'Agriculture and Desertification Essay\r'

'The valet’s dry enters, contrary to popular misconceptions of being barren nonproductive land, contain nearly of the close to valuable and bouncy ecosystems on the planet. These dryland environments draw surprising mixed bag and resiliency, backing everyplace two cardinal race, nigh thirty-five perpenny of the b on the whole-shaped mint (UNEP, 2003). In fact, approximately seventy percent of Africans depend instanter on drylands for their daily livelihood (UNEP, 2003). However, these cute and crucial atomic number 18as argon at a crossroad, endange cerise and threatened by the ruin edge of desertification.\r\nThere atomic number 18 everyplace one hundred definitions for the term ? desertification’, however the most widely used and current definition is as follows: desertification refers to the land debasement in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions collect to benignant being activities and modality variations, often leading to the aeo nian loss of disgrace productivity and the minutening surface of the vegetative coer (UNCCD, 2003). It is important to none that desertification is non the expansion and contraction of deserts or hyper-arid territories, which bring out and decrease twain naturally and cyclically.\r\nFrench ecologist Louis Lavauden prototypical used the term desertification in 1927 and French plant scientist Andre Aubreville, when witnessing the land degradation occurring in North and westbound Africa in 1949 popularized this term (Dregne, 242). The causes of desertification include overgrazing, overcultivation, deforestation and wretched irrigation practices. Climatic variations, oftentimes(prenominal) as changes in mite speed, precipitation and temperature can influence or affix desertification rates, but they ar not catalysts to the process- it is the exploitative actions of universe that trigger desertification (Glantz, 146).\r\nThe most exploited atomic number 18a historically has been Africa. In the Sahel (transition zone betwixt the Sahara and the Savanna) of West Africa during the current of 1968 to 1973, desertification was a main cause of the deaths of over 100,000 people and 12 cardinal cattle, as well as the disruption of social organizations from villages to the matter level (USGS, 1997). As a firmness of purpose of the catastrophic devastation in the Sahel, the coupled Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in N descentobi, Kenya in 1977, where an agreement was r to each oneed to wipe out desertification by the year 2000.\r\n patently this goal was not achieved. Countries and organizations, notably in the modify spherely match, relieve oneself been un imparting to provide significant and comfortable financial and scotch aid to countries most wedged by this issue (Mainguet, 2003). Consequently, desertification is out of control, threatening the sustainability of the world’s environment, disrupting soci al structures and well-being, and imp institutionaliseing frugal addition. This crisis reaches beyond the topical anesthetic, directly unnatural communities, impperforming and jeopardizing world stability.\r\nEnvironmentally, desertification reduces the world’s sweet-scented irrigate supply system reserves imputable to pissing over wasting disease and irrigation mis watchfulness, decreases genetic diversity through s embrocate wearing away and plant destruction, and also accelerates the ascorbic acid exchange process by damaging hundred ? sinks’. Socially, desertification causes population teddy as people search for bettor spiritedness conditions, often leading to conflicts and contends. Another social resultant is a dramatic decrease in the world’s food supply referable to the depletion of vital dryland vegetation and a decline in range yields.\r\nDesertification is also linked to a number of health issues such as malnutrition, as clean irrigate and sufficient food resources atomic number 18 exceedingly meager. Economically, income possible is lost because land is vain, and monetary silver are pass ond towards combating desertification, compromising sparing growth and development. Crisis management becomes more important than achieving economic goals. Furthermore, increasing levels of beggary have resulted ascribable to dire economic conditions.\r\nThe world-wide body must devote more time, resources and naught to find effective and long-term solutions that will public assistance not still directly- alter areas, but the world at bigger. The devastating environmental, social and economic ramifications of desertification must be addressed immediately, cooperatively and without hesitation, in advance the window of chance is lost. Desertification has created and encouraged a number of major environmental problems, and has endangered the sustainability of a diverse and clean global environment.\r\n fin ished the use of poor irrigation practices and exploitative human actions for profit, pee has been over consumed and desertification has occurred near areas surrounding fresh water supplies, reducing or depleting these reserves. In the desertification process, the shorelines and the aquatic land and dishonor becomes eroded, salinized and degraded. Thus, feeder rivers decline in quantity and supply, river flow rates decrease and finally freshwater reserves are polluted and/or reduced. The reduction of river flow rates and\r\nthe lowering of groundwater levels leads to the â€Å"silting up of estuaries, the encroachment of salt water into water tables, and the befoulment of water by suspended particles and salination” (FAO, 2003). These problems are in particular intelligible in the Aral ocean in Asia, which at one point was the fourth largest lake in the world (Aral sea Homepage, 2002). During the Soviet era in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the communist central planners had little regard for water conservation, and over consumed this resource.\r\nIn pasture to meet the consider for agricultural irrigation the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) â€Å" turn water from rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea” (Pacific Island Travel: Desertification, 1999). These exploitative actions dropped water levels by one-third because feeder rivers could no overnight replenish the large lake, as illustrated in appendix 1 (Pacific Island Travel: Desertification, 1999). Not only has the shorelines of the Aral Sea declined, but Lake Chad in Africa has followed a similar fate.\r\nDesertification in the Lake Chad region has dropped water levels far below the mean(a) dry season amount of â€Å"10,000 square kilometers to only 839 square kilometers” (Earth Crash Earth Spirit, 2001). The reduction of water levels in Lake Chad and the Aral Sea decreases their ability to moderate the topical anaesthetic climate, resulting in more extreme variations in temperature and precipitation. Therefore, local ecosystems are disrupted and even destroyed, as the climate becomes more continental in nature, and vital water supplies are scarce or depleted.\r\nDesertification reduces the biodiversity and genetic diversity of dryland ecosystems, impairing the sustainability of plants, animals and even humans in these regions. As a consequence of desertification, the soil of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas becomes eroded, resulting in unproductive and literally useless land. This disrupts the habitats and food sources for many organisms, get along sustainable life in these areas very rough (FAO, 2003). Furthermore, because of freshwater and food scarcity, the life expectancy and effective existence for many species is threatened.\r\nThis grave consequence was evident in the western African country of Mauritania, where the desertification process, from 1970 to 1980, â€Å"killed approximately 15,000 people and over 500,000 various plants and animals were eradicated” (CIESIN, 2003). Unfortunately, as the naughtiness of desertification escalates in countries like Mauritania, it becomes extremely difficult to prolong biologically diverse ecosystems require to support the lives of plants, animals and humans.\r\nThrough the ecological destruction and imbalance caused by desertification, the carbon exchange process is accelerated. Dryland vegetation and soil are crucial storage devices for carbon, and contain â€Å"practically half(a) the total quantity of carbon” (FAO, 2003). Once these elements thin out or become unproductive due to desertification, carbon is released into the atmosphere. It is estimated that for every hectare of dryland vegetation or soil that is depleted or unusable, 30 tonnes of carbon is no longer stored and is released into the atmosphere (FAO, 2003).\r\nThis elevation of atmospheric carbon contributes to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Desertification als o has major social consequences, disrupting the social fabric and standard of nutrition for many traditional and Native peoples. On a global level, it threatens the stability and health of a growth population. In the desertification process land is degraded, making it extremely difficult to maintain a successful go and livelihood. Consequently, individuals are forced to relocate to areas with more habitable conditions and stronger economic opportunities.\r\nThis population displacement is evident in the migration of Mexicans to the join States: â€Å"Some 70 percent of all land in Mexico is vulnerable to desertification, one drive why some 900,000 Mexicans leave home each year in search of a better life as migrant workers in the United States” (Environment countersign Service, 2003). However, in the developing countries of Africa and Asia, impoverished individuals have no option but to become refugees, abandoning their old livelihoods and simply struggling for surviva l.\r\nUnited Nations escritoire Kofi Annan declared that in sub-Saharan Africa, â€Å"the number of environmental refugees [refugees due to environmental issues like desertification] is expected to rise to 25 million in the following 20 years. ” (Environment sweets Service, 2003). These refugee movements and population displacement have often caused policy-making and social unrest, and even wars. As a result of desertification, countries fight for control of the scarce natural resources, since anterior deposits are depleted or unusable (UNCCD, 2003). The strong, overconfident correlation coefficient between desertification and armed conflict is illustrated in addition 2.\r\nThe population displacement, refugee movements and relationship to wars make desertification devastating to the social security of individuals in affected regions. Desertification has caused a crisis in the world’s food supply, creating concern over the sustainability of an increasing populat ion. Dryland areas are home to some of the most important crops and â€Å"genetic strains of cultivated plants which have the basis of the food and health of the world’s population” (FAO, 2003). Some of these products include cereal crops, oil seeds, grain legumes and root crops.\r\nIn drylands affected by desertification, land that was once agriculturally viable can no longer be used, as it is essentially a wasteland. Even if agriculture is feasible, the nutrient poor soil makes it extremely difficult to grow a large quantity of a certain crop. This has crippled the food supply, at a time when its sustainability is already in question. check to the United Nations: â€Å"a nutritionally tolerable diet for the world’s exploitation population implies tripling food production over the next 50 years under favourable conditions.\r\nIf desertification is not stopped and reversed, food yields in many affected areas will decline” (UNCCD, 2003). Thus, desertif ication creates uncertainty as to the adequateness of the world’s food production, endangering the supportability of a growing population. There is a strong, positive correlation between desertification and serious health concerns and diseases. The increasing rate of desertified areas has created a crisis in the world’s food and water supplies.\r\nAs a result, food and water are extremely scarce, and â€Å"malnutrition, starvation and ultimately famine will result from desertification” (UNCCD, 2003). This has prompted concern and anxiety within the gentlemans gentleman Health Organization stating, â€Å"we [the WHO] is becoming increasingly disquieted with the consequences of desertification, such as malnutrition and famine” (WHO Denmark, 2003). Desertification is also indirectly linked to many severe epidemics, notably in Africa. The drying of water sources due to desertification forces people to use intemperately polluted water, leading to disastrous health problems.\r\n fit to the World Health Organization, â€Å"desertification and droughts can increase water- relate diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and diarrhoeal diseases” (WHO Denmark, 2003). Recent inquiry and studies have also suggested that malaria incidences have escalated significantly in desertified areas. The strong, positive correlation between malaria and desertification is depicted in appendix 3. Furthermore, soil erosion and land degradation has resulted in the creation of dust storms and poor air quality.\r\nThis has had a very negative toll on human health and â€Å"results in mental stress, warmheartedness infections, respiratory illnesses and allergies” (UNCCD, 2003). Therefore, desertification is strongly associated with dust storms, poor air quality, malnutrition, famine, and epidemics, all of which are enormously hazardous to human health. In an attempt to combat and rehabilitate desertified land, precious economic funds are r equired and exhausted. Consequently, resources are drained, resulting in the weakening of local economies and the compromising of national development goals.\r\nAs the desertification process continues, attention and specie is spent on crisis management, not on growth and development. Due to the depletion of natural resources, desertification contributes to decreased income levels and productivity losses. This is specifically true in agricultural regions and severely stunts economic growth. The worldwide court of desertification, expressed as income asleep(p) amounts to approximately $11 billion for irrigated land, $8 billion for rainfed cropland, and $23 billion for rangeland, for a total constitute of $42 billion (CIESIN, 2003).\r\nThis value may not seem astronomical for developed countries like Canada, Britain and the United States, but for nations in the developing world, these figures are devastating. According to an unpublished World Bank study, â€Å"the depletion of na tural resources causing income loss in one Sahelian country was analogous to 20% of its Gross Domestic Product” (UNCCD, 2003). Desertification has so crippled present earnings as well as income authorization in the future day, hurting not only individuals but also entire economies.\r\nIn an effort to improve future conditions, developing countries devote significant amounts of their limited monetary resources to combating and rehabilitating land affected by desertification, severely impeding their economic growth. solid ground rehabilitation costs are those incurred for stopping moreover degradation and to restore the land to something border oning its headmaster condition. Unfortunately, this requires a significant amount of investment that could have been used for economic development, as opposed to righteous repairing land.\r\nOn a per hectare basis, it is estimated that â€Å"a cost of $2,000 is needed to improve irrigated land, $400 for rainfed cropland, and $40 for rangeland” (CIESIN, 2003). To people animated in the developing world, these costs consume much, if not all of their incomes, obviously crippling their careers and livelihoods. Although there is the potential to repair and rehabilitate almost all land affected by desertification only â€Å"52 per cent (1,860 million hectares) can pay back the cost of rehabilitation” (CIESIN, 2003).\r\nThus, many farmers and individuals reclaim land, but because of large overriding costs, they actually lose money as productivity remains stagnant. Therefore, limited monetary funds are spent towards crisis management, sacrificing national development and economic growth. Desertification is directly linked to the muss poverty occurring in the developing world. Individuals consistently endure an impoverished lifestyle because income potential is foregone, and resources are devoted towards rehabilitation, therefore scarce economic funds are depleted.\r\nUnited Nations Secretary Kofi Anna states: â€Å"Because the poor often farm degraded land, desertification is both a cause and consequence to poverty? flake desertification must be an integral part of our wider efforts to eradicate poverty” (Environment News Service, 2003). If the desertification process continues to grow exponentially, mass poverty will also increase both in size and in severity. Thus, in order to address poverty, desertification must be contained and controlled. Currently, desertification affects over 250 million people and a third of the earth’s land surface (4 billion hectares) (UNCCD, 2003).\r\nIn addition, the livelihoods of over one billion people in over 100 countries are indirectly threatened (UNCCD, 2003), as shown in the map in Appendix 4. It is estimated that in the next 50 years, another billion people will fall victim to the wrath of desertification and its related environmental, social, and economic ramifications (CIESIN, 2003). The depletion and contamination of fresh water sources, the reduction in biodiversity, and the acceleration of the carbon cycle make desertification devastating to the sustainability of the environment.\r\nSocially, desertification forces people to migrate which may ultimately lead to wars or conflicts, creates a major disaster for the world’s food supply, and is scientifically correlate to major health concerns, even epidemics such as malaria. The economic status of developing countries impacted by the desertification process is jeopardized as high levels of income are foregone, and resources are devoted towards rehabilitation, not towards growth and development. Furthermore, poverty in African and Asian nations has grown exponentially due to this process, creating humanitarian and economic crises.\r\nThe world’s future is at stake, and it is imperative that the global community acts now. Desertification is a preventable process, but requires a coordinated approach involving effort from the local, na tional and global communities. Local and national governments must practice methods of soil and water conservation, and lend oneself traditional agricultural systems that support positive environmental strategies. The industrialized world must supply the economic and technological aid necessary for these conservation techniques (UNCCD, 2003).\r\n ball-shaped Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology is a modern technique that can be in effect used in combating desertification. GPS satellites can actually boom and locate areas vulnerable or prone to desertification, acting as excellent early warning signs. This allows governments to implement various techniques and policies to prevent damage done by desertification. As former United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt express in a letter to governors on February 26, 1937, â€Å"a nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself” (Dingle, 2003). The battle to combat desertification is a war that can be lost, but must be won.\r\nNow is the time to win the fight before this glimmer of hope disappears. Appendix 1: Time-Series Photos of the Aral Sea seminal fluid: Aral Sea Homepage, 2002 These pictures were taken using LANDSAT TM satellite technology. The reddish shade represents the vegetation near the Aral Sea. The northern part of the image is the shoreline of the sea. Notice how in 1979 the shoreline is quite large, while in 1989 it is non-existent, illustrating the decreasing water levels. What is also striking is the white shade on the satellite photo from 1989. This represents an artificial saltpan, caused by desertification and desiccation.\r\nAppendix 2: World map out of Armed Conflicts and Desertification computer address: CIESIN, 2003 Most of the armed conflicts occurring from 1989-97 are in highly desertified areas. Thus, there is a strong positive correlation between desertification and armed conflict. Appendix 3: Map of Desertification Vulnerability and Malaria Risk in Africa For bot h maps, red represents the highest severity, followed by orange, yellow, green and lastly white. In desertified areas, much of the population is at risk of malaria, thus there is a strong, positive correlation between desertification and malaria.\r\nAppendix 4: World Map of Desertification Vulnerability Source: CIESIN, 2003 Works Cited Aral Sea Homepage. â€Å"Aral Sea Region: Kyzylorda Oblast, Kazakhstan. ” 2002. . CIESIN: focalise for Earth Science Information Network. â€Å"Global Desertification Dimensions and Costs. ” 29 July 2003. . DEWA: Divisions of Warning and Assessment, United Nations. â€Å"Desertification and Drought Identification. ” 2002. . Dingle, Carol, et al. â€Å"Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotations. ” 2003. . Dregne, H. E. , et al. Desertification of Arid Lands. New York: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1983.\r\n'