Nature is not fixed, but ever changing. Some of the worlds best known deserts were once fertile grasslands and forests, including the Sahara, the Mojave, the Kalahari, and Gobi deserts. Is it accurate to think of deserts as permanent?
Ecosystem succession shows us that Nature can evolve from rock to forest as well as reverse itself back to dust or a barren state. According to National Geographic, drylands account for more than 40 percent of the world’s terrestrial surface area.
Human-caused desertification and soil erosion is changing the landscape of Earth, with Africa and Asia being particularly vulnerable; many in these regions rely on subsistence farming. Humans are accelerating the degradation of land through deforestation, urbanization, mining, monocrop industrial farming, and conventional ranching, however, turning land into desert is not a fixed or foregone conclusion.
Our guest in this show, Alejandro Carrillo, Managing Partner, Grasslands Regeneration Project, has been working to green the desert in northern Mexico
Droughts, floods and erosion need not be permanent realities if we change the behaviors that are causing them. We have the power to align with and assist Nature in a process of evolution that benefits and sustains life.
Las Damas, Alejandro Carrillos ranch, is one of the worlds best known examples of what is possible on dry land, these arid and brittle environments that receive low rainfall.
Water can be infiltrated, rainfall can be restored, wildlife and plant diversity can once again thrive. Resiliency is possible and Alejandro is here to share his remarkable, regenerative journey.
Alejandro Carrillo, Managing Partner, Grasslands Regeneration Project is a regenerative rancher in the Chihuahuan Desert in Northern Mexico. In the last ten years, he has been able to grow tremendous amounts of grasses, forbes, and legumes in a climate zone that receives only eight inches of rainfall, thanks to holistic, rational grazing management. This has benefited both his ranching endeavor and the life in general of all organisms below and above ground. He has also made rainfall more abundant by creating a microclimate for his ranch. Before joining his fathers cattle ranch in 2004, Alejandro worked for several years in the software industry in the financial sector in various countries in the Americas and Europe.
Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.
