Desert environments are expanding in many areas of the world. The spread or encroachment of a desert environment into a nondesert region is a process known as desertification. This process results from a number of factors, including changes in climate and the influence of human activities.
Climatic factors include periods of temporary but severe drought as well as long-term climatic changes toward aridity. For example, in areas where vegetation is already under stress from natural factors, periods of drier than average weather may cause degradation of the vegetation. If the pressures are maintained, soil loss and irreversible change in the ecosystem may ensue, so that areas formerly under savanna or scrubland vegetation are reduced to desert.
There is some evidence that removal of vegetation can also affect climate, causing it to become drier. Bare ground reflects more incoming solar energy and does not heat up as much as ground containing vegetation. Thus, the air that is near the ground does not warm up as much and its vertical movement is reduced, as is atmospheric cooling necessary for condensation and ultimately precipitation to occur.
Human activities often play a major role in desertification. The biological environment of a nondesert region may be degraded by removing vegetation (which can lead to unnaturally high erosion), excessive cultivation, and the exhaustion of surface-water or groundwater supplies for irrigation, industry, or domestic use.
Desertification drains an arid or semiarid land of its life-supporting capabilities. The process of desertification is extremely difficult to reverse. It is characterized by a declining groundwater table, salinization of topsoil and water, diminution of surface water, increasing erosion, and the disappearance of native vegetation. Areas undergoing desertification may show all of these symptoms, but the existence of only one usually provides sufficient evidence that the process is taking place. Desertification usually begins in areas made susceptible by drought or overuse by human populations and spreads into arid and semiarid regions.
The main regions currently threatened by desertification are the Sahel region lying to the south of the Sahara desert in Africa, parts of eastern, southern, and northwestern Africa, and large areas of Australia, south-central Asia, and central North America. The arid regions with the longest history of agriculture—from North Africa to China—have generally less well-vegetated deserts. The present extent of certain of these deserts is thought to be significantly greater than it would be had human impact not occurred. Support for this view is found in various places, such as the several-thousand-year-old rock art from the central Sahara that illustrates cattle and wildlife in regions now unable to support these creatures.
Desertification is not limited to nondesert regions. The process can also occur in areas within deserts where the delicate ecological balance is disturbed. The Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of the American Southwest, for example, have become observably more barren as the wildlife and plant populations have diminished.
Public awareness of desertification increased during the severe drought in the Sahel (1968–73) that accelerated the southward movement of the Sahara. Persistent drought conditions, coupled with substantial growth of both the human and livestock populations in the Sahel, resulted in a gradual desertification of the region. While climatic variations played a major role in this process, economic and social priorities were involved as well. The introduction of Western technology made it possible for the inhabitants of the Sahel to drill deep water wells. This situation encouraged the herdsmen not only to give up their nomadic way of life and remain near the wells but also to raise more livestock. Overgrazing resulted and, as drought conditions persisted, competition for forage became more and more intense. Herds of goats tore up the remaining indigenous plants by their roots, thereby destroying the ability of the plants to reproduce by themselves. At the same time, the increasing human population led to the cultivating of more and more marginal, ecologically fragile lands for subsistence farming. (The most fertile lands were frequently used to grow cash crops—namely, cotton and peanuts for foreign markets.) Furthermore, Sahelian farmers began reworking the marginal land within one to five years, whereas they had traditionally allowed these lands to remain fallow for 15 to 20 years, giving them ample time to recover. In changing their farming practices, the Sahelians contributed to the destruction of their lands.
As the Sahara moved southward, so did the Sahelians and their livestock. This resulted in further denudation and deforestation. Desertification had set in by the late 1960s, followed by widespread famine. A major international project was undertaken to keep millions of Sahelians alive. Normal rains returned briefly to the Sahel during the mid-1970s; however, since no effective, long-term remedies were applied in animal, agricultural, and human control, outside aid again became necessary in the mid-1980s as drought conditions prevailed once more for a prolonged period (especially in the eastern sections of the sub-Sahara in Ethiopia), causing widespread famine and death. What caused these droughts is still debated, but one of the theories involves unusual or anomalous temperature patterns in certain parts of the ocean.
In 1977 the worldwide consequences of desertification were the subject of a UN Conference on Desertification (UNCOD), held in Nairobi, Kenya. In the early 21st century, the UN again highlighted the problem by designating 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. The UN General Assembly warned that desertification threatened the livelihoods of about one billion people.
