As other natural ecosystems, deserts have their own dynamics independent of human activities. Throughout the history, sand dunes have always been retreating or slowly expanding into adjacent areas when given the chance. But processes that happen during desertification are different. They do not follow natural patterns. They are more unpredictable and dangerous. They can happen much quicker…

Lands that were once covered with a carpet of perennial grasses, woody shrubs and in some parts dense forests have reportedly turn to barren grounds where only wind sweeps dust around and rain water flushes down muddy sediments whenever it rains. These are lands that were green just a decade ago or so. And local residents still remember when their livestock had grass to graze, their fathers grew crops and their mothers warned them of not playing in the forests because they could get lost.
t doesn’t matter who shares these memories and from which country that person is, their story is the same. Their homes are being swallowed up by dust and sand as desertification creeps closer. Their pastures and crops have disappeared, and water sources became scarce. Their situation feels hopeless and most of these people do not know how their closest future will look like.

Will they still be there? Living among the dust with diminishing resources? Will they leave? Or can desertification be stopped?
Quick Navigation for How to Prevent and Revert Desertification
PREVENTION
The Concept of Sustainable Land Management
Communication, Cooperation and Gender Equality
Ambitious Projects to Save the World’s Drylands
REVERSAL
Can Desertification Be Reversed and Ecosystems Restored?
Ancient Farming Technique Re-Greens the Sahel
Allan Savory’s Holistic Planned Grazing

How does desertification happen?

Desertification is not natural expansion of deserts. In fact, natural deserts do not even have to be close to areas where desertification happens. Desertification is a form of land degradation caused by poor land management of drylands rather than spreading of already existing deserts.

This means that the degradation is mainly caused by our land use activity, when we alter natural ecosystems and, consequently, rain cycles in arid and semi-arid areas.

Lands vulnerable to desertification transform into deserts because their soil becomes progressively drier, poor and unable to support plant growth. Once desertification occurs, the most productive soil layer, known as topsoil, gets blown away by wind or washed off by rain rather quickly because there is no vegetation that would protect it. With topsoil gone, important soil nutrients with organic material are lost.

Affected soil then loses its structure and the ability to nourish plants and soil fauna. READ further from the source