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dam-l Desertification threatens Africa.



The following is from the BBC web site. A sidebar stated that 73% of
Africa's drylands have been desertified.


                 Monday, November 30, 1998 Published at 14:39 GMT


                 World: Africa

                 Fighting back the widening deserts

                 UN says desertification is a global, not only sub-Saharan
problem

                 About 2,000 delegates from 190 countries and hundreds of
                 environmental organisations have gathered in the Senegalese
                 capital, Dakar, for an international conference on the
spread of
                 deserts.

                 The UN-sponsored conference - said to be the biggest
environment
                 meeting ever held in Africa - will try to reach a
consensus on how to
                 combat desertification, so that countries can get international
                 financial backing to their efforts.


                                            Figures released before the
                                            conference show that the
                                            phenomenon costs about $42bn a
                                            year and has serious social and
                                            economic consequences in the
                                            affected zones.

                                            "Developed countries are spending
                                            billions to cut the effects of
                                            greenhouse gases," says Hama
                                            Armba Diallo, the executive
                                            secretary of the UN Convention to
                                            Combat Desertification and Drought

                                            "We must show them that
                                            desertification is a global
                                            environmental problem and that if
                                            they don't do something,
they'll feel
                                            the consequences themselves," he
                 says.

                 The organisers say a large part of international funds for
fighting
                 environmental problems is given over to issues such as climate
                 change and water management, at the expense of the
desertification
                 question.

                 Mostly man-made problem

                 Desertification reduces the land's resilience to natural
climate
                 variability.


                                            Soil becomes less productive, as
                                            topsoil is blown away by the wind or
                                            washed away by the rainstorms.
                                            Vegetation is damaged.

                                            Drought is part of the cause, but
                                            essentially desertification is a
                                            man-made problem.

                                            It arises from placing too much
                                            pressure on the land, often because
                                            of overgrazing.

                                            Many environmentalists also blame
                                            the phenomenon on the destruction
                                            of forests for short-term gain.

                                            The Dakar conference will also
                                            address the link between El Nino
                 phenomenon and desertification and drought.

                 Billion people at risk

                 The organisers of the conference estimate that the spread
of barren
                 land has an impact on 250 million people, and could eventually
                 threaten a billion people.

                 In North America, 74% of the dryland is already "seriously or
                 moderately" affected by desertification.

                 Africa is a close second at risk, with 73% of the dryland
damaged.

                 In the immediate sub-Saharan Sahel region, experts put the
death
                 rate from the related impact on living conditions at
200,000 people
                 per year.

                 Desertification has also hit Asian and Pacific nations, as
well as
                 Europe, notably Italy and Spain.

                 Developed countries as a whole - and more favoured areas of
                 developing countries - are also being affected indirectly
as people
                 migrate to them after being unable to live off their
degraded land.

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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
        and Editor, World Rivers Review
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
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