Desertification has been occuring for millennia, but became a matter of world concernin the early 1970s when a major drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, which in the opinion of most experts continues to this day, killed between 50 000 and 250 000 people, about 3.5 million cattle and countless sheep, goats and camel. This prompt the United Nations to convene a Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) in Nairobi in 1977 to agree on Plan of Action to Combat Desertfication and bring it under control by the year 2000..

Lands lost to desert may effectively be lost for ever, so desertification is humanity's most obvious despoliation to the planet. It is certainly one of the most serious environmental problems facing the world today. In this book, the author describes what is happening and where. Although the problem is greatest in developing countries, it is by no means confined to them. Australia, Africa, the USA and India are all affected. In the 1970s, an international Plan of Action was drawn up to bring the phenomenon under control, but it was never implemented. Now that the situation is more serious than ever before, this book urges new action and describes many of the myriad ways in which it is possible to arrest the progress of desertification. It describes, too, not just the failures, but the considerable successes that have been achieved.

What is a desertification?; the causes of desertification; desertification, people and policy; the scale of desertification; controlling desertification by improving crop production; controlling desertification by improving livestock raising; controlling desertification by planting trees; farm forestry and natural woodland management; turning the tide; controlling desertification - progress and prospects these are the main topics discussed in the book.