Socio-economic and Land-use indicators

Abstract

Land degradation in tropical dry-lands drew world attention in the early 1970s when severe and prolonged droughts resulted in severe disruption of life in the Sudano-Sahel ian region. Famine was widespread, large areas were denuded of vegetation, soils were stripped bare of their productive horizons resulting in large losses of livestock and crops.

Desertification is an intricate phenomenon and its causes are contentious. Its effects are only now being manifested socially. The hardships and pain suffered by the millions of people who live on land that has either lost or is gradually losing its productivity abound. Many migrate from these impoverished neighbourhoods to an even more miserable urban environment.

Desertification has such diverse social manifestations that opinions vary greatly on how it should be defined. Most definitions include both climatic and human causes, while others emphasize one or other. There have been misunderstandings not only on the definition of the term but also its consequences and manifestations.

However, desertification can be defined as a comprehensive expression of socio¬economic processes as well as those natural or induced ones which destroy the equilibrium of soil, vegetation, air and water in areas subject to edaphic and/or climatic aridity. Continued deterioration leads to decrease in, or destruction of, the biological potential of the land, poor living conditions and increase of desert-like landscapes.