THE CONSEQUENCES OF DESERTIFICATION

Desertification may possibly have caused more human suffering than any other environmental issue facing our planet today.

The Many Consequences of Desertification

Desertification impairs the ability of land to support life. It is particularly devasting because of it’s self reinforcing nature; once desertification begins it progresses by feeding on itsel f. As well, it aggravates many other environmental problems. And despite control measures that have been taken to fight desertification in some countries, it continues to spread at an alarming and accelerating pace.

Some Direct Effects of Desertification:

• The drylands affected by desertification are rich in genetic diversity, even more so than rain forests. It is from the species found in these drylands that valuable pharmaceuticals are derived and they are also a great source of genet ic material for strengthening crop resistance to drought and disease due to their ability to adapt particularly well to their surroundings.
• The disappearance of protective plant cover makes the occurance of floods more often and more severe.
• Desertification is damaging economically. More than $42 billion per year is lost in income.
  Click here to read an article assessing the economic losses resulting from desertificat ion in China.
• The absence of plant cover makes the land more susceptible to soil erosion from wind and water.

Desertification in Developing Countries

It is here that desertification has it’s most harsh effects, and that the people are most powerless to stop it. Around the world, more than 900 million people live in the shadow of drought and desertification and most of these people are extremely poor. Because the poor of developing countries have to attend the most urgent proble ms first, they must resort to strategies of survival that worsen desertification and prevent development. These strategies include :

exploitation of readily available resources
selling possessions, including agricultural equipment, for money
increasing rural migration

In many African countries where the economy of a country is based primarily on agriculture and the arid and semi-arid land is particularly susceptible to desertification, their economies are powerless to stop the deadly c ycle.

The consequences of desertification are dependant on 4 factors that vary by region, country and year :

the number and diversity of affected populations
how developed the country involved is
the degree of degradation
the climactic conditions at the time (especially annual rainfall)

Other Problems Aggravated by Desertification

Besides being a problem in it’s own right, desertification also aggravates many other environmental conditions, such as those listed below :

declining growth in food production
decline in land fertility
aggravates inadequate rainfall
impairs land rehabilitation
erodes biological diversity - endangers varieties of natural life forms which maintain ecological processes
increases reflection of solar radiation
degradation of desert oases - dry lands are at risk of losing their ability to support plant and animal species of various uses
endangered lifestyles of nomads and pastoralists

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