When Land Turns Into Desert — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY

When Land Turns Into Desert

IT IS said that land in nearly 100 countries is slowly turning into desert, affecting the lives of more than 900 million people and causing an estimated annual loss of $42 billion in global income. Though poor areas are hardest hit (81 of the countries are developing lands), desertification threatens countries on every continent.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) calls desertification “one of the most serious global environmental problems.” At the same time, researchers also say that “the desert is not advancing.” How can that be?

Deserts Move, and Definitions Change

After the long drought in Africa’s Sahel region (1968-73), the image of deserts marching across farmland was etched in people’s minds. However, the “gloom and doom scenarios” that scientists painted at the time, says Donald A. Wilhite, director of the International Drought Information Center at the University of Nebraska (U.S.A.), were “based on scanty data over a relatively short period of time that provided an inaccurate picture.”

Advanced satellite images that detect biomass (the amount of living matter) show that vegetation fluctuates during dry and wet seasons. These variations, say experts, “give the impression that the desert is expanding or contracting.” So deserts are “moving” but not always “advancing.” Even so, stresses Dr. Wilhite, “desertification is occurring.” But what exactly does this mean?

Desertification

“Desertification” is often confused with the expansion and contraction of deserts. However, desertification, explains one group of researchers, refers to a different phenomenon. While expansion and contraction take place at the fringes of existing deserts, desertification occurs in excessively dry regions, some of which may be situated far away from any desert. Vast areas of such agricultural dry land, which forms 35 percent of the earth’s land surface, are slowly turning into deserts. That phenomenon is now viewed as desertification.

Yet, despite this broader view as to where desertification takes place, the confusion about the two phenomena continues. Why? Panos, a London-based information organization specializing in development issues, points to one reason. At times, policymakers keep the vivid image of the advancing desert alive because it is “an image around which political mobilisation is easier than the more complex process of ‘desertification.’”

“Changing knowledge,” points out Panos, “has provoked considerable debate as to what ‘desertification’ actually is.” The issue? Humans versus climate. First, the UN proposed to define desertification as “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting mainly from adverse human impact.” (Italics ours.) This definition displeased many countries, says Camilla Toulmin, director of the Drylands Project at the International Institute for Environment and Development, because it puts the responsibility for desertification on man. Thus, recently, the last part of the definition was changed to “resulting from climatic variations and human activities.” (Italics ours.) This new definition puts the blame for desertification on both humans and climate, but it did not end the debate. Why not?

“Some experts believe,” says Panos, “that the proliferation of definitions and the subsequent controversy is really an attempt to secure extra funding for a greater number of countries deemed to be at risk.” The result of the continuing controversy is that “the term itself has been rendered almost meaningless.” There are those who even feel that the term “desertification” should be abandoned altogether. Yet, replacing the word will, of course, not solve the problem or erase its causes. What are the causes of desertification?

Roots and Results

The book Desertification, by Alan Grainger, says the root causes are overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and poor irrigation practices. When two or more of these causes occur together, desertification usually results. Moreover, contributing factors—such as changes in population, climate, and socioeconomic conditions—make the problem more acute.

One obvious result of desertification is the destruction of the food-producing capacity of dry land. It is happening worldwide but especially in Africa, where 66 percent of the continent is desert or dry land. Desertification, however, has additional bitter consequences. It leads to war. “In the complex web of causes leading to social and political instability, bloodshed and war,” observes the book Greenwar—Environment and Conflict, “environmental degradation is playing an increasing role.”

Even efforts to prevent wars exact an environmental toll, aggravating poverty. How? “Faced with political instability caused by struggles over dwindling resources resulting from land degradation,” explains Panos, “governments often respond with military methods to suppress the violence. In this way, governments direct resources into military budgets rather than into poverty alleviation.” However, instead of combating the consequences of desertification, what can be done to fight its causes?

No Quick Fix

After pondering that question for 13 months, representatives of more than 100 countries adopted the “UN Convention to Combat Desertification,” a plan that according to the UN is “an important step forward” in countering desertification. The convention called for, among other things, the transfer of antidesertification technologies from developed to developing countries, research and training programs and, especially, a better use of local people’s knowledge. (UN Chronicle) Will this new agreement halt the degradation of dry land?

To make a difference, says Panos, words as well as tangible support are needed. Hama Arba Diallo, one of the convention’s organizers, reported that between 1977 and 1988, some $1 billion per year was spent on antidesertification measures. To make real progress, however, according to UNEP, the 81 developing nations need to spend some four to eight times that amount.

But who will foot the bill? “There will be little new money from the industrialised countries for anti-desertification work,” warns Panos, adding that it is “unrealistic for poor countries suffering from desertification to expect an easy or quick fix from the convention.” Nevertheless, concludes Panos on a positive note, the fact that desertification is now being discussed worldwide raises the profile of the problem, “which is an achievement in itself.”

‘The Wilderness Will Exult’

Indeed, during the last decades, many men and women have succeeded in making mankind more conscious of the catastrophe that continued desertification would bring. Slogans such as “Man is preceded by forest, followed by desert” challenge people to turn that order around.

Yet, informed people also recognize that the problem of desertification is complex. They are realistic enough to appreciate that man, no matter how well-intentioned, has limitations when it comes to dealing with the causes of today’s global problems.

At the same time, however, it is heartening for people concerned about our planet’s future to know that earth’s Creator has promised to deal effectively with this and other environmental problems. And since God’s promises, recorded in the Bible, have always proved true, it is realistic to look forward to the fulfillment of what Jehovah inspired the prophet Isaiah to write regarding the future of deserts and degraded land: “The wilderness and the waterless region will exult, and the desert plain will be joyful and blossom as the saffron. . . . For in the wilderness waters will have burst out, and torrents in the desert plain. And the heat-parched ground will have become as a reedy pool, and the thirsty ground as springs of water.” (Isaiah 35:1-7; 42:8, 9; 46:8-10) What a joy it will be to witness, in the near future, the process of desertification being halted and turned around!

[Box on page 16]

Percentage of Land That Is Desert or Dry Land

Africa 66%

Asia 46%

Australia 75%

Europe 32%

North America 34%

South America 31%

World 41%

[Box on page 17]

Irrigation Turning Land Into Desert?

Can irrigation—watering the land—turn land into desert? Yes, faulty irrigation does. This happens when irrigated land is not properly drained. First, the soil becomes waterlogged; then, it turns salty; and later, a salt crust forms on the surface. “Faulty irrigation,” notes Panos, “is turning land to desert as rapidly as new irrigation systems are opened.”

[Map on page 16, 17]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

DESERT

IN DANGER

[Credit Line]

[Pictures on page 15]

Farmland slowly turning into desert