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Posted September 13, 2005 originally reported by Rueters:
After years of destroyed soil and disappearing forest,
environmentalists have their eyes set on reforming South
Africa’s sugar industry. Current methods for growing
sugar in the region are far from sustainable. Crops
are often planted on steep hills; the sharp inclines
make poor use of available rainfall and wash away priceless
top soil. Within years the destruction is often so bad
farmers are tempted to expand into the fertile Dlinza
forest, one of the last fragments of coastal scarp forest
left in South Africa.
Conservation group WWF International hopes its Sustainable
Sugar Initiative, will encourage both commercial and
peasant farmers to adopt more ecologically friendly
practices such as "contour banks" which slows
running water reducing irrigation and erosion problems.
For more on South Africa’s Sustainable Sugar Initiative
to go:
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