Combating Desertification -Prevent, Stop and Reverse
Desertification, as its name evidently suggests, is the process in which land, especially in semi-arid areas, transforms into deserts. Desertification is a complex process involving various causes, primarily overgrazing, and thus cannot be easily predicted or remedied. As an area undergoes desertification, it loses its vegetation, leading to soil erosion. Loss of vegetation, combined with loss of soil layer exacerbates the situation by reducing the ability for water to soak into the soil and casing frequent floods, prohibiting the nurturing of possible surviving plants. In this way, “Desertification is self-reinforcing, i.e. once the process has started, conditions are set for continual deterioration” (Collins).
Although desertification may not strike us as a very ‘serious’ problem, the issue is quite imminent when taking into consideration the statistics involved: approximately a third of world’s surface is arid or semi-arid, and this number is likely to increase by 17% in the next century. Although the foremost evident effect of desertification is destruction of ecosystem in the affected region, the socio-political/ socio-economic aspect of the issue further complicates the problem: most causes of desertification is linked to increase in human population and poverty, since as more and more people are pushed into a position where they become dependent on the environment for survival, the tendency to overuse the land, often through unsustainable cultivation practices, ultimately contribute to increased risk of desertification in various parts of the world. To seek a better life and escape the damaging effects of desertification, people have also resorted to migration, not only from rural to urban areas but also from one country to another, leading to internal as well as cross-boundary social and political struggles.
Desertification occurs on all continents (except Antarctica), affecting millions of people. However, the most severe cases take place in the developing world, where the standard human well-being are the lowest – hence, the population living on dryland areas tend to be marginalized and have little impact on the decision-making process to improve their livelihood. Desertification also produces detrimental environmental impacts such as large dust clouds that can affect urbanized cities thousands of kilometers away.
With all this said, the question still remains: how can we prevent, stop, and reverse desertification?
Changes in policies – on the local as well as global level – on sustainable cultivation methods can slow down the process; it must be noted that prevention of desertification is much more cost-effective than its rehabilitation, but various methods to restore areas impacted by the process such as mulching, have been developed.
Helpful Sites:
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/desertification/
http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envFacts/facts/desertification.htm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/desertification/
http://www.edenfoundation.org/project/desertif.html
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