In spring, Yatir, a human-made forest planted in the 1960s by JNF, a non-profit land development agency, on the northwest edge of the Negev Desert, bursts with new life. Pink and yellow wildflowers carpet the forest floor; camels, horses, foxes, rabbits, and snakes all survive here.
The trees are neither watered nor fertilized (施肥), and yet somehow the forest has survived for almost 60 years. "Yatir Forest proves that we can combat desertification, and heal the wounded earth," the JNF website says. "For us, Yatir is a laboratory where we study the forest's effect on climate," says Rotenberg, who joined the project in 2000. "What we learn now about Yatir will be serving a warmer, dryer world in many regions."
Fifteen years' worth of measurements in Yatir, beginning in 2001, do show that the forest takes up a surprising amount of carbon — as much as forests in more humid areas. Semi-dry shrub (灌木丛) and grasslands cover nearly a fifth of the planet's land; if they all were planted with trees, the Yatir results suggest, they might absorb around 10 percent of current fossil fuel emissions.
Not everyone is happy about that. The SPNI, for example, opposes further planting of trees in naturally unforested open spaces such as grasslands and shrublands. In a 2019 report, the SPNI claims that afforestation in sensitive ecosystems has a destructive impact on this area's unique biodiversity. "I love trees," says Alon Rothschild, head of biodiversity policy at the SPNI, "but you don't have to stick them in every place."
Planting forests in such places excludes native species that are adapted to shrubland, he says, including endangered ground-nesting birds which need open landscapes to dive on prey (猎物). The heavy machines and chemicals used in tree-planting can also damage fragile dryland soils, which provide food for insects and birds.
