The recent drought in the Sahel savanna is by no means abnormal: it is part of a general drying-up process that took place mainly between 7000 and 3500 years BP. Subsequent impoverishment of the flora and fauna has been due almost entirely to human activities - bad agriculture, felling trees for fuel and overgrazing by domestic stock.

Various solutions have been proposed to the problem of desertification, but individually these are either impracticable or unpromising.

The best hope for the future lies in multiple land use, the development of run-off agriculture, plant breeding and industrial development