Pre-Saharan Green Dam
Decided during the summer of 1971, the reforestation of a large strip of land all along the high plains and the Saharan Atlas responds to the need to ensure the protection of the northern regions of Algeria and to initiate a vast development program in these regions which remain subject to extensive and impoverishing exploitation.
The vast steppe expanses in fact continue to see their potential continually decrease due to the non-existence of a development setting rational standards for the use of heritage and helping to guarantee the conservation or even improvement of production capital.
Among some of the populations of these regions, with paltry resources, the temptation is great to resort to the inconsiderate exploitation of natural plant resources. The conjunction of this situation and the natural phenomenon of aridity has led to the acceleration of the desertification process.
Everyone agrees that the desire for progress can remove many constraints, including those of natural origin. In the agronomic field, there are numerous examples in Algeria. In the field of livestock breeding first of all, the establishment of cooperatives, with controlled numbers and delimited and materialized areas, inevitably opens the way to work intended to increase the yield of fodder units.
As for esparto, the local processing of the raw material, formerly almost entirely dedicated to export, also requires the implementation of rational management techniques for the steppes.
In terms of forestry, the policy of generalized development of wooded areas undertaken since 1968 has made it possible to convince ourselves of two realities: the first is that normally carried out logging is in no way incompatible with the objective of protection and the second is that, despite its relative poverty, the Algerian forest is able to contribute to industrial development.
This succinct analysis of the conditions prevailing in this part of our country is necessary because it allows us to understand that the decision to build the green dam is part of the continuity of a larger program: the integrated and intensive development of the high plains and the Saharan Atlas.
The establishment of forests on such a large scale, while producing favorable effects on the water economy and rainfall, will make it possible to stop water erosion and make possible the fixation of the sand dunes which cross Algeria almost continuously from east to west at the level of the middle part of the high plains.
The extension of this large curtain of trees will make the creation of agricultural and livestock areas entirely feasible in this area where agronomic technology has not yet reached its full potential. Logically, no one is better suited to carry out this grandiose task, which is of the dimensions of the Algerian Revolution, than the rising generation.
Thus, the young conscripts of the National Service structured and supervised by the National People's Army will place their efforts in line with their elders.
The vast steppe expanses in fact continue to see their potential continually decrease due to the non-existence of a development setting rational standards for the use of heritage and helping to guarantee the conservation or even improvement of production capital.
Among some of the populations of these regions, with paltry resources, the temptation is great to resort to the inconsiderate exploitation of natural plant resources. The conjunction of this situation and the natural phenomenon of aridity has led to the acceleration of the desertification process.
Everyone agrees that the desire for progress can remove many constraints, including those of natural origin. In the agronomic field, there are numerous examples in Algeria. In the field of livestock breeding first of all, the establishment of cooperatives, with controlled numbers and delimited and materialized areas, inevitably opens the way to work intended to increase the yield of fodder units.
As for esparto, the local processing of the raw material, formerly almost entirely dedicated to export, also requires the implementation of rational management techniques for the steppes.
In terms of forestry, the policy of generalized development of wooded areas undertaken since 1968 has made it possible to convince ourselves of two realities: the first is that normally carried out logging is in no way incompatible with the objective of protection and the second is that, despite its relative poverty, the Algerian forest is able to contribute to industrial development.
This succinct analysis of the conditions prevailing in this part of our country is necessary because it allows us to understand that the decision to build the green dam is part of the continuity of a larger program: the integrated and intensive development of the high plains and the Saharan Atlas.
The establishment of forests on such a large scale, while producing favorable effects on the water economy and rainfall, will make it possible to stop water erosion and make possible the fixation of the sand dunes which cross Algeria almost continuously from east to west at the level of the middle part of the high plains.
The extension of this large curtain of trees will make the creation of agricultural and livestock areas entirely feasible in this area where agronomic technology has not yet reached its full potential. Logically, no one is better suited to carry out this grandiose task, which is of the dimensions of the Algerian Revolution, than the rising generation.
Thus, the young conscripts of the National Service structured and supervised by the National People's Army will place their efforts in line with their elders.