This article examines a systems approach to combating desertification using large-scale shelterbelts established by several countries (the USSR/Russia, China, and African countries). It demonstrates that the planting of wide shelterbelts in the southeast of European Russia (ER) after World War II and the 1946 drought proved successful, protecting farmland from dry winds. However, these shelterbelts have now been largely lost, leading to desertification in Kalmykia and several other regions of Russia. Among the causes of tree mortality are their advanced age and a number of diseases, the spread of which is linked to climate change. The implementation dynamics of the "Great Green Wall" project to create a massive shelterbelt south of the Sahara from the 1980s to the present are examined. A comparative analysis of the implementation of the Great Green Wall projects in the South Sahara, the Chinese Green Wall (China), and the experience of combating desertification in the southern regions of the USSR was conducted. The relevance of creating a system of shelterbelts on the border with deserts is beyond doubt in terms of improving the state of local ecosystems. In terms of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030), afforestation cannot always be considered a method for slowing global warming by capturing part of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Based on the results of the analysis, it was concluded that monoculture in forest plantations should be avoided, gaps should be created in them, slope exposure and altitudinal zonation should be taken into account when choosing crops, and shelterbelts should be restored taking into account the lifespan of trees. Plantations in the Sahel are not self-regenerating forests. They require a long period of care and repair, as in the biological reclamation of poor soils. Regular replanting of trees in shelterbelts is required, taking into account their lifespan.
Degterev et al. (Sun,) studied this question.