Read at : Google Alert – desertification
1994-07 - Successful reforestation in Arbolle (Yatenga, Burkina Faso) : Bois de la Fraternisation, Univerity of Ghent, Belgium, with the Canadian Cooperation (Photo WVC)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/03/137_83770.html
Forests in preventing desertification
By Ha Young-hyo
A recent documentary titled the “21st Century’s Displaced Populations, Desertification Refugees,” produced by a local broadcaster, was aired on TV. Vivid pictures in the documentary depict people living in the most deplorable conditions due to severe impacts of desertification and land degradation.
It revealed that land on which lives have been built is degrading and that human-induced activities have led to sand disasters, which are counterattacking us. Multifaceted and trans-boundary impacts of desertification include but not limited to regional poverty, threatening the survival of humankind at an alarming rate.
Having said that, what is desertification? It is commonly thought that this is simply a change of land surface to sand. However, it is not as simple as it seems. Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas due to various factors including climatic variations and human activities. It leads to the loss of arable land, thereby posing a threat to food security and aggravating the poverty of local communities.
Forests for combating desertification
Deserts create more deserts. Indiscrete land development deteriorates the productivity of the land and threatens the livelihood of the local people. Again, the local people leave in search for new land. This paradigm of abusive land use and land use change leads to increasing the spread of desertification.
This vicious cycle has placed the earth into a state of emergency desertification. Drought-affected countries in Latin America and Africa are suffering from hunger, and Guatemala ended up declaring a state of emergency. Sandy areas have already blanketed 1 billion hectares in Africa and 1.3 billion hectares in Asia.
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