What is Desertification

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Desertification

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. It is
caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations. Desertification does not refer to
the expansion of existing deserts. It occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over
one third of the world's land area, are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and
inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing, and bad
irrigation practices can all undermine the land's fertility. Over 250 million people are directly
affected by desertification. In addition, some one thousand million (or one billion) people in
over one hundred countries are at risk. These people include many of the world's poorest,
most marginalized, and politically weak citizens. (Source: The United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification: An Explanatory Leaflet).

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Use of terms

For the purposes of this Convention:

(a) "desertification" means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including
climatic variations and human activities;

(b) "combating desertification" includes activities which are part of the integrated development of land in arid, semi-arid and dry
sub-humid areas for sustainable development which are aimed at:

(i) prevention and/or reduction of land degradation;

(ii) rehabilitation of partly degraded land; and

(iii) reclamation of desertified land;

(c) "drought" means the naturally occurring phenomenon that exists when precipitation has been significantly below normal recorded
levels, causing serious hydrological imbalances that adversely affect land resource production systems;

(d) "mitigating the effects of drought" means activities related to the prediction of drought and intended to reduce the vulnerability of
society and natural systems to drought as it relates to combating desertification;

(e) "land" means the terrestrial bio-productive system that comprises soil, vegetation, other biota, and the ecological and
hydrological processes that operate within the system;

(f) "land degradation" means reduction or loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity
and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a
process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns, such as:

(i) soil erosion caused by wind and/or water;

(ii) deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil; and

(iii) long-term loss of natural vegetation;

(g) "arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas" means areas, other than polar and sub-polar regions, in which the ratio of annual
precipitation to potential evapotranspiration falls within the range from 0.05 to 0.65;

(h) "affected areas" means arid, semi-arid and/or dry sub-humid areas affected or threatened by desertification;

(i) "affected countries" means countries whose lands include, in whole or in part, affected areas;

(j) "regional economic integration organization" means an organization constituted by sovereign States of a given region which has
competence in respect of matters governed by this Convention and has been duly authorized, in accordance with its internal
procedures, to sign, ratify, accept, approve or accede to this Convention;

(k) "developed country Parties" means developed country Parties and regional economic integration organizations constituted by
developed countries.

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What is desertification?

The Earth is covered by a fragile layer of soil which forms very slowly, but can be blown and washed away in a few seasons. This is
what is now happening in many areas. Nowhere is the problem more acute than in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, which
cover more than one third of the Earth's surface.
"Desertification" is a process by which susceptible areas lose their productive capacity. Land degradation is often linked with food
security and poverty, in a cause-effect relationship. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) attempts to
reverse this trend.

Land Degradation
"desertification" means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic
variations and human activities.

While land degradation occurs everywhere, it is only defined as "desertification" when it occurs in drylands. Seventy percent of the
5,200 million hectares of drylands used for agriculture around the world are already degraded (Down to Earth, UNCCD Secretariat).

Susceptible Drylands
The main characteristic of aridity or dryness is the lack of available moisture in average climatic conditions: arid or dry lands are those
that experience a negative balance between moisture inputs (annual precipitation levels) and moisture losses (evapo-transpiration).

An Aridity Index, or moisture input/losses ratio, is used to delimit different climatic zones with respect to dryness (World Atlas of
Desertification, UNEP). In this schema, "arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas", refers to areas, other than polar and sub-polar
regions, in which the ratio of annual precipitation to potential evapo-transpiration is between 0.05 and 0.65 units (Article 1, UNCCD).
These areas are also referred to as "drylands".

Drylands cover forty percent of the world's land surface (about 5.1 billion ha), and are the habitat and source of livelihood of more than
1 billion people (World Atlas of Desertification, UNEP). Desertification affects seventy percent of the world's drylands, amounting to 3.6
billion ha or one fourth of the world's land surface (Down to Earth, UNCCD Secretariat).

Soil Degradation Severity

Source: UNEP, World Atlas of Desertification

Hyper-arid lands, those with an Aridity Index below 0.05 units, are deserts and are therefore not considered susceptible drylands as
indicated above, because they have naturally very low biological productivity.

Dryness varies both in time and space due to variation in moisture inputs and losses. The inherent natural dynamism of dryland
ecosystems is very largely governed by climatic fluctuations. Changes in storage (rivers, groundwater, lakes and soil moisture) and in
resource uses (food production, cash crops, range farming, trees and woodlands) also affect dryland boundaries.

Land includes soil and local water resources, land surface and vegetation, including crops. Degradation implies reduction of resource
productivity by one or a combination of processes acting on the land.

Desertification
As indicated in the desertification Convention, "land degradation" means reduction or loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas,
of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and
woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human
activities and habitation patterns, such as:

soil erosion caused by wind and/or water;
deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil;
long-term loss of natural vegetation.
Soil is an integral part of most terrestrial ecosystems and serves a fundamental function in supporting human communities. Soil
degradation is therefore an environmental issue of crucial concern to all societies.

Soil degradation, in particular, is defined as human-induced phenomena which lower the current and/or future capacity of the soil to
support human life (GLASOD). In drylands, soils are especially vulnerable to degradation due to the slowness of their recovery from a
disturbance. It is recorded that almost twenty percent of susceptible drylands experience soil degradation (World Atlas of
Desertification, UNEP).

Asia possesses the largest land area affected by desertification, seventy-one percent of which is moderately to severely degraded. For
Latin America, this proportion is seventy-five percent. In Africa, two thirds of which is desert or drylands, seventy-three percent of the
agricultural drylands are moderately to severely degraded (Down to Earth, UNCCD Secretariat).

Africa, with a rate of disappearance of forest cover of 3.7 to 5 million ha per year bearing down on both surface and groundwater
resources and with half the continent's farmland suffering from soil degradation and erosion, is under the greatest desertification
threat.

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