A highly controversial and debated question is the ultimate cause of desertification. Is it due more to man or to nature? This article addresses this important question and, by use of examples from the Dust Bowl of the USA in the 1930s, argues that drought does not necessarily cause desertification, but that the actions of mankind do.

In the 1930s, in the absence of land management legislation or policy, a drought resulted in severe land degradation. In the 1950s in the same area a drought went largely unnoticed, due mainly to the effective soil conservation measures and large-scale investments in infrastructure that had been imposed since the 1930s.

Desertification is bound to continue in the absence of effective policy, planning and development.