Is Desertification a Reality?

Desertification is the gradual transformation of habitable land into desert, and is usually caused by climate change or by destructive use of the land.

Desertification is mentioned in sustainable development goal 15: “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.”

There is even a United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD), which was initiated in response to a direct recommendation of the Rio Conference’s Agenda 21, was adopted in Paris, France on 17 June 1994 and entered into force in December 1996. Its mandate is to “combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.”

There seems to be abundant evidence however, that desertification doesn’t happen as and for the reasons previously given; that is has no scientific basis, and that the standard policies to reverse desertification by and large do more harm than good to both the environment and to people.

A collection of essays by 20 experts in the field, edited by Roy Behnke and the veteran drylands expert Mike Mortimore and entitled The End of Desertification? Disputing Environmental Change in the Drylands contends, amongst other things, that the series of severe droughts in the Sahel of West Africa at the end of the 20th century were not caused primarily by local land use mismanagement. In fact, the authors say that the desertification crisis in the Sahel was a non-event and that the great Sahelian droughts actually occurred because of global climate changes brought about by fluctuations in the composition of atmospheric greenhouse gases and particulates. Today the Sahel is now a great deal wetter due to a partial recovery of the rains since the mid-1990s.

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