Desertification

When I think of desertification I imagine the dusty sand dunes in the Sahara or Gobi desert where sustaining human life is daily struggle. And I'm not that far off...

Picture reused from this link

Did you know that Egypt used to have fertile land caused by the annual flooding of the Nile around the time of the ancient Egyptians? But in recent years, Egypt's food production is affected by desertification.

Desertification is a serious degradation of land resulting from a damaged ecosystem that can no longer sustain human development. Land that is in arid areas are most vulnerable. Associated as a man-made problem, desertification has been interlinked to poverty and hunger, and can can cause social, ethnic, and political strife.

Excessive grazing of livestock, poor farming techniques, and deforestation deplete the land's natural vegetation covering causing the soil to erode, become too salty (salinity), and to lose its fertility. To exacerbate the issue even more is climactic changes such as erratic rainfall and long droughts. Excessive and intense wild fires burn natural vegetation and degrade the land. In addition, there is a loss of biodiversity as well as the loss of capacity to sequester carbon emissions.

It hits the inhabitants the hardest in developing nations where many depend on the land for basic survival. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization desertification affects more than 1.2 billion people in over 100 countries. Desertification also threatens over 4 billion hectares of land - roughly a third of the Earth's land surface!!

The increased demand in food caused by an expanding population makes this an even more pressing problem - there are more mouths to feed using less arable land, putting stress on the land and increasing poverty and hunger. Before you brush desertification as a problem associated with developing countries, don't forget about the Dust Bowl in America. It's considered the worst man-made ecological disaster occurring in the 1930's. [On a side note - PBS is broadcasting a special encore of the film The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns airing on April 23 and 30, 2013 - click HERE for more info and to watch their trailer!!]

Credits: Arthur Rothstein; The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division

Prevention has been shown to be the best method of handling desertification for land that is still salvageable. On the other hand, Restoration is the key for land that has already been damaged. Restoration is not as easy as planting a bunch of trees, according to Menz, Dixon, and Hobbs, it involves assisting the recovery of a damaged or destroyed ecosystem. The cost of restoration multiplies when you include the cost of purchasing seeds, water and irrigation systems for large areas of land.

The three researchers from Australia outline the to-do's and not to-do's for large scale eco-restoration in the latest Science article. They propose a four point plan that identifies troubled regions and to showcase the social and economic benefits of a restored ecosystem for political incentive. They call for more research, as well as collecting and disseminating knowledge. Without more research, restoration can threaten ecosystems when they are improperly planned for. The authors mention China's Great Green Wall a Chinese afforestation program where native ecosystems have been compromised by planting non-native tree species in areas that naturally have no forest.

Anyway - here is an awesome video that is very informational about desertification by GoodPlanet


Much of the information about desertification was taken from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, their assessment can be found here.