Lessons of the Loess Plateau

Totally degraded and the size of Belgium
They
Looked at the Loess Plateau,
And must have been blown away
Existence was deplorable
The environment was bare
The ignorance of human beings
Who didn’t seem to care

But that was not the answer
Not the reasoning not to try
They didn’t have the answers
Nor the motivation, why
Change direction really
When there was no place to go
Life was very daunting
And they didn’t want to know

Nature couldn’t cope
With human intervention
Life had become so degraded down
It was nobody’s intention
To look at the restoration
Of so huge a place
There was no one really helping
And it was something they couldn’t face

The arrogance of man himself
Coupled with the fear
The element of struggle
The consciousness of here
Without knowledge for the environment
We can ruin what we do
Totally imbalance what Nature
Is trying to
Put right put back in balance
Sustainably restore
The people of the villages
Were also very poor

There had to be commitment
And a cooperative approach
There had to be much planning
Something hard to broach
From years of inconsistency
And subsistence farming where
Its was people losing touch alas
And feeling much despair

With the countryside dead or dying
And invention apparently
Wanting more than anyone
Actually could see
With this wanton destruction
Of trees and grasses too
A great vapour of mindlessness
Of not knowing what to do

It just appeared beyond them
With no intellect in play
And no motivation
Life went on from day to day
And the whole ecological system
Was clearly under strain
It needed restoration
A cerebration chain

A policy driven ecological
And restoration plan
Based on sustainability
And, so it began
In 1995 a wretched state of affairs
Where Forests had been denuded
And their dreams were all nightmares

Great rivers pulled the silt and mud
And took it on its way
Spreading what was Loess a kind of sandy clay
Creating open gulleys and soil erosion fast
Down from the Himalaya
Soil was moving fast

Mans impact though was devastating
The poor were poorer still
Flooding drought and famine
Though was a bitter pill
And imagining the outcome
Of what was to be
A watershed
Of rehabilitation and constancy

almost four years of planning
A regulatory side
Getting the people motivated
And sharing in the pride
Of structure and an undertaking
To own and profit by
The fertility and cooperation
And the reasons why

They had to work together
The lands contracted to
Families and communities
Sustainable and strong
Rights and responsibilities
So nothing would go wrong
And they worked and worked
To achieve it
And achieve it they did
The whole area has been greened up
Each family p,aced their bid
Their strength and resolution
Into this vital land
And looking back to how it was
Of course they understand

Hard work and excellent planning
Cooperation too
Everyone helps everyone
And they all learn what to do
Ecology and economy
Those dual objectives won
nature is the system
Underneath the sun

Forests soon come back to bloom
The terraces worked well
And they followed sustainability
A system that did sell
Itself well in this rural land
Where they could see that they,
Were part and parcel to it all
Earning every day

The destructive human behaviour
Was supplemented by
The challenge and the hard work
It took courage and it was high
In the peoples estimations
To be successful and be strong
Ensure the ecology mattered
And nothing did go wrong

The hard work has paid off of course
And now the plateau’s green
They all share in the future
And what is a lovely scene
They understand the environment
And their impact on it all
And have turned it around completely
Which is really rather cool

Growing apples successfully
On organic land
Peas and Corn
And lots besides
And all can understand
The sense of doing things naturally
Its a positive display
Of hard work and and incentives
All along the way

About Rex Tyler

I love animals. I enjoy writing poetry and delivering speeches.I like to mentor people who need help in preparing speeches and evaluations.I enjoy travel although it is much harder for me these days.I so enjoyed the Andes Mountains and Volcanoes and the Quichua people who live and thrive there.I have lots of friends around the world.
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