15 km wide. The significant benefits already being delivered in Senegal include increasing economic status and significant environmental benefits including reversing desertification. The forest gardens produce food for communities, reversing the need for migration away from these regions. A more detailed explanation is provided in this video, produced in 2017. In the Sahel region (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal), the use of a traditional practice, alongside soil supplements, has restored productivity to the land and reduced migration away from the region. This practice uses stone walls to capture rainwater, silt and nutrients that had previously run off the hard degraded soil surface. The work of Alan Savoury in Zimbabwe provided a long-term solution on grazing lands to address desertification. We have the tools to address these problems and allow the surface crops, soil biota and wildlife to thrive.
Expansion on a continental and global scale
The African Union, Arab League countries and the European Union can bring to the world the first effective multi- and inter-generational, education led agroforestry project at continental scale. Over time, the implementation of this project can adapt and sustain the lives of over 2 billion people, restoring healthy, productive soil and soil biodiversity, delivering emission reductions, restoring the essential forestry watersheds, carbon sinks and biodiversity. In addition, it can provide a potentially significant contribution to reversing desertification and reduce the need for migration away from affected regions, through supply chain development and economic growth.
Can this work for the countries where desertification has taken hold? Building off and learning from best practice has always been a recipe for success. The indicators are already there in Sub Saharan Sudan, Lebanon, Zimbabwe and the Sahel, demonstrated by the level of political engagement and willingness to change. North America, Europe and other parts of Asia, too, remain at significant risk of food insecurity. Intensive agriculture and unsustainable demand drives deforestation and depletes minerals in the ground, destroys its life sustaining ecosystems.
The ultimate case study for this sustainable approach was inspired by one man, Jadav Payeng, planting a few trees every day over 30 years in India, which ultimately restored 550 hectares of forest and witnessed the return of biodiverse species that had been lost56 .
Nature based solutions - Policy development
In 2021, the European Environment Agency published policy guidance for the application of Nature Based Solutions for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. A review of
55 See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_Depression_Project.
56 See: https://interestingengineering.com/science/jadav-payeng-the-man-who-planted-an-entire-forestby-himself.
European policy action can be accessed via this link The UK has started on this journey, bringing political focus on to healthy soil through the EFRA Soil Heath Inquiry57, energised by the 2021 SocEnv Soil and Stones Report58 and the recent 2024 update59. The focus of the UK action is on land use and Nature Based Solutions, considering the wider needs for soil health across all land uses in urban, peri-environmental (sub-urban) and rural environments. The global need was articulated frankly in a recent presentation by Prof Johan Rockstrom60
Case Study 1: Advanced Irrigation solutions in Egypt (Source. FAO. 2022)61 .
The Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has piloted a new methodology for the efficient use of limited groundwater in the El Karga Oasis. Sensitive devices are used to measure the degree of soil moisture and monitor pressure from soil moisture deficits, with the data automatically being sent to t e farmer’s mobile p one. This helps farmers to make the appropriate decision regarding the quantity and timing of irrigation and the potential impacts on plant developments and soil health, supporting the assessment of drought tolerant resilient and vulnerable crops.
The digital irrigation solutions accomplish all Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) goals:
1. CSA Goal 1. Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes. The project saves water and reduces crop damage, while increasing productivity and yield.
2. CSA Goal 2. Adapting and building resilience to climate change. Reduces operating costs and increases farm profitability, through effective use of labour, energy and water
3. CSA Goal 3. Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, where possible.
Rationalizes energy used for pumping water, reducing CO2 emissions
57 See: https://socenv.org.uk/resource/socenv-response-soil-health-inquiry/.
58 See: https://socenv.org.uk/resource/socenv-soils-and-stones-report/
59 See: https://socenv.org.uk/resource/soils-and-stones-2024-socenv-progress-report/.
60 See: https://youtu.be/Vl6VhCAeEfQ
61 See: Abdel Monem M, Wong T, Jean-Faurès J-M, Abouzeid F, Matteoli F, Elbadawy O, Mohamed Tawfic M, (2022) Towards climate smart agriculture in Egypt: Scaling up sustainable practices for enhancing agrifood system resilience and adaptive capacity. Available at: https://www.openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8327142e-2479-4035-ad46718396257db3/content.
The big policy questions relate to the need for land and soil for food security amongst increasingly extreme and extended weather events. This has been exhibited in recent years by drought and flooding experience across India and other breadbasket regions that have significantly reduced yields, damaging or destroying the crops62. The retention of moisture in soil is critical to crop yields63. Crop resilience to climate, pest and disease may be improved in the short to medium term, but nature adapts and evolves in the soil biota. Case study 1 illustrates the benefits of monitoring and controlling moisture In soil.
GM crops - a warning?
Genetically modified (GM) crops can be limited in their ability to adapt and evolve successfully to climate conditions that are rapidly changing. A significant and increasing quantity of the world’s main staple food supply is provided by GM crops. GM technology has opened a new era in crop development, with about 525 different transgenic events interventions in 32 crops currently approved throughout the world. Many concerns have restricted widespread application. Cisgenesis and genome-editing technologies, as well as more traditional approaches such as splicing cultivated variants, exhibit traits that resist pests, drought and disease64, 65 .
One of the first GM crops, the Cavendish Banana, has become infested by a fungus. This has spread rapidly across the globe East to West from the eastern central Pacific to South American plantations. Finding one infected banana means the whole plantation must be destroyed.
We need to get as much of the discarded seed, that has been replaced by single species GM crops, in the ground as soon as possible. This is in the hope that at least some of these seeds can adapt and evolve to the rapidly changing climate conditions.
Case Study 2 – The Cavendish Banana
The Cavendish Banana may have reverted to its lowest evolved state of its primary biotic ancestors; the fungi that adapted and evolved with algae in a climate with only traces of oxygen 3.5 billion years ago66
In 2023 a new law of nature was proposed - the law of increasing functional information. This law focuses on novel anthropogenic intervention and the complexity of life, seeking to rationalise dynamic (organic) persistence, in the rapidly changing environment we now live. Bananas can evolve and grow from their seed or are propagated using bulbs or rhizomes in tropical or subtropical climates with high rainfall.
The phased mutation exhibited the vulnerability of the Cavendish Banana species to fungi –which jumps to the final lifecycle decay stages of the plant and the decay of the lignum (in the
62 See: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/india-driest-august-climate-farming-ai/
63 See: https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2022/09/better-understanding-crop-yields-under-climatechange
64 See: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00425-020-03372-8.
65 See: https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/food-standards-code/applications/A1274-Food-derivedfrom-disease-resistant-banana-line-QCAV-4.
66 See: Planavsky et al., Evidence for oxygenic photosynthesis half a billion years before the Great Oxidation Event. Nat. Geosci. 7, 283–286 (2014).
structural casing of the fruit). This normally occurs after the more rapid bacterial degradation of the lignocellulose composition of the fruit. As the plant has been grown from apparently healthy seed, rhizomes or bulbs, we can conclude that that this mutation has occurred due to the changing environmental conditions in the soil and atmosphere.
A cultivar of the Cavendish Banana was approved in 2024 for use in Australia and New Zealand which resists the fatal fungus67. This novel adaptation will, of course, need to be monitored to determine if this is a longstanding solution.
The triple existential crisis we face: climate change, resource depletion and biodiversity loss, could be within a few or less (human) generations be extended to a fourth existential threat, that to our global food supply. Adaptation policies must take this into account, in managing future threats to food security.
Genetic crops must be monitored in the field to look for signs of fungal vulnerability and risk assessment criteria developed for genetic phase transitions. Other market measures must be immediately regulated, to ensure successful biota (crop) adaptation in the natural environment in which it is planted and managed.
Non-soil technologies
Non-soil technologies such as hydroponics or microbial fermentation techniques using factory bacteria, yeast and other species to generate proteins and carbohydrates, can reduce emissions and water and land use demands.
Hydroponics, one of a number of emerging technologies for growing food without soil, is reported to be a rising profitable method, with Europe holding 47.3% of the global market and with the fastest growing market in Africa68”.
They appear to offer silver bullet solutions, but for how long is the question. How do we maintain the diversity of the supply, process hygiene and variety to ensure intergenerational and evolutionary sustainability?
69 The microbial protein sector is already consolidating and growing by:
• Lobbying to reduce impacts of anti-trust laws (monopolies)
• Strengthening market positioning by accumulation of intellectual rights, with focus on securing patents based on natural composition, rather than novel processing technologies.
• Buying out of emerging niche competitors and associated rights.
Small emerging start up producers, many with better quality products, are unable to compete, or maintain investor interest against the lower costs of mediocre protein products with little diversity or consumer choice. Economies of scale can be used uncompetitively to eliminate, prevent or limit early development in emerging markets, creating barriers to smaller, specialist and/or niche producers with their higher and better-quality offerings. Regulatory barriers that
67 See: https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/food-standards-code/applications/A1274-Food-derivedfrom-disease-resistant-banana-line-QCAV-4
68 See: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/hydroponics-market, viewed 23/11/2020.
69 See: Triech2021, Cultured meat: Promises and challenges. Environmental and resource economics , vol79. 31-61, https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s10640-021-00551-3.
raise costs to new market entrants can have similar impacts, though there are increasing calls from developing countries for patent rights to become open source70, 71 .
Table 1: Key Strategic Issues for sustainable development
International: Recognised protection areas for healthy soil in agriculture and carbon capture from biodiverse forests. International agreements on land use and land ownership. Negotiation of Loss and Damage Funding. Carbon and Biodiversity Credit revenues (CoP29) or value added export tax on minerals. Establishment of value-added food products to balance developing counties economies with those in the Global North.
Infrastructure: Open learning internet network at continental scale. Provision of technology into schools. Provision of services to translate knowledge and training packages. Satellite monitoring links. Coordination of data from meteorological monitoring stations. Provision of key equipment to schools.
The need to balance nature: Natural balance is the difference between the good and bad biota, for example good (fungus – anti biotics, promoting continued growth) and bad fungus (dry rot, decay), and as we all know from the media advertising of yogurts, we have good and bad bacteria in our digestive system. In the medical world we have good and bad cholesterol – a fatty tissue that blocks our arteries. Life or persistence of any dynamic organic species including our own, is based on maintaining this balance with natural biota inside and outside our bodies. The common factor here is food that is grown in the soil or what is now becoming a major threat: the issue of food security.
Focus: Engaging with Indigenous and vulnerable communities in developing countries facing food poverty. Developing countries taking control of the sovereign land, including that in oreign Owners ip. ate of Extraction of raw materials and “cas ” crops to be based on restoring natural balances through net zero waste policies; defined sustainable circular economy routes and recovery; sequestration, mitigation and adaptation management, to balance with the natural resources available and the needs of future generations; Forestry commercial exploitation offset by net carbon growth (sequestration); and commercial resources and replenishment with defined area, controlled and mitigated within mandatory land use conditions.
Strength in numbers: Restoring respect, economic strength, social and political status by addressing key threats and vulnerabilities to the environment and climate, creating opportunities to sustainably thrive and grow. Key actions may include developing counties coming together to form economic trading pacts; developing alternative economic models and trading agreements to restrict the exploitation of natural raw materials including minerals, timber and food (cash crops); and claiming economic and patent rights, making use of natural materials and biota that that have been sourced from their lands and seas of developing countries (these include medicines, specialist chemicals and materials).
70 See: Broad, GM. 2019, Plant based and cell-based animal product alternatives: An assessment and agenda for food tech justice, Geoforum, vol107, p223-226, https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum,2019.06.014
71 Monbiot G. (2021). Regenesis, Allen Lane, p208-209, ISBN 978-0-241-44764-2.
Range of Infrastructure, knowledge and skills requiring support and online knowledge and training packages: Agroforestry, carbon monitoring, recording and validation skills, preparing healthy soils, use of suitable wastes, grazing livestock practices, preparing seeds and bulbs. Planting to mitigate climate conditions and extreme weather use, irrigation, collecting and storing water, non-soil technologies– hydroponics. Identification of key biota species supporting soil health and biodiversity.
Standards: African Carbon and Biodiversity Standard to aid small and holders/ farmers and forestry compatible with small land holders, farmers, forestry development.
Monitoring of threats: Microplastics, meteorological networks, soil moisture, wildfires, drought and flooding. Sensor monitoring – wildfires. Infra-red (Healthy soil). Temperature and moisture sensors. Soil monitoring – structure, density. Knowledge transfer – Biodiversity. All 17 Sustainable Development Goals will enable monitoring of progress
Living with Nature: Balancing human activity with nature, creating a healthy and safe environment to ensure the return of biodiverse species and soil micro and macro biota. Establishing and setting sustainable limits to protect livestock and communities.
Economic: Elimination of food poverty and food waste. Strong and effective management of carbon credits validated and sold, creating schemes that protect small landholders and farmers and are crucial to continental global scale action.
Mobilisation: Integration of scaling up initiatives within the UNEP Programme Management System, for coordination of projects related to Agroforestry and Nature Based Solutions. These initiatives require educational and development support from donor nations, philanthropists and entrepreneurs to scale up the urgently needed climate and environmental action.
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Financing and integrating an education led approach, implemented within a UNEP GEO7 policy and solution programme management framework
Non-soil technologies are only a small part of the solution72 Financing multibillion naturebased solution projects in the poorer developing countries is seemingly almost impossible, despite promises made to the “ oss and amage Fund” at CoP2 73, as well as the failure of Carbon Credits to benefit poorer developing countries 74 . This report looks at using construction wastes such as stones, clay and ceramic bricks that may be used to adapt soil moisture retention and flow with other anthropogenic wastes. In the UK, the ReCon project run by the University of Plymouth looks at applying their research on construction wastes on a range of soils to inform policy75, further demonstrating that appropriate soil adaptions to improve soil fertility and health are valid across the whole range of tropical, temperate and boreal climates.
Our own multigenerational evolution, adaptation and survival is dependent on maintaining the diversity and productivity of our soils. The indigenous intervention in the Amazon forest shows that we can sustainably maintain biodiversity by adapting the poor rainforest soil to support city sized communities. Chemical fertilisers achieve increased crop yields simply by taking out more water from the upper subsoil and topsoil, accelerating land degradation where the subsoil moisture is not replenished in the rainy seasons, increasing the risk of erosion and loss of biota fertility.
Soil moisture is critically important in this period of increasing existential threat, with energy rich chemical fertilisers dramatically reducing yields, as surface soils and upper subsoil moisture is diminished and the longer-term loss of trees as water stress increases. Desertification is creeping further north into the Fertile Crescent and Southern Europe. The limitations and need to reduce chemical fertiliser use is plain to see, even in the higher precipitation environments that are increasingly affected by longer periods of extreme heat and drought. This is illustrated in the Amazonian rainforest, with the slash and burn clearings and the intense cultivation and grazing practices that replace the forests. Surely, we can learn from the indigenous peoples and their ancestors
Call to Action
The scale of the ambition to address these issues now lies in the hands of international leaders. Anthropogenic soil is an example of nature-based solutions. It is no longer a secondary material, or a waste product, and we have the capability to manage, compose and adapt our agricultural soil to support the essential life support ecosystem The solutions raised in this article are well known and are being applied. Therefore, the focus should be on expansion of application to address the urgency highlighted in this article. This can only be delivered through an intergenerational education led approach, dependent on the necessary resource commitment and support of the UN membership, Governments across the globe and philanthropic and corporate engagement.
72 See: https://socenv.org.uk/resource/socenv-soils-and-stones-report/
73 See: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/12/cop28-loss-and-damage-fund-climate-change/.
74 Winters, J. (2024) Carbon credits are supposed to funnel money to poor countries. Do they? Ethical Markets. Grist. See: https://www.ethicalmarkets.com/carbon-credits-are-supposed-to-funnel-moneyto-poor-countries-do-they/
75 See: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/institutes/sustainable-earth/the-recon-soil-project.
The educational approach outlined in this report will make use of globally adopted internet technology and networks to disseminate the learning to the most vulnerable communities. This approach makes use of residual food waste in the general population and creates growth through engagement with sustainable supply chains. Therefore, the approach provides a long term (40 to 100+ year) low-cost nature-based solution approach that could become selfsustaining, with the goal of eliminating food poverty in the most vulnerable communities
The need for scaling up these solutions is urgent to protect prime ecosystems, such as the equatorial forests, from becoming carbon emitters The Amazon Forest is already in a transition phase that will turn it into a savanna, but far worse as degraded unhealthy soil The precautionary principle need for monitoring of GM crops requires urgent contingencies as described in this report. Boreal forests in the global north are becoming carbon emitters76 . The urgency to implement the Tanzanian “Study wit a Tree” pilot at scale provides an existing platform, on which we can build an intergenerational continental scale programme.
This is the ultimate survival game, not played out on our TV screens, but in real life. We can all contribute to address these threats, wherever we are and in whatever we do on this planet that we call home. Let us make this a strength in numbers, respecting indigenous knowledge and practice to guide those that lead us.
76 See: https://youtu.be/Vl6VhCAeEfQ.