Desertification Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The term des e rti f ication was coined in 1949 by A. Aubreville, a French scientist working in West Africa. Aubreville introduced this umbrella term to describe several ecological processes in tropical Africa, in particular the progressive transformation of tropical forests in savanna and drier ecosystems. In advancing this term, Aubreville was attempting to describe the way in which the Sahara Desert was expanding to engulf desert-marginal savanna grasslands. The term was further popularized in the 1970s because of the prolonged Sahelian drought. Since then, desertification has aroused intense debate in the scholarly community about the extent, definition, causes, and how to control this phenomenon, which has led to multiple definitions. In 1983, Michael Glantz and Nicolai Orlovsky reported encountering more than one hundred definitions of desertification in related literature, signifying its complexity.

However, what is certain is that desertification is nothing new; it has been with humanity since the beginning of civilization. The World Atlas of Desertification, published by the United Nations (UN) Environment Program (UNEP), offers the following definition: “Land degradation in arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.” Land in this context stands for soil, local water resources, land surface, and vegetation, including crops. Degradation is defined as the reduction of resource potential by one or a combination of the processes acting on the land, while arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid climatic zones are collectively referred to as the susceptible dry lands. On the other hand, true deserts (hyperarid zones) are not seen as susceptible to desertification as they are already biologically unproductive.

A more comprehensive definition of desertification was offered by the 1977 UN Nairobi Conference, which served to draw attention to the phenomenon, particularly in terms of its destructive force on people’s livelihoods. This conference defined desertification as: …the diminution or destruction of the biological potential of the land, (which) can lead ultimately to desert-like conditions. It is an aspect of the widespread deterioration of ecosystems, and has diminished or destroyed the biological potential, i.e. plant and animal production, for multiple use purposes at a time when increased productivity is needed to support growing populations in quest of development. Important factors in contemporary society-the struggle for development and the effort to increase food production, and to adapt and apply modern technologies, set against a background of population growth and demographic changes-interlock in a network of cause and effect.

The UN Nairobi conference attempted to explain the causes desertification. The blame for the deterioration of productive ecosystems was squarely placed on the quest for ever-greater productivity, which has in turn intensified exploitation of fragile environments. Overexploitation was seen to give rise to degradation of vegetation, soil, and water, the three elements that serve as the natural foundation for human existence. The fear was that in exceptionally fragile ecosystems, such as those on the desert margins, the loss of biological productivity through the degradation of plant, animal, soil, and water resources could easily become irreversible, and permanently reduce their capacity to support human life. It was argued that desertification is a self-accelerating process, feeding on itself, and as it advances, rehabilitation costs rise exponentially.

Urging Immediate Action

The Nairobi conference urged immediate action to combat desertification, and a world map of land degradation by desertification and many case studies from all over the world were presented. These case studies clearly illustrated that desertification was not only happening in Africa, but was a worldwide problem. Since then, several other maps of land degradation have been produced, facilitated by improving technologies such as Geographic Information Science and Remote Sensing. These technologies have yielded important data on desertification. It is now estimated that more than 23.6 million square miles (6.1 billion hectares)-47.2 percent of the earth’s land surface-is dry land. About 3.9 million square miles (1 billion hetares) of this area are naturally hyperarid (true) deserts, with very low biological productivity. The remaining 19.7 million square miles (5.1 billion hectares) are made up of arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas. It is the latter part that has been degraded by human activities and adverse climatic conditions such as prolonged drought. According to

UNEP, about one-fifth of the world’s population depend on these lands for their livelihood, hence the importance of combating desertification.

Glantz and Orlovsky identify two major factors of desertification: climate and human activities. Climate refers to climate variability, climate change, or drought. Climate variability is defined as the naturally occurring fluctuations in precipitation, temperature, wind speed and direction, evaporation, and so on for a given period of time. Climate change refers to the view that desertification is primarily a result of natural shifts in climate regimes. Prolonged periods of drought are also a major cause of desertification. These three climatic factors often result in the degradation of an ecosystem, thereby affecting the livelihoods of people who depend on it.

The impacts of different types of human activities on the environment form the second set of factors. Activities such as cultivation, livestock herding, and wood gathering have all been cited as major causes of desertification, particularly in fragile environments. Cultivation of marginal climatic environments, poor soils, or the use of inappropriate cultivation techniques such as reduced fallow time, improper tillage, drainage, and water use have all been implicated in the expansion of desertification. Overgrazing is another problem that leads to land degradation, especially in poorly managed rangelands. In many developing countries, people depend on firewood or charcoal for cooking and heating purposes. In some parts of Africa, the production of charcoal to satisfy urban energy needs has resulted in wholesale environmental degradation.

The controversy on defining desertification and attempting to extricate the major factors that lead to this condition has arisen because of disagreements on how it should be considered. Some researchers think of desertification as a process of change, while others view it as the end result of a process of change. For example, World Bank economists have been at the forefront in sounding the alarm about deforestation and environmental degradation in Africa. World Bank economists Kevin M. Cleaver and Gotz A. Schreiber have vehemently argued that Africa is engaged in a downward spiral of population growth leading to environmental degradation and, therefore, poor agricultural performance. They see land degradation as the end result of a process of change with population explosion as the cause. On the other hand, other scholars offer evidence of the opposite, and see land degradation or desertification as a process of change, not the end result. For example, Thomas J. Bassett and Koli Bi Zueli counter the assertions of Cleaver and Schreiber by noting that it is dominant perceptions of environmental change, rather than concrete evidence, that lie behind the widely held belief that Africa is engaged in an “environmental crisis of staggering proportions.” These scholars argue that there is only shaky evidence to support the perception of Africa as physically disintegrating due to the destructive practices of its inhabitants. In recent years, a number of books and articles have been written to counter the dominant view that Africa is facing rapid desertification. These include the 1998 work of James Fairhead and Melissa Leach, the 1996 work of Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns, and the 1998 work of Michael Mortimore.

The ways to combat desertification therefore also depend on the understanding of this process. Those who believe it is an end result of several causes such as population growth and overgrazing often suggest population control, reforestation programs, and placing restrictions on pastoralists to make them sedentary and to reduce the numbers of their livestock. On the other hand, those who believe that this is a process in which one species, such as trees, may replace another species, such as grass, do not consider desertification a major problem. However, trees replacing grass may in itself be considered degradation by those who depend on livestock for their livelihood. The case study of northern Cote D’Ivoire, by Bassett and Zueli, clearly points out that the positive perception of afforestation is erroneous. In the Ivorian savanna, the increase in woody species may actually be undermining the health of grasslands, which may, ironically, lead to policy prescriptions that exacerbate grassland degradation, resulting in the loss of an important resource that pastoralists depend on.

Bibliography:

Aubreville, Climats, Foreets et Deesertification de l’Afrique Tropicale (Socieetee d’Editions Geeographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales, 1949);
Thomas J. Bassett and Koli Bi Zueli, “Environmental Discourses and the Ivorian Savanna,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers (v.90/1, 2000);
Kevin Cleaver and Gotz A. Schreiber, Reversing the Spiral: The Population, Agriculture, and Environment Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 1994);
Helmut Geist, The Causes and Progression of Desertification (Ashgate Publication, 2005);
Michael H. Glantz, Desertification: Environmental Degradation in and around Arid Lands (Westview Press, 1977);
Michael Glantz and Nicolai Orlovsky, “Desertification: A Review of the Concept,” Desertification Control Bulletin (v.9, 1983);
Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns, The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment (Heinemann, 1996);
Arizpe Lourdes, Margaret Priscilla Stone, and David C. Major, Population and Environment: Rethinking the Debate (Westview Press, 1994);
Michael Mortimore, Adapting to Drought: Farmers, Famines, and Desertification in West Africa (Cambridge University Press, 1989);
Michael Mortimore, Roots in the African Dust (Cambridge University Press, 1998);
United Nations Environment Programme, World Atlas of Desertification (Edward Arnold, 1992);
United Nations Secretariat of the Conference on Desertification, “Desertification: An Overview,” Desertification: Its Causes and Consequences (Pergamon Press, 1977).