Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - Desertification of the planet continues relentless and is considered a major threat to the lives and rights of millions of people mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Horn of Africa and Central Asia. A United Nations report 2005 said the phenomenon affects 41% of the earth’s surface where two billion people live. Degradation of land affects one third of the planet’s land and threatens the lives of one billion people and at least a hundred different countries. Most of these people are poor. Every year 42 million dollars are lost in agriculture production because of desertification and drought.
The situation is so serious that the Untied Nations Organisation has proclaimed 2006 Year of Deserts and Desertification to profile desertification as a major threat to humanity. Desertification is caused by various factors: climate change, human activity. Especially the latter is major cause of the phenomenon. Intensive exploitation of the ecosystem upsets the delicate balance of human presence and natural environment. Nomads, fleeing every harsher natural conditions bring with them the desert in areas made fragile by excessive exploitation and permanent crops. Incorrect irrigation leads to an increase in the soil’s salt content, impoverishment of rivers for example the River Niger in the north on the edge of the Sahara. This phenomenon affects also other large water reserves including Lake Chad whose area has been reduced considerably in the last half a century.
Poverty is the principle consequence of desertification. Poverty and food shortage cause migration to the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Women are the most affected by poverty and desertification because they are the basis of subsistence economies. Desertification renders ever more arduous jobs done traditionally by women such as looking for water and firewood.
Many international bodies are working to deal with the problem but their interventions often have disastrous effects on the territory. Most interventions are isolated especially from the social context. Arid regions suffer not only because of climate change but also because for lack of suitable policies. Economic modernisation led to the destruction of native social groups such as the Botswana for example, deported and subjected to exploitation in mines. Whereas in the Sahara the discovery of oil, and deposits of iron, uranium and phosphates upset traditional life systems and aggravated environmental degradation. (R.F.) (Agenzia Fides 12/5/2006 - righe 34, parole 465)
