World wide desertification is becoming worse. According to recent reports by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the world desertification of arid and semi arid and dry sub-humid areas can affect more than 1.2 billion people residing in these areas.
Desertification is defined as the degradation of land caused by various climatic changes and human interventions. However, the primary cause of desertification remains to be various human activities. Desertification expands or spread existing deserts, creates new ones, reduce the overall productivity of land areas through soil deterioration and erosion, and causes the long term loss of vegetation.
It has been found out that overgrazing is one of the major cause of desertification. Together with cultivation of marginal lands, destruction of vegetation in arid regions for fuel, poor grazing management, and incorrect irrigation practices in arid areas are common human activities that cause or increase the chances of an area being converted into a desert.
Moreover, the rapid increase in human population and the ever problematic poverty level in developing and poor countries contribute to increasing rate of world desertification. Because people live in poverty, they tend to overuse the environment, often settling for a short term use of the lands instead of planning carefully for a long term and sustainable one.
Because of desertification, the land can no longer support life affecting wild and domesticated animals as well as agricultural crops. Because the land cannot even sustain plant life, it becomes more susceptible to soil erosion by wind and water. Moreover, instead of absorbing water into the soil, it simply runs off preventing plants to get the much needed moisture and water.
Every year, it is estimated that 12 million hectares are becoming useless for cultivation due desertification. This is because the one third of the world’s land surface is arid or semi-arid. With the problems of global warming already taking effect, it is said that by the next century the climate change in desert areas would have increased by as much as 17% resulting to an increase of land areas being affected by desertification.
If human interventions have caused the increase of desertification, likewise, human interventions can help reverse, slow down or even stop the process. Some of the things that need to be done include reducing the number of grazing animals in a particular land. Livestock owners need to let the plants grow back. Good land management in semi-arid areas is the key. For example, people can use techniques like adding mulch to the soil. The combined layer of straw, leaves or sawdust covers the soil preventing water to evaporate quickly, prevents weeds to grow, adds nutrients to the soils, and prevents runoff and erosion.
