Old people in Widou Thiengoly say they can remember when there were so many trees that you couldn’t see the sky. Now, miles of reddish-brown sand surround this village in northwestern Senegal, dotted with occasional bushes and trees. Dried animal dung is scattered everywhere, but hardly any dried grass is.
辛格利(Thiengoly)的老人们说，他们记得过去这里树木繁多，遮天蔽日。而现在，在这个塞内加尔西北部小村庄周围，红褐色的沙漠延绵数英里。村里零星长着几株灌木和树木，四处散落着干燥的动物粪便，而干草却难觅踪影。
Overgrazing and climate change are the major causes of the Sahara’s advance, said Gilles Boetsch, an anthropologist who directs a team of French scientists working with Senegalese researchers in the region.“The local Peul people are herders, often nomadic. But the pressure of the herds on the land has become too great,” Mr. Boetsch said in an interview. “The vegetation can’t regenerate itself.”
人类学家吉勒斯•伯伊士(Gilles Boetsch)说，撒哈拉沙漠情况恶化加速，主要原因是过度放牧和气候变化。伯伊士先生正带领一个法国科学家小组与塞内加尔研究人员在这一地区共同开展研究工作。在接受采访时，他说：“当地的佩尔人(Peul)是牧民，常常过着游牧生活。由于牲畜给土地造成巨大的压力，植被无法自行恢复。”
Since 2008, however, Senegal has been fighting back against the encroaching desert. Each year it has planted some two million seedling trees along a 545-kilometer, or 340-mile, ribbon of land that is the country’s segment of a major pan-African regeneration project, the Great Green Wall.First proposed in 2005, the program links Senegal and 10 other Saharan states in an alliance to plant a 15 kilometer-wide, 7,100-kilometer-long green belt to fend off the desert.While many countries have still to start on their sections of the barrier, Senegal has taken the lead, with the creation of a National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
然而，自2008年以来，塞内加尔一直在与沙漠侵蚀斗争。该国每年在一条长达545公里(约340英里)的地带种植约200万株树苗，这是该国在绿色长城项目中承担的任务。此项目是于2005年首次提出的一项庞大的泛非洲生态恢复计划。塞内加尔与其他10个撒哈拉国家将共同行动，建造15公里宽、7100公里长的绿化带，用于抵御沙漠侵蚀。许多国家还尚未启动种植所承担的绿化带时，塞内加尔已率先行动，设立了落实绿色长城项目的国家机构。
“This semi-arid region is becoming less and less habitable. We want to make it possible for people to continue to live here,” Col. Pap Sarr, the agency’s technical director, said in an interview here. Colonel Sarr has forged working alliances between Senegalese researchers and the French team headed by Mr. Boetsch, in fields as varied as soil microbiology, ecology, medicine and anthropology.“In Senegal we hope to experiment with different ways of doing things that will benefit the other countries as they become more active,” the colonel said.Each year since 2008, from May to June, about 400 people are employed in eight nurseries, choosing and overseeing germination of seeds and tending the seedlings until they are ready for planting. In August, 1,000 people are mobilized to plant out rows of seedlings, about 2 million plants, allowing them a full two months of the rainy season to take root before the long, dry season sets in.
该机构技术主任佩普•萨阿上校(Col. Pap Sarr)接受采访时说：“这片半干旱地区越来越不适宜居住。我们要让人们有可能继续在这里生活下去。”萨阿上校促成塞内加尔研究人员与伯伊士先生负责的法国科学家小组建立起研究合作关系，涉及微生物学、生态学、医学和人类学等诸多领域。上校说：“在塞内加尔，我们希望通过尝试各种行动方法，让其他国家更积极地行动起来。”自2008年以来，每年五六月份，约有400人应招在八个苗圃工作，选种、育种、育苗，直到苗熟待种。八月份，要动员1000人栽种共约200万株树苗。这样，在漫长的旱季到来之前，这些树苗就有足足两个月的时间在雨季扎根。
After their first dry season, the saplings look dead, brown twigs sticking out of holes in the ground, but 80 percent survive. Six years on, trees planted in 2008 are up to three meters, or 10 feet, tall.So far, 30,000 hectares, or about 75,000 acres, have been planted, including 4,000 hectares this summer.There are already discernible impacts on the microclimate, said Jean-Luc Peiry, a physical geography professor at the Université Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, France, who has placed 30 sensors to record temperatures in some planted parcels.
第一次旱季之后，树苗看上去枯萎了，褐色的嫩枝在树坑里冒出来，但80%的树苗存活了下来。六年后，2008年种的树已有3米(约10英尺)高。至今植树面积已达3万公顷，约7.5万英亩，其中包括今夏新植的4000公顷。
“Preliminary results show that clumps of four to eight small trees can have an important impact on temperature,” Professor Peiry said in an interview. “The transpiration of the trees creates a microclimate that moderates daily temperature extremes.”“The trees also have an important role in slowing the soil erosion caused by the wind, reducing the dust, and acting like a large rough doormat, halting the sand-laden winds from the Sahara,” he added.Wildlife is responding to the changes. “Migratory birds are reappearing,” Mr. Boetsch said.
法国克莱蒙特(Clennot-Ferrand)地区帕斯卡尔大学的地理学教授让•路可•佩里说，在微气候学上，已经有了一些可见的变化。在该项目中，他放置了30个温度记录仪。佩里教授在接受采访时称：“树木散发水分，形成一个小气候，可以调节日温差。”佩里教授还说：“这些树木在减缓刮风引起的水土流失、降尘和充当巨大屏障方面也都发挥着重要作用，从而阻挡来自撒哈拉沙漠的风沙。”野生动物也得益于这些变化。伯伊士先生说：“候鸟又飞回来了.”
The project uses eight groundwater pumping stations built in 1954, before Senegal achieved its independence from France in 1960. The pumps fill giant basins that provide water for animals, tree nurseries and gardens where fruit and vegetables are grown.
该项目所使用的八个地下水泵站均建于 1954 年，在1960年塞内加尔从法国独立出来之前。水泵把水抽到巨大的蓄水池里，供动物饮用并灌溉苗圃和种植水果蔬菜的园地。
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