Hmmm here's what I know....
Main Causes of Desertification:
- Overgrazing -> Economic/Social factor -> Grazing animals destroy the vegetative protective cover and allows wind to blow off the top-soil leaving the soil less arable and less fertile. Lack of vegetation also means a higher chance of land degredation and erosion which are highly undesirable for future plantation. This is true and prevalent in the Sahel region (?) It is also a social factor as there are places where having lots of animals measures the wealth and status of an individual or tribe in many countries in Africa.
- Overcultivation -> Economic/Political factor -> Intensive farming (eg. increasing density of crops planted) so that the soil fertility is reduced (and at an unsustainable rate). This happens in the Sahel and the Aral Sea region of Asia. It is also a political factor because some governments are encouraging growth for export rather than for its own people so economics is taken priority over social (and consequently environmental too) I also think theres a technological factor involving machinery or sth...
- Fire-wood collecting -> Social factor -> Villages/locations that require wood as source for fire for food/heating etc frequently collect firewood at an unsustainable rate exposing top-soil etc erosion etc similar to above (overgrazing). This happens too in the Sahel (?)
- Population changes -> Social factor -> Wars in african countries such as Somalia, or Darfur in Sudan, have people up to 1.4 million people fleeing to places as a mass causing land degradation and stuff that I've listed above. Regions hit by war or drought forcing people to migrate away have pressured fertile soil in the ways listed above.
Others:
-Migrating to Urban areas from rural.
-Climate change. Water extractions.
-Unsustainable irrigation (causing salinity (wet and dry))
-Natural Disasters
All that stuff are already in the textbook, some questions require you to list organizations (of different scales), examples (of different scales too), impacts (human + environment), evaluation of responses.
Organizations
Global: United Nations -> Global response by making 17th June the 'World Day to Combat Desertification' to raise awareness of its severe impacts on poverty, etc Also, there have been numerous international conferences in eg.
1992 - Earth Summit -> Advocated common approach to treatment of desertification
1994 - UN Conference to Combat Desertification
1997 - 100 countries signed Convention to Combat Desertification
Basically what it's done is allowed countries to co-ordinate their responses to tackle desertification galvanizing an effort. It is a global-scale Government (Check?) organization as it involves several nations, and it is a global response as the response is distributed over the globe in many nations.
International: The Aral Sea Recovery Program -> Provides financial assistance to allow computerised, data and monitoring systems to reduce water wastage.
Regional: OXFAM funding wells in Burkina Faso and Mauritania, and providing trees for planting too.
Regional: The National Tree Seeds Centre (From Canada) provides a regional response in Burkina Faso in the Sahel, which provides coutnries with seeds with technical and scientific support. They train managers and supply them with plant stuff.
Local: Farmers in Burkina Faso erected low, stone walls along contours of hillsides to hold soil and water. Cutting hillside terraces have also imrpoved environment.
Local: Ethiopia and Eknya locals benefited from planting species of acacia that produces gum arabic. It can be used for food, beverage, cosmetics and pharamaceutical stuff. It's root systems hold soil together and local people earn income from the uses of gum arabic whilst the plantings hold soil together.
Local: Local Scale response: CARE International (NGO) have donated money (150k USD) to build canals to prevent water seepage increasing water efficiency for growing crops.
Other Responses to Desertification include:
Publicity, Awareness raising, education and training, r&d, land and soil rehabilitation, monitoring and assessment, aid programs, cultural and community reforms.
- Above examples are the more-successful ones. Aid contributes to the improvement of outcomes for inhabitants in areas of increasing desertification.
- Sometimes Aid isn't successful either because the group giving aid has bad knowledge, or ignored local customs, places, needs and traditions, and imposing values which the locals cannot understand.
- Issues also include where local people arn't involved in the decisino making, and therefore not understanding what the agency are triyng to do.
- Some agencies are also making independent decisions which are not co-ordinated between other agencies which is expensive and in-efficient.
Positive Impacts of Desertification:
HUMANS:
- In Muslim Mauritania, women can take major roles of stabilising dunes surrounding their homes by planting and nurturing seedlings which lifts their self-esteem and also for women in society.
- Provokes a sense of alert and to provide a response. Research and development occurs and other things listed above by the responses etc occur.
- Encourages urbanisation, in the way that it improves resource management in the provision of it.
- Encourages education where people will be able to learn new things and allowing people to value the importance of education
ENVIRONMENT:
- Plants that are grown are more tolerate types as a result of people trying to reverse or stop desertification
- Creation of windbreaks (short-term) stopping sands from deserts carried in the wind to land on fertile soil
For the exam, I'm assuming you need to know Impacts of a place, a management coming from a Non-government organization and a government organization in response to desertification/impacts of it, and be able to evaluate it.
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