Announcing a plan to develop the Green Dam and exploit it economically
The authorities adopted a new approach in expanding the area of the Green Dam, which is the largest afforestation project in Algeria since independence, with the aim of setting a barrier to prevent desertification of the lands of the high plateaus and the north.
Director of Desertification Control: The new multidimensional approach to the Green Dam includes planting wealth-creating species that are resistant to desertification and forest fires
Saliha Fartas, Director of Combating Desertification and the Green Dam at the General Directorate of Forests, said that 26 million shrubs have been planted on an area of 43,558 hectares, noting that the selection of afforestation areas and the species to be planted responds to environmental criteria, "but there is also an economic and social dimension."
And she highlighted in a statement to the official agency that the new multi-dimensional approach to the Green Dam includes planting creative types of wealth that are resistant to desertification and forest fires, such as rural trees such as olive, pistachio, almond and carob trees.
Also included in this scope is the development of the cultivation of aromatic and medicinal plants, the cultivation of allies, and the promotion of the activities of traditional industries that use the raw materials produced in those forest areas.
Within this goal, the official said that peasants, women and youth are encouraged to participate in this ambitious program, referring to the support provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to help them, especially through free training courses, administrative facilities and financial assistance granted by the "Rafiq" loan. As well as loans provided to young people through the apparatus of the National Agency for the Support and Development of Entrepreneurship.
The green dam, which extends over an area of 4.7 million hectares distributed over 13 states, consists mainly of 63 percent of pastoral areas with an area of more than 2.33 million hectares consisting of allies and fodder.
As for the forest areas, they represent 18 percent of those areas, with an estimated area of 665,741 hectares, and the agricultural area estimated at 591,769 hectares, equivalent to 16 percent of the total area of this forest achievement.
Source: websites