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Abstract:Called "a major threat to humanity" by the United Nations, desertification is one of the world's most alarming processes of environmental degradation. Asia, in terms of the number of people affected, is the most severely affected continent. This paper mainly focuses on the status in quo of degradation in Asia, its causes, consequences, and the effective and innovative solution to the problem.
Desertification is evident in many different forms across Asia. Out of a total land area of 4.3 billion hectares, Asia contains some 1.7 billion hectares of arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid land. Degraded areas include expanding deserts in China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Syria, and Nepal, etc. Such vast expanse of desertification is mainly due to unsustainable human activities like overgrazing, overcultivation, deforestation, and poor irrigation practices; it is also caused by climate variability and fluctuations, especially susceptible to the rainfall. As a result of desertification, land's resilience to natural climate variability is reduced, soil becomes less productive, vegetation cover becomes damaged, food production is undermined, domestic animals are sharply reduced, and other chain problems also arise, such as downstream flooding, reduced water quality, dust storms and air pollution. Moreover, in the long term enormous social costs and a huge drain on economic resources will be inevitably brought about to the affected areas and countries. Among practical measures undertaken to combat desertification and restore degraded land are: prevention of soil erosion; improved early warning system and water resource management; sustainable pasture, forest and livestock management; afforestation and reforestation; and environmentally sound human settlements. Besides, any effective strategy must pay proper attention to education, training and communications step by step through both local and international cooperation in order to provide the fully integrated approach. Though some progress has been made, combating desertification is really just part of a much broader objective: the sustainable development of Asian countries affected by drought and desertification.
Key Words: desertification; combat; land restoration; mobilizing people
【中圖分类号】Q151.94 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1009-9646(2008)07(b)-0176-07
1 Definition of Desertification
Is Earth, our planet, losing its name? The earth is being degraded. Called "a major threat to humanity" by the United Nations, desertification is one of the world's most alarming processes of environmental degradation. Defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification is not the natural expansion of existing deserts but “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities” (UNCCD Art.1.a). Desertification is a gradual and dynamic process of soil productivity loss and the thinning out of the vegetative cover, which is observed in dry and fragile ecosystems. It affects terrestrial areas (topsoil, earth, groundwater reserves, and surface run-off), animal and plant populations, as well as human settlements and their amenities (for instance, terraces and dams).
Despite these important signs of progress, the problem of desertification is far from being solved and further steps to strengthen the process should be proposed and carried on.
6.2 Achievements and Challenges in China —— A Representative of Asian Countries
China has responded to the challenge by launching a large-scale anti-desertification campaign, and has scored remarkable achievements in desertification control.
During the Ninth Five-year Plan (1996-2000), action was taken to protect some 230,000 km? of land from water erosion. The land reclamation rate in demonstration zones has increased from 5 to 12 percent, proving the potential of such action. In addition, forest land increased by 1.09 million hectares. As a result, rural poverty at the end of 2000 dropped dramatically to 30 million from what was 250 million in 1978 in project areas.
Part of desertified land has been contained, with 10% of total desertified land effectively rehabilitated. At the end of the last century, areas affected by desertification in China were expanding at an annual rate of 10 400 sq km, which has now slowed to about 3000 sq km a year. Besides, vegetation has been planted along 140,000 km of roadway, and vegetation coverage rate in northern China has increased from 5.05% in 1970s to nearly 10% at present. More than 160,000 square kilometers of sand hills have been changed into farms and forests. The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has become the first Chinese region to stop the expansion of desertification. In some areas, deserts have been on the retreat.
However, desertification is still the primary environmental problem in China. Currently, the desertification land in China makes up 2.64 million sq km, accounting for 27.46 percent of the nation's territory, with the average annual spreading rate 10,000 sq km. And its sandy land totals 1.74 million sq km, accounting for 18.1 percent of the country's total. Desertification is threatening 400 million Chinese, one-thirds of the population at a direct annual economic loss of US$ 6.5 billion.
Therefore, although great achievement has been made, the desertification situation is still very serious: totally desertification is spreading and expanding tendency is developing in an accelerating speed. Especially at present, the over reclamation and blind grazing, undue collection of herb medicines and unplanned mining activities and uncontrolled cutting of firewood are frequently expanding without any reduction encouraged by short-term harvests of economic interests.
7 What Can You Do to Help Combat Desertification
Now that we have a deeper understanding about the current situation of desertification in Asia, its causes, consequences, resolutions, and achieved progress, a big question has come into our mind: what can we every individual do to fix such a big problem?
You may well feel that you can do little to help fight desertification, but you have already taken the first step. The greatest help that you can do is: Learn about it first. You cannot solve a problem until you know it exists, so now you have become one of an increasing number of people who are aware that a great deal of our soil is under threat.
Saint Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” With every one’s effort and power, we can fix the problem. Below are some extra activities to extend your experience with desertification:
Be a teacher and advocator: tell the people around you (your friends, family, workmates, etc) about the situation, causes, consequences, and solutions of desertification, and persuade them to join your activities.
Get more updated information about desertification: read newspaper, watch television, listen to the radio, and search on the internet. There are several significant official websites with the most dynamic information:
Go tree planting in your city, and grow shrubs and bushes that don't use a lot of water, for soil and water are important wherever you live. By planting your tree, you can help combat this process and regenerate the productivity of the land
Join some national or regional environmental organizations or programmes: such as the Green Wall Project in China which aims to plant a 'Green Wall' of trees to catch sand blown by the wind and prevent it from spreading. It will take about 70 years to plant all the trees. When it's finished, the wall will be over 4500km long!
Set up a desertification combating project (student-run) in your university or your community.
Interview an expert if there’s a chance and know more practical and detailed knowledge.
Donate some money to the environmental organizations personally or in the name of a group.
Use renewable energies; reduce the use of petrol, coal and firewood combustion: ride bicycles or take buses instead of driving a car, for the gas emissions influence the global warming, one of the causes exacerbating the process of desertification.
If you are very interested in desertification combating and want to work for the international environmental organization in the future, continue with your studies, and seize the chance to pursue your dream. Maybe tomorrow you’ll be a leader of the global process to combat desertification. Remember: nothing is impossible.
We don’t have a magic stick, and every one’s action may be just a drop of water in the desert. But the effort to be made by each one of us in this world is the only way to combat desertification on this planet and to turn the desert into oasis. Only with every one’s effort and perseverance, can we save the weeping land and leave behind a better global environment for our children and children’s children.
References:
http://www.unccd.entico.com
http://www.unccd.int
附注：此文為作者在美国哈佛大学参加“哈佛大学亚洲与国际关系2008年会”会议发言的演讲论文。
Global Warming
The climate of the planet has changed over the course of history. In arid regions, the observed climatic instability is an unpredictable and complex phenomenon mainly attributed to human activity and in particular to gas emissions, which seem to influence the global warming of the planet. The intensification of human activities, in part from petrol and coal combustion and also from firewood used for cooking, results in an ever-increasing quantity of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. Then global warming follows, as a consequence of the escalation of the greenhouse effect. The general rise in temperature will predictably raise the rate of evapotranspiration leading to a drop in soil humidity and an increase in the number of droughts. The deterioration in the condition of topsoil, particularly in the drylands, is a consequence of temperature variations, rainfall and soil humidity that exacerbate the process of desertification.
3.2 Unsustainable Human Activities — Over-exploitation of natural resources
Four human activities represent the most immediate causes:
Overgrazing removes the vegetation cover that protects it from erosion. When the herds are too numerous compared to the available vegetation, the vegetation is unable to regenerate.
Overcultivation exhausts the soil. On the lands eroded by overcultivation there is a high risk of crop failure and a very low economic return, for example, some parts of South Africa where maize is grown.
Deforestation destroys the trees that bind the soil to the land. In dry tropical zones, wood is the principal source of domestic energy for lighting and cooking and is also used in construction. In this way, large tracts of forest are destroyed. In the drylands, forest regeneration is very slow because of water scarcity.
Poorly drained irrigation systems in arid areas can cause croplands salinization (the build up of salts in the soil), which prevents plant growth, and poor irrigation sometimes dry the rivers that feed large lakes.
When the practices described above coincide with drought, the rate of desertification increases dramatically.
Due to the lack of alternative survival strategies, farmers tend to relentlessly exploit natural resources (food crops, water for drinking and washing, firewood) to the point that they are often over-exploited and cannot regenerate naturally. Soil nutrients and organic matter begin to diminish as intensive agriculture removes quantities of nutrients greater than the soil’s natural regeneration capacities. As a consequence, the soil is unable to recover, as it does during fallow periods, resulting is an ever-increasing spiral of environmental degradation and poverty.
The principal causes exacerbating land degradation derives from the farmers’ determination to maximize soil productivity, which specifically include in the four causes mentioned above:
(1)Crops cultivated in areas at high risk from drought.
(2)Shortening of crop cycles and the reduction of fallow periods.
(3)Insufficient use of fertilizer after harvesting.
(4)Inadequate crop rotation or worse, monoculture.
(5)Intensive labor.
(6)Intense breeding and overgrazing with pressure on vegetation and soil trampling by livestock.
(7)Separation of cattle rearing and agriculture, eliminating a source of natural fertilizer or organic matter (cattle dung) used to regenerate the soil.
(8)Deforestation.
(9)Bush and forest fires.
(10)In mountainous regions, crops are cultivated along the downward sloping face rather than following the natural contour lines of the mountain.
(11)Deterioration of terraces and other soil and water conservation techniques.
All in all, increasing human population and poverty are the essential and underlying factors that contribute to desertification, as poor people may be forced to overuse their environment in the short term, without the ability to plan for the long term effects of their actions.
Moreover, the lack of education and knowledge, the movement of refugees in the case of war, the unfavorable trade conditions of developing countries and other socio-economic and political factors enhance the effects of desertification. The causes are multiple and interact in a complex manner.
4 The Consequences of Desertification
Human activities in the drylands, together with climatic factors and drought conditions, influence changes in the natural environment and its productivity. In return, these changes bear consequences on human populations and the quality of life.
4.1 Environmental Consequences
The land's resilience to natural climate variability is reduced.
Soil, vegetation, freshwater supplies, and other dryland resources tend to be resilient. They can eventually recover from climatic disturbances, such as drought, and even from human-induced impacts, such as overgrazing. When land is degraded, however, this resilience is greatly weakened. This has both physical and socio-economic consequences.
Soils erode or disappear.
This precious covering, soil, the very flesh of the planet, is painfully slow to form and can be destroyed terrifyingly fast. Depending on the type of agricultural technique employed, different forms of land degradation occur. The following have been observed:
(1)Loss of nutritive matter when gullies and cracks appear (due to agricultural over-exploitation).
(2)Loss of soil surface due to wind and rain erosion (particularly due to the loss of vegetation).
(3)Landslides occur by the action of water, also due to the effects of vegetation loss
(4)Increased salinity and soil acidification (due to irrigation malpractice and inadequate drainage)
(5)Soil pollution (due to the excessive use of chemical fertilizer).
(6)The effects of compression and the encrusting of the soil surface (due to heavy use of agricultural machinery).
Biodiversity declines.
Desertification has resulted in the disappearance of the forest ecosystem, which leads to the loss of biodiversity, species extinction and the decline of genetic capital.
(1)Vegetation becomes damaged. The loss of vegetation cover is both a consequence and a cause of land degradation. Land degradation due to drought, salinity or over-exploitation has immediate consequences on the capacity of vegetation to maintain or reconstruct itself.Loose soil can sandblast plants, bury them, or leave their roots dangerously exposed. When pastures are overgrazed by too many animals, or by inappropriate types, edible plant species may be lost, allowing inedible species to invade.
(2)Domestic animals are endangered. Animal species, dependant on this vegetation, have to migrate to other areas to find sufficient resources or they risk disappearing altogether.
Moreover, these species remain important resources for the population. Their disappearance increases food insecurity and the impoverishment of the world’s most fragile populations.
Water system is threatened.
Land degradation in the drylands can have direct consequences on the water cycle.
(1)If there is low rainfall then drought ensues: groundwater reserves do not refill, water sources become depleted, wells run dry, plants and animals die and humans have to migrate to more hospitable regions.
(2)On the other hand, during periods of high rainfall, the ensuing floods kill people and animals, notably in regions where vegetation cover is reduced or totally destroyed. The torrential rain flow causes a substantial loss of soil, which is then flushed out by the rains, and when the land becomes dry again, a hard crust forms on the surface that renders it impermeable, reducing water infiltration.
(3)Moreover, reduced water quality, sedimentation in rivers and lakes, and siltation of reservoirs and navigation channels may be also caused.
Other environmental problems ensue.
As a consequence, dust storms and air pollution arise, resulting in damaged machinery, reduced visibility, unwanted sediment deposits, and mental stress. Wind-blown dust can also worsen health problems, including eye infections, respiratory illnesses, and allergies. Dramatic increases in the frequency of dust storms were recorded during the Dust Bowl years in the US, in the Virgin Lands scheme area in the former USSR in the 1950s, and in the African Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s.
4.2 Socio-economic Consequences
Poverty and desertification: the vicious circle
(1)Undermined food production leads to famine.
Desertification is considered a major global environmental issue largely because of the link between dryland degradation and food production. A nutritionally adequate diet for the world’s growing population implies tripling food production over the next 50 years. This will be difficult to achieve even under favorable circumstances. If desertification is not stopped and reversed, food yields in many affected areas will decline. Malnutrition, starvation, and ultimately famine may result.
Famine typically occurs in areas that also suffer from poverty, civil unrest, or war. Drought and land degradation often help to trigger a crisis, which is then made worse by poor food distribution and the inability to buy what is available.
(2)The growth of poverty and dependence
Desertification leads to poverty with all the social, economical and cultural consequences that this entails. Poverty then drives populations to over-exploit the remaining natural resources triggering a vicious cycle, accelerating land degradation still further. Poverty is thus both a cause and a consequence of desertification. Desertification affects the lifestyles of nearly one billion of the world’s population.
It weakens populations and institutions rendering them more vulnerable to global economic factors. The shortfall in earned tax receipts due to low productivity has consequences on the capacity of governments to reimburse their foreign debt and develop national socio-economic programmes. The persistence of drought and desertification reduces national food production and furthers the need to turn to foreign products. Moreover, food aid can eventually lead to a reduction in local agricultural production, particularly if it becomes more costly to produce locally than to resort to imported products that are distributed for free by the international community.
Socio-economic development in disequilibrium
(1)Desertification has enormous social costs. There is now increased awareness of the relationship between desertification, movements of people, and conflicts. Drought and diminishing soil fertility lead to the migration of the rural population. This creates problems in the urban environment as well as in rural areas not yet affected by land degradation, yet witness the migration of new arrivals. The environmental resources, in and around the cities and camps where these people settle, come under severe pressure (from deforestation, reckless overexploitation of natural resources). Harsh living conditions and the loss of cultural identity further undermine social stability, even causing ethnic or religious conflicts.
(2)Desertification is a huge drain on economic resources. There is little detailed data on the economic losses resulting from desertification, although an unpublished World Bank study suggested that the depletion of natural resources in one Sahelian country was equivalent to 20% of its annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). At the global level, it is estimated that the annual income foregone in the areas immediately affected by desertification amounts to approximately US$ 42 billion each year. The indirect economic and social costs suffered outside the affected areas, including the influx of "environmental refugees" and losses to national food production, may be much greater.
5 The Effective and Innovative Solution to the Problem
Generally speaking, the process of combating desertification is just part of a much broader objective: promoting the sustainable development of Asian countries affected by drought and desertification. On the one hand, practical measures to combat desertification and restore degraded land are indispensable. On the other hand, any effective strategy must pay proper attention to education, training and communications step by step through both local and international cooperation in order to provide the fully integrated approach.
5.1 Concrete Methods —— Re-establishing a Favorable Environment
Developing sustainable long-term agricultural practices
(1)Land restoration
To combat desertification it is necessary to restore and fertilize the land exhausted through intensive agriculture. Crop techniques should be improved by the follow measures:
1)Re-establish soil fertility either by using synthetic fertilizers, or by preparing much cheaper compost, principally prepared from plant waste: manure, agricultural trimmings (straw), and biological household waste. Besides, livestock dung also restores the capacity of soil to produce a more plentiful harvest.
2)Combat marked soil salinity by employing the most effective system of irrigation: evacuate water surplus, monitor the changes in groundwater reserves and soil salinity in the problem areas, drain and irrigate, and plant trees whose roots hamper the soil from drifting.
(2)Prevent soil exhaustion
It is important to respect the capacity charge for each plot of land, which implies assuring the maximum production of a given resource on the land while preserving its long-term capacity to produce. If the capacity charge is exceeded, productivity declines. Therefore, production methods must be modified by prohibiting cultivation during the fallow period or by decreasing the time livestock spend grazing on the land.
(3)Diversify production
Diversifying crop and animal production enables better use of land resources and prevents the over-production of a single product. A plot can sustain different plants and animals over long periods, since their nutritional needs vary and the resources they remove from the land are complementary. Accordingly, polyculture is encouraged, prolonged monoculture should be avoided on the same plot of land, and a system of rotational crop production should be established to restore soil fertility.
(4)Reducing the herd
Though reducing the herd is a very effective solution to overgrazing, it is not easy to convince local farmers to reduce their herd numbers. Because the herd provides them with income, and in many countries the size of the herd is a source of pride and honor for the herder, his family or clan. Whereas, education and public awareness can contribute to spreading another message, which is otherwise difficult to grasp: by producing livestock of better quality and improving veterinary services, the herder’s income can be maintained or even increased despite the drop in herd numbers. Governments should intervene to resolve conflicts that may occur because of this.
Combating the effects of wind
To alleviate the effects of wind, some simple mechanical means preventing the displacement of sand and dust include:
(1)The construction of fences or barriers from local plant species: woven palms, planted hedges (rows of maize or millet that protect beans and onions) or metal sheeting around villages and crops.
(2)Planting vegetation whose roots protect and fix the soil and meantime prohibiting livestock from grazing to protect the areas of plantation.
Reforestation
Trees play several roles:
they fix soil elements and prevent their loss by water and wind.
they act as obstacles to the wind to protect crops.
they enhance soil fertility: many trees produce nitrogen that fertilizes and increases soil productivity.
they facilitate water penetration into the soil during the rains and contributes to maintaining humidity for a long time.
they provide shade for animals and people.
they supply nutritive elements: fruit trees diversify food sources; trees provide fodder for livestock.
they are a source of firewood and construction materials. (Alternative energy sources could also be explored to ease the pressure on tree logging)
However, they should be used in a sustainable way; trees should be replaced as they are being cut down. Reforestation is a long-term action since tree growth is slow. Fortunately, trees have a long life cycle so the investment is generally viable.
Using renewable energies
The latest technological advances can provide solutions to desertification by improving on traditional systems of production combined with the use of new sources of energy that progressively restore the soil, increase cereal and meat production and prevent environmental degradation.
The non-sustainable use of forest resources (firewood) as a source of energy is a factor leading to desertification. Therefore, identifying and employing alternative renewable energy sources is important in the fight against desertification. Non-polluting and infinite or renewable energies can replace wood at limited or no cost and they can easily be used by families in villages, such as:
(1)Solar energy
Bright sunny conditions, characteristic of arid and semi-arid regions, can satisfy energy needs in these areas. Solar energy can be used in multiple ways:
1)Greenhouses integrated into the structure of the dwelling with panels that store energy from the sun in reservoirs (to supply hot water).
2)Parabolic mirrors help cook food, produce water vapor and run electric water turbines.
3)Panels transform sunrays into electricity. The electric current is stored in batteries and can be used day or night.
4)The evaporation power of the sun can produce distilled water, free of salt and germs, by using a solar distiller.
(2)Wind
The force of the wind can drive wind propellers that produce electricity and mechanical force, generating a pump to extract water from wells, filling watering holes or irrigation basins, or activating mills to transform grain into flour. This type of energy will facilitate land irrigation and the supply of water to the livestock. In the drylands where winds are frequent, this form of energy could be an important complement in the long term.
(3)Biogas
Biogas is a gaseous mix produced in a fermentation tank or derives from the decomposition of organic matter (dung and plant waste). The advantages of Biogas: it is free of cost and can be used for lighting, cooking or to drive motors (generators, tractors and cars); the residues from the fermentation can be used as natural fertilizer. The high temperatures in the drylands are beneficial to the creation of biogas, and this technique can most effectively be developed in regions where agriculture and cattle rearing coexist.
5.2 Broadening the Focus —— Mobilizing and Involving People
Most attempts to fight desertification have concentrated more on its symptoms than on its causes. They tended to concentrate on alleviating its effects and on reducing the human activities that seemed to immediately contribute to them. They sought to tackle over-cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and faulty irrigation directly without addressing the underlying social and economic pressures that produced them. This often resulted in blaming the victims of desertification for the damage caused without making a serious attempt to understand the forces outside their control driving them to over-exploit their land.
The most important partnership to be forged when tackling desertification is between aid donors, national governments, local administrations and the people of the drylands themselves. Over the years, experience has shown that the phenomenon cannot be tackled effectively unless the people concerned are fully committed and involved.
The role of the international community
Since desertification is a global environmental problem involving both developed and developing countries, and desertification combating is a long and difficult task dealing with multi-disciplinary studies and engineering fields, it calls for the international-wide cooperation to share scientific and practical experiences.
Combating desertification is also expensive. All countries, even the most developed among them and those who are unaffected by desertification, are called upon to finance projects to reverse the desertification process. Funds may come from co-operative projects, fund-raising, donations etc. The money is used to put a stop to deforestation, to curb soil erosion, to forge partnerships and common plans of action, to develop new methods while adapting existing methods to the conditions of each country, to educate the population and so on.
The acceleration of land degradation in the drylands has mostly occurred from the middle of the 20th Century. International research programmes have been conducted to better understand the functioning of drylands. They have been supported by certain United Nations agencies (UNESCO, FAO, WMO, UNEP, etc.) and by regional intergovernmental organizations (CILSS, IGAD, SADC, UMA) or nongovernmental organizations, NGOs.
Over the decades international meetings have contributed to our knowledge of environmental problems and accords have been signed announcing concrete projects. Certain important conferences have marked the end of the 20th Century.
(1)The Stockholm Conference (Sweden) 1972
This was the first international conference that addressed environmental issues related to those concerns linked to the future of human populations.
(2)The Nairobi Conference (Kenya) 1977
This first conference on desertification manifested a response by the international community to the terrible droughts of the Sahel and to the 1968-1974 famine threatening economical and ecological equilibrium. It contributed to the in-depth analysis of the problems of desertification. A Plan of Action to combat desertification, along with a series of recommendations aimed at helping affected countries to define and implement measures, was established to mobilize and coordinate assistance among the international community.
(3)The Rio de Janeiro Summit (Brazil) 1992
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was marked by firm commitments from countries and the international community, which appear in Agenda 21, a plan of action assuring both the protection of the environment and the notion of sustainable development.
Two international conventions emerged as a direct result of the Rio Conference: the Convention of Biological Diversity (1992) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1993). Developing nations insisted that desertification as an issue plays an equally important role during talks held during the Earth Summit, and in 1994 the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD) was ready to be signed by governments, aiming to improve land productivity, to restore land, to establish more efficient water usage and to introduce sustainable development in the affected areas and more generally, improve the living conditions of those populations affected by drought and desertification. . The three Conventions apply the principles of co-operation and international solidarity as they aim to find common solutions to environmental problems and socio-economic development.
By the end of the year 2000, UNCCD was ratified by 172 countries marking a turning point in international policy demonstrating a growing awareness of the importance assigned to the problems of desertification.
Involving the whole population
(1)Developing education and training
A basic education such as being able to add, read and write, is the first step towards combating desertification. School is an important means for the transfer and diffusion of information, which enables people to become better informed and help them understand and organize projects that combat desertification.
More importantly, it helps develop skills, techniques, and training to combat desertification and better manage the available resources while promoting techniques that may help others. Technical manuals or educational guides developed for schools should not only be targeted at teachers and their pupils but also shared with parents and the local population.
(2)Creating an enabling environment
For affected countries, and the people of the drylands, living conditions must be right if desertification is to be tackled effectively. It is hard for governments or local people to give much attention to the crisis if they are constantly preoccupied with economic or physical survival. Local people need to have secure and equitable rights to the land they tend, as they will be less willing to look after the land if they feel that it may be taken away from them. The need for an enabling environment makes it possible for them to pursue sustainable development. Combating desertification can only be achieved in the long term and changes should be introduced at the international level as well as the local level.
(3)Who should be mobilized?
Each country should adopt a participatory approach, whereby all members of society join forces to combat land degradation and are supported by their government who accept, for example, to attribute power to women, farmers and livestock breeders in order to combine their joint efforts.
Desertification is evident in many different forms across Asia. Out of a total land area of 4.3 billion hectares, Asia contains some 1.7 billion hectares of arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid land. Degraded areas include expanding deserts in China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Syria, and Nepal, etc. Such vast expanse of desertification is mainly due to unsustainable human activities like overgrazing, overcultivation, deforestation, and poor irrigation practices; it is also caused by climate variability and fluctuations, especially susceptible to the rainfall. As a result of desertification, land's resilience to natural climate variability is reduced, soil becomes less productive, vegetation cover becomes damaged, food production is undermined, domestic animals are sharply reduced, and other chain problems also arise, such as downstream flooding, reduced water quality, dust storms and air pollution. Moreover, in the long term enormous social costs and a huge drain on economic resources will be inevitably brought about to the affected areas and countries. Among practical measures undertaken to combat desertification and restore degraded land are: prevention of soil erosion; improved early warning system and water resource management; sustainable pasture, forest and livestock management; afforestation and reforestation; and environmentally sound human settlements. Besides, any effective strategy must pay proper attention to education, training and communications step by step through both local and international cooperation in order to provide the fully integrated approach. Though some progress has been made, combating desertification is really just part of a much broader objective: the sustainable development of Asian countries affected by drought and desertification.
Key Words: desertification; combat; land restoration; mobilizing people
【中圖分类号】Q151.94 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1009-9646(2008)07(b)-0176-07
1 Definition of Desertification
Is Earth, our planet, losing its name? The earth is being degraded. Called "a major threat to humanity" by the United Nations, desertification is one of the world's most alarming processes of environmental degradation. Defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification is not the natural expansion of existing deserts but “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities” (UNCCD Art.1.a). Desertification is a gradual and dynamic process of soil productivity loss and the thinning out of the vegetative cover, which is observed in dry and fragile ecosystems. It affects terrestrial areas (topsoil, earth, groundwater reserves, and surface run-off), animal and plant populations, as well as human settlements and their amenities (for instance, terraces and dams).
Despite these important signs of progress, the problem of desertification is far from being solved and further steps to strengthen the process should be proposed and carried on.
6.2 Achievements and Challenges in China —— A Representative of Asian Countries
China has responded to the challenge by launching a large-scale anti-desertification campaign, and has scored remarkable achievements in desertification control.
During the Ninth Five-year Plan (1996-2000), action was taken to protect some 230,000 km? of land from water erosion. The land reclamation rate in demonstration zones has increased from 5 to 12 percent, proving the potential of such action. In addition, forest land increased by 1.09 million hectares. As a result, rural poverty at the end of 2000 dropped dramatically to 30 million from what was 250 million in 1978 in project areas.
Part of desertified land has been contained, with 10% of total desertified land effectively rehabilitated. At the end of the last century, areas affected by desertification in China were expanding at an annual rate of 10 400 sq km, which has now slowed to about 3000 sq km a year. Besides, vegetation has been planted along 140,000 km of roadway, and vegetation coverage rate in northern China has increased from 5.05% in 1970s to nearly 10% at present. More than 160,000 square kilometers of sand hills have been changed into farms and forests. The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has become the first Chinese region to stop the expansion of desertification. In some areas, deserts have been on the retreat.
However, desertification is still the primary environmental problem in China. Currently, the desertification land in China makes up 2.64 million sq km, accounting for 27.46 percent of the nation's territory, with the average annual spreading rate 10,000 sq km. And its sandy land totals 1.74 million sq km, accounting for 18.1 percent of the country's total. Desertification is threatening 400 million Chinese, one-thirds of the population at a direct annual economic loss of US$ 6.5 billion.
Therefore, although great achievement has been made, the desertification situation is still very serious: totally desertification is spreading and expanding tendency is developing in an accelerating speed. Especially at present, the over reclamation and blind grazing, undue collection of herb medicines and unplanned mining activities and uncontrolled cutting of firewood are frequently expanding without any reduction encouraged by short-term harvests of economic interests.
7 What Can You Do to Help Combat Desertification
Now that we have a deeper understanding about the current situation of desertification in Asia, its causes, consequences, resolutions, and achieved progress, a big question has come into our mind: what can we every individual do to fix such a big problem?
You may well feel that you can do little to help fight desertification, but you have already taken the first step. The greatest help that you can do is: Learn about it first. You cannot solve a problem until you know it exists, so now you have become one of an increasing number of people who are aware that a great deal of our soil is under threat.
Saint Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” With every one’s effort and power, we can fix the problem. Below are some extra activities to extend your experience with desertification:
Be a teacher and advocator: tell the people around you (your friends, family, workmates, etc) about the situation, causes, consequences, and solutions of desertification, and persuade them to join your activities.
Get more updated information about desertification: read newspaper, watch television, listen to the radio, and search on the internet. There are several significant official websites with the most dynamic information:
Go tree planting in your city, and grow shrubs and bushes that don't use a lot of water, for soil and water are important wherever you live. By planting your tree, you can help combat this process and regenerate the productivity of the land
Join some national or regional environmental organizations or programmes: such as the Green Wall Project in China which aims to plant a 'Green Wall' of trees to catch sand blown by the wind and prevent it from spreading. It will take about 70 years to plant all the trees. When it's finished, the wall will be over 4500km long!
Set up a desertification combating project (student-run) in your university or your community.
Interview an expert if there’s a chance and know more practical and detailed knowledge.
Donate some money to the environmental organizations personally or in the name of a group.
Use renewable energies; reduce the use of petrol, coal and firewood combustion: ride bicycles or take buses instead of driving a car, for the gas emissions influence the global warming, one of the causes exacerbating the process of desertification.
If you are very interested in desertification combating and want to work for the international environmental organization in the future, continue with your studies, and seize the chance to pursue your dream. Maybe tomorrow you’ll be a leader of the global process to combat desertification. Remember: nothing is impossible.
We don’t have a magic stick, and every one’s action may be just a drop of water in the desert. But the effort to be made by each one of us in this world is the only way to combat desertification on this planet and to turn the desert into oasis. Only with every one’s effort and perseverance, can we save the weeping land and leave behind a better global environment for our children and children’s children.
References:
http://www.unccd.entico.com
http://www.unccd.int
附注：此文為作者在美国哈佛大学参加“哈佛大学亚洲与国际关系2008年会”会议发言的演讲论文。
Global Warming
The climate of the planet has changed over the course of history. In arid regions, the observed climatic instability is an unpredictable and complex phenomenon mainly attributed to human activity and in particular to gas emissions, which seem to influence the global warming of the planet. The intensification of human activities, in part from petrol and coal combustion and also from firewood used for cooking, results in an ever-increasing quantity of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. Then global warming follows, as a consequence of the escalation of the greenhouse effect. The general rise in temperature will predictably raise the rate of evapotranspiration leading to a drop in soil humidity and an increase in the number of droughts. The deterioration in the condition of topsoil, particularly in the drylands, is a consequence of temperature variations, rainfall and soil humidity that exacerbate the process of desertification.
3.2 Unsustainable Human Activities — Over-exploitation of natural resources
Four human activities represent the most immediate causes:
Overgrazing removes the vegetation cover that protects it from erosion. When the herds are too numerous compared to the available vegetation, the vegetation is unable to regenerate.
Overcultivation exhausts the soil. On the lands eroded by overcultivation there is a high risk of crop failure and a very low economic return, for example, some parts of South Africa where maize is grown.
Deforestation destroys the trees that bind the soil to the land. In dry tropical zones, wood is the principal source of domestic energy for lighting and cooking and is also used in construction. In this way, large tracts of forest are destroyed. In the drylands, forest regeneration is very slow because of water scarcity.
Poorly drained irrigation systems in arid areas can cause croplands salinization (the build up of salts in the soil), which prevents plant growth, and poor irrigation sometimes dry the rivers that feed large lakes.
When the practices described above coincide with drought, the rate of desertification increases dramatically.
Due to the lack of alternative survival strategies, farmers tend to relentlessly exploit natural resources (food crops, water for drinking and washing, firewood) to the point that they are often over-exploited and cannot regenerate naturally. Soil nutrients and organic matter begin to diminish as intensive agriculture removes quantities of nutrients greater than the soil’s natural regeneration capacities. As a consequence, the soil is unable to recover, as it does during fallow periods, resulting is an ever-increasing spiral of environmental degradation and poverty.
The principal causes exacerbating land degradation derives from the farmers’ determination to maximize soil productivity, which specifically include in the four causes mentioned above:
(1)Crops cultivated in areas at high risk from drought.
(2)Shortening of crop cycles and the reduction of fallow periods.
(3)Insufficient use of fertilizer after harvesting.
(4)Inadequate crop rotation or worse, monoculture.
(5)Intensive labor.
(6)Intense breeding and overgrazing with pressure on vegetation and soil trampling by livestock.
(7)Separation of cattle rearing and agriculture, eliminating a source of natural fertilizer or organic matter (cattle dung) used to regenerate the soil.
(8)Deforestation.
(9)Bush and forest fires.
(10)In mountainous regions, crops are cultivated along the downward sloping face rather than following the natural contour lines of the mountain.
(11)Deterioration of terraces and other soil and water conservation techniques.
All in all, increasing human population and poverty are the essential and underlying factors that contribute to desertification, as poor people may be forced to overuse their environment in the short term, without the ability to plan for the long term effects of their actions.
Moreover, the lack of education and knowledge, the movement of refugees in the case of war, the unfavorable trade conditions of developing countries and other socio-economic and political factors enhance the effects of desertification. The causes are multiple and interact in a complex manner.
4 The Consequences of Desertification
Human activities in the drylands, together with climatic factors and drought conditions, influence changes in the natural environment and its productivity. In return, these changes bear consequences on human populations and the quality of life.
4.1 Environmental Consequences
The land's resilience to natural climate variability is reduced.
Soil, vegetation, freshwater supplies, and other dryland resources tend to be resilient. They can eventually recover from climatic disturbances, such as drought, and even from human-induced impacts, such as overgrazing. When land is degraded, however, this resilience is greatly weakened. This has both physical and socio-economic consequences.
Soils erode or disappear.
This precious covering, soil, the very flesh of the planet, is painfully slow to form and can be destroyed terrifyingly fast. Depending on the type of agricultural technique employed, different forms of land degradation occur. The following have been observed:
(1)Loss of nutritive matter when gullies and cracks appear (due to agricultural over-exploitation).
(2)Loss of soil surface due to wind and rain erosion (particularly due to the loss of vegetation).
(3)Landslides occur by the action of water, also due to the effects of vegetation loss
(4)Increased salinity and soil acidification (due to irrigation malpractice and inadequate drainage)
(5)Soil pollution (due to the excessive use of chemical fertilizer).
(6)The effects of compression and the encrusting of the soil surface (due to heavy use of agricultural machinery).
Biodiversity declines.
Desertification has resulted in the disappearance of the forest ecosystem, which leads to the loss of biodiversity, species extinction and the decline of genetic capital.
(1)Vegetation becomes damaged. The loss of vegetation cover is both a consequence and a cause of land degradation. Land degradation due to drought, salinity or over-exploitation has immediate consequences on the capacity of vegetation to maintain or reconstruct itself.Loose soil can sandblast plants, bury them, or leave their roots dangerously exposed. When pastures are overgrazed by too many animals, or by inappropriate types, edible plant species may be lost, allowing inedible species to invade.
(2)Domestic animals are endangered. Animal species, dependant on this vegetation, have to migrate to other areas to find sufficient resources or they risk disappearing altogether.
Moreover, these species remain important resources for the population. Their disappearance increases food insecurity and the impoverishment of the world’s most fragile populations.
Water system is threatened.
Land degradation in the drylands can have direct consequences on the water cycle.
(1)If there is low rainfall then drought ensues: groundwater reserves do not refill, water sources become depleted, wells run dry, plants and animals die and humans have to migrate to more hospitable regions.
(2)On the other hand, during periods of high rainfall, the ensuing floods kill people and animals, notably in regions where vegetation cover is reduced or totally destroyed. The torrential rain flow causes a substantial loss of soil, which is then flushed out by the rains, and when the land becomes dry again, a hard crust forms on the surface that renders it impermeable, reducing water infiltration.
(3)Moreover, reduced water quality, sedimentation in rivers and lakes, and siltation of reservoirs and navigation channels may be also caused.
Other environmental problems ensue.
As a consequence, dust storms and air pollution arise, resulting in damaged machinery, reduced visibility, unwanted sediment deposits, and mental stress. Wind-blown dust can also worsen health problems, including eye infections, respiratory illnesses, and allergies. Dramatic increases in the frequency of dust storms were recorded during the Dust Bowl years in the US, in the Virgin Lands scheme area in the former USSR in the 1950s, and in the African Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s.
4.2 Socio-economic Consequences
Poverty and desertification: the vicious circle
(1)Undermined food production leads to famine.
Desertification is considered a major global environmental issue largely because of the link between dryland degradation and food production. A nutritionally adequate diet for the world’s growing population implies tripling food production over the next 50 years. This will be difficult to achieve even under favorable circumstances. If desertification is not stopped and reversed, food yields in many affected areas will decline. Malnutrition, starvation, and ultimately famine may result.
Famine typically occurs in areas that also suffer from poverty, civil unrest, or war. Drought and land degradation often help to trigger a crisis, which is then made worse by poor food distribution and the inability to buy what is available.
(2)The growth of poverty and dependence
Desertification leads to poverty with all the social, economical and cultural consequences that this entails. Poverty then drives populations to over-exploit the remaining natural resources triggering a vicious cycle, accelerating land degradation still further. Poverty is thus both a cause and a consequence of desertification. Desertification affects the lifestyles of nearly one billion of the world’s population.
It weakens populations and institutions rendering them more vulnerable to global economic factors. The shortfall in earned tax receipts due to low productivity has consequences on the capacity of governments to reimburse their foreign debt and develop national socio-economic programmes. The persistence of drought and desertification reduces national food production and furthers the need to turn to foreign products. Moreover, food aid can eventually lead to a reduction in local agricultural production, particularly if it becomes more costly to produce locally than to resort to imported products that are distributed for free by the international community.
Socio-economic development in disequilibrium
(1)Desertification has enormous social costs. There is now increased awareness of the relationship between desertification, movements of people, and conflicts. Drought and diminishing soil fertility lead to the migration of the rural population. This creates problems in the urban environment as well as in rural areas not yet affected by land degradation, yet witness the migration of new arrivals. The environmental resources, in and around the cities and camps where these people settle, come under severe pressure (from deforestation, reckless overexploitation of natural resources). Harsh living conditions and the loss of cultural identity further undermine social stability, even causing ethnic or religious conflicts.
(2)Desertification is a huge drain on economic resources. There is little detailed data on the economic losses resulting from desertification, although an unpublished World Bank study suggested that the depletion of natural resources in one Sahelian country was equivalent to 20% of its annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). At the global level, it is estimated that the annual income foregone in the areas immediately affected by desertification amounts to approximately US$ 42 billion each year. The indirect economic and social costs suffered outside the affected areas, including the influx of "environmental refugees" and losses to national food production, may be much greater.
5 The Effective and Innovative Solution to the Problem
Generally speaking, the process of combating desertification is just part of a much broader objective: promoting the sustainable development of Asian countries affected by drought and desertification. On the one hand, practical measures to combat desertification and restore degraded land are indispensable. On the other hand, any effective strategy must pay proper attention to education, training and communications step by step through both local and international cooperation in order to provide the fully integrated approach.
5.1 Concrete Methods —— Re-establishing a Favorable Environment
Developing sustainable long-term agricultural practices
(1)Land restoration
To combat desertification it is necessary to restore and fertilize the land exhausted through intensive agriculture. Crop techniques should be improved by the follow measures:
1)Re-establish soil fertility either by using synthetic fertilizers, or by preparing much cheaper compost, principally prepared from plant waste: manure, agricultural trimmings (straw), and biological household waste. Besides, livestock dung also restores the capacity of soil to produce a more plentiful harvest.
2)Combat marked soil salinity by employing the most effective system of irrigation: evacuate water surplus, monitor the changes in groundwater reserves and soil salinity in the problem areas, drain and irrigate, and plant trees whose roots hamper the soil from drifting.
(2)Prevent soil exhaustion
It is important to respect the capacity charge for each plot of land, which implies assuring the maximum production of a given resource on the land while preserving its long-term capacity to produce. If the capacity charge is exceeded, productivity declines. Therefore, production methods must be modified by prohibiting cultivation during the fallow period or by decreasing the time livestock spend grazing on the land.
(3)Diversify production
Diversifying crop and animal production enables better use of land resources and prevents the over-production of a single product. A plot can sustain different plants and animals over long periods, since their nutritional needs vary and the resources they remove from the land are complementary. Accordingly, polyculture is encouraged, prolonged monoculture should be avoided on the same plot of land, and a system of rotational crop production should be established to restore soil fertility.
(4)Reducing the herd
Though reducing the herd is a very effective solution to overgrazing, it is not easy to convince local farmers to reduce their herd numbers. Because the herd provides them with income, and in many countries the size of the herd is a source of pride and honor for the herder, his family or clan. Whereas, education and public awareness can contribute to spreading another message, which is otherwise difficult to grasp: by producing livestock of better quality and improving veterinary services, the herder’s income can be maintained or even increased despite the drop in herd numbers. Governments should intervene to resolve conflicts that may occur because of this.
Combating the effects of wind
To alleviate the effects of wind, some simple mechanical means preventing the displacement of sand and dust include:
(1)The construction of fences or barriers from local plant species: woven palms, planted hedges (rows of maize or millet that protect beans and onions) or metal sheeting around villages and crops.
(2)Planting vegetation whose roots protect and fix the soil and meantime prohibiting livestock from grazing to protect the areas of plantation.
Reforestation
Trees play several roles:
they fix soil elements and prevent their loss by water and wind.
they act as obstacles to the wind to protect crops.
they enhance soil fertility: many trees produce nitrogen that fertilizes and increases soil productivity.
they facilitate water penetration into the soil during the rains and contributes to maintaining humidity for a long time.
they provide shade for animals and people.
they supply nutritive elements: fruit trees diversify food sources; trees provide fodder for livestock.
they are a source of firewood and construction materials. (Alternative energy sources could also be explored to ease the pressure on tree logging)
However, they should be used in a sustainable way; trees should be replaced as they are being cut down. Reforestation is a long-term action since tree growth is slow. Fortunately, trees have a long life cycle so the investment is generally viable.
Using renewable energies
The latest technological advances can provide solutions to desertification by improving on traditional systems of production combined with the use of new sources of energy that progressively restore the soil, increase cereal and meat production and prevent environmental degradation.
The non-sustainable use of forest resources (firewood) as a source of energy is a factor leading to desertification. Therefore, identifying and employing alternative renewable energy sources is important in the fight against desertification. Non-polluting and infinite or renewable energies can replace wood at limited or no cost and they can easily be used by families in villages, such as:
(1)Solar energy
Bright sunny conditions, characteristic of arid and semi-arid regions, can satisfy energy needs in these areas. Solar energy can be used in multiple ways:
1)Greenhouses integrated into the structure of the dwelling with panels that store energy from the sun in reservoirs (to supply hot water).
2)Parabolic mirrors help cook food, produce water vapor and run electric water turbines.
3)Panels transform sunrays into electricity. The electric current is stored in batteries and can be used day or night.
4)The evaporation power of the sun can produce distilled water, free of salt and germs, by using a solar distiller.
(2)Wind
The force of the wind can drive wind propellers that produce electricity and mechanical force, generating a pump to extract water from wells, filling watering holes or irrigation basins, or activating mills to transform grain into flour. This type of energy will facilitate land irrigation and the supply of water to the livestock. In the drylands where winds are frequent, this form of energy could be an important complement in the long term.
(3)Biogas
Biogas is a gaseous mix produced in a fermentation tank or derives from the decomposition of organic matter (dung and plant waste). The advantages of Biogas: it is free of cost and can be used for lighting, cooking or to drive motors (generators, tractors and cars); the residues from the fermentation can be used as natural fertilizer. The high temperatures in the drylands are beneficial to the creation of biogas, and this technique can most effectively be developed in regions where agriculture and cattle rearing coexist.
5.2 Broadening the Focus —— Mobilizing and Involving People
Most attempts to fight desertification have concentrated more on its symptoms than on its causes. They tended to concentrate on alleviating its effects and on reducing the human activities that seemed to immediately contribute to them. They sought to tackle over-cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and faulty irrigation directly without addressing the underlying social and economic pressures that produced them. This often resulted in blaming the victims of desertification for the damage caused without making a serious attempt to understand the forces outside their control driving them to over-exploit their land.
The most important partnership to be forged when tackling desertification is between aid donors, national governments, local administrations and the people of the drylands themselves. Over the years, experience has shown that the phenomenon cannot be tackled effectively unless the people concerned are fully committed and involved.
The role of the international community
Since desertification is a global environmental problem involving both developed and developing countries, and desertification combating is a long and difficult task dealing with multi-disciplinary studies and engineering fields, it calls for the international-wide cooperation to share scientific and practical experiences.
Combating desertification is also expensive. All countries, even the most developed among them and those who are unaffected by desertification, are called upon to finance projects to reverse the desertification process. Funds may come from co-operative projects, fund-raising, donations etc. The money is used to put a stop to deforestation, to curb soil erosion, to forge partnerships and common plans of action, to develop new methods while adapting existing methods to the conditions of each country, to educate the population and so on.
The acceleration of land degradation in the drylands has mostly occurred from the middle of the 20th Century. International research programmes have been conducted to better understand the functioning of drylands. They have been supported by certain United Nations agencies (UNESCO, FAO, WMO, UNEP, etc.) and by regional intergovernmental organizations (CILSS, IGAD, SADC, UMA) or nongovernmental organizations, NGOs.
Over the decades international meetings have contributed to our knowledge of environmental problems and accords have been signed announcing concrete projects. Certain important conferences have marked the end of the 20th Century.
(1)The Stockholm Conference (Sweden) 1972
This was the first international conference that addressed environmental issues related to those concerns linked to the future of human populations.
(2)The Nairobi Conference (Kenya) 1977
This first conference on desertification manifested a response by the international community to the terrible droughts of the Sahel and to the 1968-1974 famine threatening economical and ecological equilibrium. It contributed to the in-depth analysis of the problems of desertification. A Plan of Action to combat desertification, along with a series of recommendations aimed at helping affected countries to define and implement measures, was established to mobilize and coordinate assistance among the international community.
(3)The Rio de Janeiro Summit (Brazil) 1992
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was marked by firm commitments from countries and the international community, which appear in Agenda 21, a plan of action assuring both the protection of the environment and the notion of sustainable development.
Two international conventions emerged as a direct result of the Rio Conference: the Convention of Biological Diversity (1992) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1993). Developing nations insisted that desertification as an issue plays an equally important role during talks held during the Earth Summit, and in 1994 the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD) was ready to be signed by governments, aiming to improve land productivity, to restore land, to establish more efficient water usage and to introduce sustainable development in the affected areas and more generally, improve the living conditions of those populations affected by drought and desertification. . The three Conventions apply the principles of co-operation and international solidarity as they aim to find common solutions to environmental problems and socio-economic development.
By the end of the year 2000, UNCCD was ratified by 172 countries marking a turning point in international policy demonstrating a growing awareness of the importance assigned to the problems of desertification.
Involving the whole population
(1)Developing education and training
A basic education such as being able to add, read and write, is the first step towards combating desertification. School is an important means for the transfer and diffusion of information, which enables people to become better informed and help them understand and organize projects that combat desertification.
More importantly, it helps develop skills, techniques, and training to combat desertification and better manage the available resources while promoting techniques that may help others. Technical manuals or educational guides developed for schools should not only be targeted at teachers and their pupils but also shared with parents and the local population.
(2)Creating an enabling environment
For affected countries, and the people of the drylands, living conditions must be right if desertification is to be tackled effectively. It is hard for governments or local people to give much attention to the crisis if they are constantly preoccupied with economic or physical survival. Local people need to have secure and equitable rights to the land they tend, as they will be less willing to look after the land if they feel that it may be taken away from them. The need for an enabling environment makes it possible for them to pursue sustainable development. Combating desertification can only be achieved in the long term and changes should be introduced at the international level as well as the local level.
(3)Who should be mobilized?
Each country should adopt a participatory approach, whereby all members of society join forces to combat land degradation and are supported by their government who accept, for example, to attribute power to women, farmers and livestock breeders in order to combine their joint efforts.