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As we mounted the hills, the lush greenery spread beneath us like a carpet, embroidered with nature’s finest designs. The sight from the hilltop was breathtaking and the atmosphere filled with serenity. This was nature, in her true glory.
Once upon a time, such beauty wasn’t all that rare but in the past few decades, coming across such sights have become a rarity. Constant human intervention has caused these naturally occurring beauties to lose their grandeur and glory, as they fall prey to processes like urbanization and industrialization. One such process that has contributed to the degradation of such fertile lands is the process of desertification.
Desertification is the persistent degradation of fertile land due to drought, deforestation or inappropriate agriculture, resulting in barren land. It is a phenomena that ranks amongst the greatest environmental challenges of our time, yet most people haven’t heard of it or don’t understand it.
Definition
According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification is defined as “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.”
Causes
1. Overgrazing: Animals are fenced and kept in one particular area where they graze all year round, which leads to erosion of top soil by their hooves.
2. Intensive/ incorrect farming: Causes depletion of nutrients in the soil and renders it infertile.
3. Deforestation: It is one of the main drivers of desertification. The annual rate of deforestation is estimated to be around 13.7 million hectares a year- about the same amount of land as the area of the whole country of Greece.
4. Natural factors: Droughts, flood, wind and water erosion aggravate the damage, carrying away topsoil and leaving behind a highly infertile mix of dust and sand. Due to droughts, each year 12 million hectares are lost (23 hectares/minute) where 20 million tons of grain could have been grown.
5. Socio-political conflicts: Wars result in infertility of soil due to the use of chemicals, causing the land to lose nutrients and resulting in the formation of wastelands. As in the example of Iran, which had fertile soils and was famous for food items, war has caused chaos as well as has led to desertification.
Impacts
The impact of desertification on humanity and the environment can be devastating. It affects biodiversity, socio-economic stability and can contribute to poverty. Some 50 million people may be displaced within the next 10 years as a result of desertification.
In order to spread awareness on this issue, this year EEG (Emirates Environmental Group) took the initiative and organized a campaign called “Recycle. Reforest. Repeat.” From 16th June, 2016 till 16th July 2016. Since June 17th is the World day to Combat Desertification, hence this time period was chosen to carry out this project. This year’s theme for the day was “Inclusive cooperation to achieve land neutrality.” The motto of this project is to protect the earth by restoring land, which can be done by engaging a wider community of people with an idea about the issue at hand. I’ve been a member of EEG since 2013 and participated in mostly all the projects and campaign, including this one. I was required to collect 300 kg of paper. While going from house to house to collect the required amount, I began by introducing myself and then explaining the purpose of the project. That was when I noticed how such a small percentage of people were actually aware about what desertification was all about. Many of them even got annoyed when asked to contribute to the campaign.
It’s a really pathetic situation that majority either don’t know the root cause of why the temperature of their surroundings keeps increasing by the day or pretend to not know so that they don’t have to take that extra effort to make a contribution of their own. Although the project was a huge success and all participants got certificates during a special ceremony, a lot remains to be done to highlight the importance and magnitude of this issue. Before we know it, the process of desertification would have left a lasting disastrous impact. Combat desertification- don’t let our future dry up.
Pratiksha Pradhan 11B
