The Green Deserts project - Using the Waterboxx

1. The Green
Deserts project
Life+ 2009-2014
ECCA Conference - Climate Change, 20/03/2013, Hamburg, by Sven Kallen,
Director Transfer Consultancy

2. Spain – frontier fight against climate change

3. Objectives
1. Prove technical and economic
feasibility of Groasis Waterboxx
3. Involve local communities
4. Clarify best combination of soils,
trees, and application methods
¨Deal with desertification of abandoned
areas (dry, bare) which used to be lungs
for the capture of CO2, sources of food
production and landscape.¨
2. Disseminate concept

4. Participants
Universidad de Valladolid Aquapro
Sylma
Diputación de León
Ayuntamiento de Riofrío de Aliste
Diputación de Valladolid
Ayuntamiento de San Mateo de Gállego
Transfer Consultancy

5. The scope of the project
- Valladolid
- León
- Zamora
- Zaragoza
- Barcelona
55,000 saplings
65 Ha.
5 areas

6. The scopeFACTS: León
Altitude 1600-1800 m
Slope of 39,6 %
No water retention
Snow 8 months/year
FACTS: Zamora
Old quarry
Altitude of 900 m
Strong winds
high rainfall in winter
FACTS: Zaragoza
Altitude of 300 m
High degraded soil
Desertification
(Los Monegros)
FACTS: Barcelona
Altitude of 100-300 m
Hills suffered forest fires
Low water retention capacity
Stony soil
FACTS: Valladolid
Altitude of 800 m
Former illegal waste dumps
Dry summers & cold winters

7. Actions
Characterisation and selection of
species and lots
Preparation of saplings
Realisation of the Waterboxxes
and capillary drill
Planting of the saplings
Maintenance, control and
technical monitoring

8. Innovation: Groasis Waterboxx

9. Planting

10. Control & monitoring (1)
Damage by frost and low
temperatures
Damage by wildlife: moles,
rabbits, wild boars…
o 10% trees planted without Waterboxx as control group
o Random sampling of 5-10%
o Measurement of different factors (survival, growth, etc.)
o Analysis of problems

11. Control & Monitoring (2)

12. Control & monitoring (3)

13. State of project – first
conclusions
The Groasis Waterboxx looks like a good
tool to improve survival rates of trees, but
other factors are at play:
o Quality of the sapling
o Correct positioning of Waterboxx
o Maintenance
o Animals

14. Communication - Local awareness

15. Cooperation with other Life+
• LIFE Delta Lagoon - Sant Carles de la Rapita (Tarragona)-Fundación Naturaleza y Hombre
• LIFE Reserva Campanarios de Azaba (Salamanca)-IRTA
Campanarios de AzabaDelta del Ebro-Sant Carles de la Rapita

16. The web: all content in 2 languages

17. Publicity
La Opinión de
Zamora
La Crónica
El Mundo
etc

18. Action!
Involvement lessons:
• Involve people & local communities: offer concrete activities
• Grasp attention: short articles, video, social media, …
• People see the issues (desertification, habitat loss, etc.) but feel
rather powerless: give them inspiration!
As a team we learned:
• “It’s the SOIL stupid!”
• Develop new projects to deal with deserted, dry, bare lands

19. New LIFE projects
Operation CO2: Climate change project, 2 lines of action:
- Carbon credits for forest conservation (4.000 Ha.) for the
voluntary market
- Integral agroforestry systems (2 * 25 Ha.), pre-certification
All info at: www.operationCO2.com

20. ¡Muchas gracias!
For more information, please check:
• www.thegreendeserts.com
• The Green Deserts on Facebook
• Youtube channel
Or contact:
• sven@transfer-lbc.com
(Sven Kallen)