Desire for Greener Land

Gully G ccontrol
by pla antationn
of At triplex
Morocco M
Rehabilitation
R
of a gullied slope and gully
control, by plantation n of Atriplex
halimus
fodderr
shrubs.
Above left: TThe
field during g Atriplex plantting
in
April 2009 (PPhoto:
Gudrun Schwilch) S
Above right: : The vegetatio on cover 2 yearrs
after
Atriplex plantting,
showing th he boundary feence
(Photo: Gudrrun
Schwilch)
The
experimenttal
plot, with a size of 5000m m², correspondds
to an old fa allow field and
st trongly gullied slope. The gullies
are paralle el and start aroound
the middle e of the slope.
They
extend by retreat of the ggully
heads ups slope. Each guully
is 2 to 4 m large and 1 to
2 m deep and uup
to 120 m loong.
Downslope,
the gullies llose
their dept th and deposit
fa ans composed of material erooded
upstream,
before they jooin
the channel
of Hannanet,
which w has the teendency
to inciise
its bed (mo ore than 4 m deeep)
inside colluvial
deposits
made m of sand, cclay
and beds of pebbles. Th he plot was plaanted
with shru ubs of Atriplex
ha alimus, and ennclosed
with a ffence
since Ap pril 2009. Plantiing
was organised
in strips 6
m apart, with the
objective of stabilizing the gullies and resstoring
biodive ersity. Planting
de ensity is aboutt
760 shrubs/hha,
with a rate of success of about 89.5%. Owing to late
pl lantation in sppring
it was irrrigated
every 20 2 days duringg
the summer r months. It is
pl lanned to openn
it again to graazing
2.5 years s after its plantaation.
Location: Se
The
objective oof
the fencing to prevent encroachment
off
animals is to o improve the Region: Salé
ve egetation coveer
through reduuction
of loss th hrough grazingg
and reduced compaction of Technology
th he soil. This immproves
biodivversity
and als so provides riccher
and more e varied grass Conservatio
fo odder in additioon
to the fodder
from the sh hrubs. The impproved
cover density d retains Stage of inte
water w in the soiil
and reduces runoff. The ai im is to reducee
the catchment
area of the reclamation o
gu ullies, and the amount of water
collected in order to progreessively
diminish
the gullies. Origin: deve
research and
Several
phasess
were undertaaken
in the est tablishment of f this experime ental plot: The project, recen
pl lants were obbtained
from a nursery in the t Beni Mellal
region (from
the Forest Land use: gr
au uthority). The ssecond
activityy
was the prepa aration of holess
(760 holes of 40x40x40cm) Climate: sem
an nd the establisshment
of a wire
fence around
the plot, in order to ensu ure no grazing WOCAT data
du uring the first 2 years. After planting the sh hrubs, irrigationn
was necessa ary for the first cdewocat.uni
fe ew months duriing
the dry seaason.
DESIRE site
his.eu/en/seh
The
climate is semi-arid
with aaround
450 mm m of rain annuaally.
The topogr raphy consists Related appr
of f a plateau, inccised
by channnels,
with short t tributaries exttending
into the e Grou valley. Compiled by
The
slope anglle
is between 10 and 50 %. % The soils oon
the slope are often not Unesco-GN,
de eveloped. Thee
thick colluviuum,
which is made m of erodible
reddish sa and and clay, Sciences Hum
ex xplains the deppth
and width oof
the gullies. The T economy rrelies
on a sys stem based on Date: 09
ce ereals and graazing.
The inccome
of this system is loww
because of the extensive
ch haracter and thhe
reduction of
yield due to degradation. d
MMany
changes are occurring,
su uch as changees
in land cover
and in emig gration, land aabandonment
and a increased
lin nks to urban acctivities.
th ehoul
é province
area: 0.005 km m
on measure: ve
ervention: reh
of denuded lan
eloped through
d externally / in
nt (