Points of View
Desertification
Desertification, a word disliked by many, is nevertheless expressive and widely understood to mean the effects of increasing aridity brought about by human-induced land degradation. For people living with its effects, there is no comfort in the thought that it is not a new phenomenon. So do we, as human beings, just accept the fact that when subsistence becomes impossible on 'desertified' land, we will have to move away, allowing the land eventually - perhaps - to regain some fertility? Do we try to halt the process; fixing dunes with trees and grasses; planting trees, or subsidizing bottled gas to reduce the use of charcoal? What can we do? What can we afford? Will the Fourth Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification (COP-4) to be held in Bonn, Germany in December, produce any answers?
"Sometime around 2300 BC, a minister of the king of Kish called
Sargon of Akkad, took control of the independent cities and villages of
Sumer and established the first known human empire... Then abruptly the
empire collapsed. The best explanation for the sudden decline comes from
a team of archeologists, soil scientists, and geologists who have found
strong evidence of a shift to a drier climate starting at about 2200 BC
and lasting for 300 years. Special analyses of the soil showed a lack
of earthworm and insect activity, as well as large amounts of fine, wind-blown
sands - telltale signs of intensified aridity and desiccation of the landscape."
Sandra Postel, Worldwatch Institute writing in Pillar
of Sand
"When I returned to Mauritania in 1984 after a long absence, I was
struck by the huge changes. I could not get over the dryness of the country,
the desertification, the advance of the sand - these were the first things that
I noted... I went to my home along the river. I noticed that the water level
was much lower than it was when I was a boy. Where before I had known greenery
and vegetation, today there was only sand."
Oral testimony of Ahmedou Ba, Mauritania, recorded in 'At the
Desert's Edge', Panos/SOS Sahel.
The extent of desertification as revealed by UNEP's 1991 assessment is
alarming. About 73% of the total agriculturally-used dryland in Africa is
affected to some degree by various forms of land degradation. About 74% of the
continent's rangelands, 61% of the rainfed croplands and 18% of its
irrigated lands are already affected by desertification at a moderate or higher
degree. This land has lost 25% or more of its fertility and the process is
still going on. The key problem is soil erosion. Soil, the thin layer of
topsoil on which our survival depends, is a non-renewable resource. For nature
to form a layer of topsoil thick enough to support plant life takes thousands
of years. Through human misuse, the layer can be destroyed in a few decades, or
in a few years. Once eroded, its loss is permanent. That is
desertification."
Michael Bernard Kwesi Darkoh, Professor of Geography at Kenyatta University.
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/tiempo/issue08/desert.htm
"I haven't been home for 20 years but cousins often visit and tell
me about my father who still farms. Before I left to work in the city, the area
consisted of a mixture of sand dunes and rich clay soil, giving a balance of
fertile and barren land. Now sand dunes cover the whole area. If I went home, I
would lose my way. The zabiu tree landmark has disappeared beneath the sand
like everything else. Even steep gullies have turned into dunes. Just a few
strips of fresh land have been created by dunes shifting away from some
areas."
Oral testimony of Dah Ould Mohamed Leabeid, recorded in 'At the
Desert's Edge', Panos/SOS Sahel.
"Sand dunes have become a huge problem for us. Some are as big as
buildings and move around with the wind. As they move they destroy our crops
and cover fertile areas. The dunes have buried houses built on low-lying land.
We tried to dig these houses clear of sand with our own hands; it would have
been wonderful if we had machines to help us. Some people tried to stop dune
movement by planting trees, but found that the trees simply got covered in sand
and died. With a few improvements, we might turn our countryside green again.
At present it's a sad sight. The land is flat and barren, with scattered
tree trunks left by wood-cutters. The government have adopted strict policies
concerning trees. Anyone cutting live trees risks incurring a fine."
Oral testimony of Treinicha Mint Beidi, Nouakchott, recorded in 'At
the Desert's Edge', Panos/SOS Sahel
"One thing we do not sell is firewood. We use all that we can get for
cooking. If it was only us using the wood there would still be trees around
us but people come from far afield and destroy our vegetation. They come
on the backs of donkeys, in lorries or pushing carts, piling the wood
on to their various forms of transport. This is what has turned the land
into desert. In an attempt to stop the practice, a number of forestry
guards have come to live with us (in our village.)"
Oral testimony of Haoua Talba Hadj, Chad, recorded in 'At the Desert's
Edge', Panos/SOS Sahel.
"The continent's precious topsoil is being lost at incredible rates. Experts
define that any erosion rate above 0.5 tons per hectare is 'unusual'.
Other say that 10 tons per hectare is barely acceptable. In some parts
of the Sudano-Sahelian region, soil erosion figures as high as 450 tons
per hectare are not unusual."
Michael Bernard Kwesi Darkoh, Professor of Geography at Kenyatta University.
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/tiempo/issue08/desert.htm
"The strong winds often destroy our grainstores or blow hot ashes about
which set fire to the grain... and if the wind blows sand over the young
crops before or after their first weeding it hinders their normal development.
We have no traditional methods to protect our crops against the wind's
ravages. Recently, though, people have begun to plant trees to lessen
the force of the wind and there are shelterbelts in some areas. Winds
today are perhaps not as violent and dusty as they were. When I was young,
a windstorm completely obscured the sun for three days and people had
to cling to trees to stop being blown over. This rarely, if ever, happens
now. Now, as we have no trees, such winds would blow away the whole village!"
Oral testimony of Kouré, (Niger) recorded in 'At the Desert's
Edge', Panos/SOS Sahel.
"Thankfully our condition has begun to improve. Over the last two or three
years, more rain has fallen... Despite all this, winds still blow strongly
and mobile sand dunes constantly threaten newly planted crops. Sand is
one of our biggest problems. If you look at any Mauritanian town or village,
you will often see that sand has begun to creep up the house walls. If
we do not immediately halt the desert spreading, then it will not be long
before the fertile southern part of our country becomes enveloped by dunes.
I don't think that you can blame the large Mauritanian herds for the degradation.
After all, in the north of the country the vegetation has not suffered
such a dramatic change - rivers still flow and there is vegetation in
abundance."
Oral testimony of Ahmedou Ba recorded in 'At the Desert's
Edge', Panos/SOS Sahel.
"In the Senegal River region, I believe man has been the major
destructive force on the environment: we are to blame for desertification. Too
much wood has been used for construction and cooking."
Oral testimony of Ahmedou Ba recorded in 'At the Desert's Edge,
Panos/SOS Sahel.
The U.S. Senate has ratified an international agreement to combat soil degradation and erosion around the world. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification commits participating nations to researching, preventing and reversing the transformation of fertile farm and pasture lands into arid deserts. 167 countries have now signed the agreement.
Message from COP-3 President José Sarney Filho Diallo
delivered a message from COP-3 President Sarney Filho who expressed
encouragement about the agreed on Recife Initiative, which he said: allows for
the adoption at COP-4 a declaration to strengthen the implementation of the
convention; highlights the need for indicators of the effectiveness of efforts
to combat desertification; and helps raise the same interest to desertification
as given to the other Rio conventions. Filho welcomed the African country
reports, which he said will be very useful to countries submitting reports at
the next COP. He also cited agreements on EWS and traditional knowledge, and
the participation of NGOs as successful outcomes of COP-3.
Report on the Third Conference of the Parties to the Convention to
Combat Desertification (COP-3). Pernambuco Convention Center, Recife,
Brazil; 15-26 November, 1999.
Johanssen and Drayton respond to comments that the Conference (COP-3) is
heading towards disaster. Drayton says that the budget disagreement is not over
numbers but over principle, and Johannssen again stresses that the mobilization
of resources for implementation should play a central role, rather than the
Secretariat's budget.
Report on the Third Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat
Desertification (COP-3). Pernambuco Convention Center, Recife, Brazil; 15-26
November, 1999.
"We have one enemy and the name of that enemy is desertification."
Masse Lo, ENDA-Senegal speaking to BBC World Service, The Farming World
"Our
own countries have responsibilities also to tackle the problem. And we
are doing the same work with our national government to consider the participatory
approach, to consider the partnership that is needed at the national level
to make NGOs, the women's groups and all these actors from civil society
to get together with the government and to fight against desertification.
We have one enemy and the name of that enemy is desertification."
Masse Lo, ENDA-Senegal speaking to BBC World Service, The Farming World
"What really counts is the people in the villages..."
Hermi Trupke, International Fund for Agricultural Development speaking
to BBC World Service, The Farming World
"The
most important lessons that we've learned is that what really counts is
the people in the villages. You can arrive with the best proposals for
technologies, for traditional technologies. But, if you don't get their
help, their understanding of the problem, you will not succeed."
Hermi Trupke, International Fund for Agricultural Development speaking
to BBC World Service, The Farming World
"Like the joker in a game of cards, climate change has the potential to
greatly alter the 'game' of agriculture, but scientists do not
know exactly how, when, or under what conditions this wild card will be
played... Most disturbing, in cases where climate change results in less
rainfall, areas already at or near water limits may move into a long period
of shortages."
Sandra Postel, Worldwatch Institute writing in Pillar
of Sand
Published by Panos Publications Ltd, 9 White Lion St., London N1 9PD, UK ISBN 1 870670 26 4
