Effects Of Sahel Desertification

In addition, Darfur’s terrain can be classified into four individual sections: mountains, basement rock, watercourses, and sand. In Darfur a large amount of the arable land consists of goz (soil sediment where vegetation grows). Goz can be useful for farming but primarily offers land for grazing herds. Then, through a process the land around the watercourses and the goz makes the land fertile. Each year the land becomes less arable. Also desertification (process that includes arable land decreasing and the desert area increasing), deforestation, the drought and over use of the land have fueled the conflict between various tribal groups. This has caused most of Darfur’s population to become dependent on the southern region. The lack of fertile land is causing the

There is no doubt that climate is a considerable element for the agricultural production. However, along with the climate change, extreme weather tends to be more frequent and more intense that destructively affects framing. As a result, the drought occurred in sub-Saharan Africa became continual and long duration, which resulted in poor harvests. In addition,

Africa has many geographic features on its continent. One of the most important is the Sahara Desert because of its sheer size. The Sahara desert affected the development of Africa because of its climate and location. The Sahara Desert is the third largest desert in the world. It is located in the northern part of Africa and ranges from the Nile River to the Red Sea. The Sahara is about 3,000 miles long. Joseph L. Davis was the first European to discover the Sahara. The Sahara Desert is known very well for its size, however it has abnormal Climate.

“Arid and semi-arid environments, which represent a substantial portion of Earth's surface, have remained poorly studied. Yet water scarcity and salt content, changes in rainfall, flash floods, high rates of aquifer exploitation and growth of desert regions are all signs that suggest climate change and human activities are also affecting these arid and semi-arid zones” (Buis).

The problem began when one day the rain just stopped and they had begun one of their worst droughts. Along with this drought big gusts of wind would happen and would cause Erosion. When the soil was a sand like substance their cattle began to die because they had no more food to eat. Over twelve million of their cattle had died from starvation. Once the cattle had died away so did most of their food. Their soil was to dry and sandy for them to be able to grow any of their crops. When it did rain, though very little amounts, the ground would have no time to fully soak in the water and so the water would just runoff the surface of the ground. Due to lack and food and water over 100,000 to 250,000 people died from starvation and

Many tree’s covered the Sahara but due to climate change the temperature at which the earth is currently increased causing many areas in northern Africa to completely change pushing back any of the civilizations in northern and west Africa to move further downwards Africa. As this occurred only a few civilizations dared to endure the Sahara because of the many risks that were part of the Sahara. Today the Sahara is the largest desert on the planet extending about 3,000 miles. Despite the change in climate this rose a new kind of people in northern and west Africa resulting in nomads to travel around the desert. Despite the desert being such a harsh environment, veterans of the desert have come and mastered the art of living in the desert. These specific veterans have become master tradesmen and the system that was once great for trading goods still exists

The Republic of South Sudan believes that climate change is a significant issue. Climate change affects every human, animal, and being in every country on Earth and a solution is needed immediately. Specifically, rising sea levels are destroying homes, lives, and entire communities. South Sudan is one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world with about 50% of the population living in poverty. Many people in South Sudan do not have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of nutritious food, all of which is being worsened by of Climate change. Although South Sudan doesn’t have any coasts, it is still affected by rising sea levels. Rising sea levels have caused torrential downpours throughout South Sudan, resulting in flooding. The flooding has destroyed entire towns in rural areas and

Agriculture in Djibouti is very limited and restricted due to the geographic location of this small nation. Djibouti lies in a hot, dry area of the Horn of Africa. The soil is rocky and sandy and lies on volcanic layers. In the hot and humid climate, chance of rainfall is very low. Most of the soil is not suitable for agriculture, and only about 10 percent is used as pasture. Furthermore deforestation resulted Desertification, as well as climatic changes, topsoil loss, which is a type of land degradation in which a relatively dry land region becomes increasingly dry, typically losing its bodies of water as well as vegetation and wildlife. This transfers the small pasture and farming land areas into essentially uninhabitable deserts that cannot support human population. Desertification Impacts slightly different toward different regions in Djibouti, some of the problem hits with land ecosystems or enlivenment more heavily in the rural region compare the urban cities, in other words about 25% of the population who are pastoralists and nomadic suffer the most, as outcome they move to the city by searching a better life, this increase the unemployment. On the other hand Djibouti government understanding the impact of Desertification on countries economy and the society as whole, as results they are more concerned lately about the trying to

The Sahel is an area in Africa which suffers droughts and it is hard to grow crops due to the hot climate. Seasonal shifts there lead to decreased rainfall and the drought tolerant maize helps farmers adapt to climate change.

The data obtained through the analysis of multi-temporal satellite imageries are registered in Table 2 and the results are diagrammatically illustrated in Figs. 2. Fig. 2 depicts land use/cover status of four study periods i.e., 1984, 1994, 2007 & 2015; Fig. 3 depicts Urban change & Agricultural area changes from 1984-1994, 1994-2007 & 2007-2015. A brief account of these results is discussed in the following paragraphs.

The study area is located in the north central of Nigeria, where the climate is affected by the annual shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The mean annual precipitation rate in this area amounts to 1300 mm, and the average annual temperature is 25.6 °C (Wall 1979). The natural vegetation is the savanna trees and grasslands of the northern guinea savanna, which nowadays has mostly been deforested in favor of agricultural use (Blair Rains et al. 1977).

Several potential solutions to combat against desertification may include initiatives such as a) education in teaching sustainable practices helping farmers/residents to understand how to best use the land, b) technology advancements using research and awareness in finding new and improved methods towards prevention c) policy changes relating to how people can farm and how types of lands are governed and d) rehabilitation efforts to restore the land that has already been affected. The focus on global drylands is shifting from an emphasis on negative images of desertification to a more forward-looking perspective concerning human livelihoods, based on interactions between and among human activities and natural-world processes. (Reynolds et al. 2007) The Drylands Development Paradigm represents a convergence of insights and key advances drawn from a diverse array of research in desertification, vulnerability, poverty alleviation, and community development. (Reynolds et al. 2007)

A recent drought in East Africa has put their people at the worst food crisis in 20 years, making 11.5 million people in need of food for themselves and their families. Severe droughts can be caused after a region has not received rainfall or snow after a period of time. People can also play a bid role in droughts, if we use too much water in times of normal rainfall, we might not have enough water when a drought happens.

Desertification is an environmental and socio-economic problem. Environmental justice is characterized by the equal sharing of risks and benefits, distributed equally without discrimination. The land affected falls in rural areas beyond the mainland which are primarily occupied by non-Han ethnic minorities. These areas include the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet, which have historically been oppressed. The social component of the problem creates a cycle in which “poverty exacerbates desertification, and in turn, desertification aggravates poverty.” The cycle will continue until the wellbeing of people living in desertified areas is considerably improved to the point where they no longer rely on degraded land for survival. Only then will they be able to limit their impact on desertified land. Chen and Tang further explain “For degraded land, withdrawal of farmlands and enclosing pastures in order to exclude grazing are undoubtedly the most effective ways to prevent further desertification. These measures would deprive local people of their sole livelihood.” Attempts to reduce desertification have neglected the human component of the problem.

Desertification is defined by the UN as the “persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by human activities, including unsustainable farming, mining, overgrazing and clear-cutting of land and by climate change” (“Desertification”). Desertification can also be defined as a process that reduces biological productivity and the intensification of desert conditions (Hellden 372). Although less publicized, desertification is an issue that requires international cooperation as the victims of drought, famine and the numerous environmental problems of dry lands are over 250 million, and more than one billion people in over 100 countries are at risk (“Desertification as a global problem” 1). Additionally, desertification tends to affect