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Environmental change in the Sahel: reconciling contrasting evidence and interpretations

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Abstract

The Sahel has been the object of intensive international research since the drought of the early 1970s. A considerable part of the research has focused on environmental change in general and land degradation, land cover change and climate change in particular. Rich and diverse insights from many different scientific disciplines about these three domains have been put forward. One intriguing feature is that an agreement on the overall trends of environmental change does not appear to emerge: questions such as whether the Sahel is greening, cropland is encroaching on rangelands, drought persists remain contested in the scientific literature, and arguments are supported by contrasting empirical evidence. The paper explores the generic reasons behind this situation in a systematic manner. We distinguish between divergences in interpretations emerging from (1) conceptualizations, definitions and choice of indicators, (2) biases, for example, related to selection of study sites, methodological choices, measurement accuracy, perceptions among interlocutors, and selection of temporal and spatial scales of analysis. The analysis of the root causes for different interpretations suggests that differences in findings could often be considered as complementary insights rather than mutually exclusive. This will have implications for the ways in which scientific results can be expected to support regional environmental policies and contribute to knowledge production.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been financed by the LaSyRe project funded by DANIDA-FFU (Grant 09-001-KU). It contributes to the ERC project Waterworlds, to the Global Land Project and to the ‘Earth Observation based Vegetation productivity and Land Degradation Trends in Global Drylands’ project of the Sapere Aude Program of the Danish Council for Independent Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Kjeld Rasmussen, Sarah D’haen, Rasmus Fensholt, Bjarne Fog, Stephanie Horion, Laura Vang Rasmussen & Anette Reenberg

  2. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin IRI THEsys, Unter den Linden 6, D-10099, Berlin, Germany

    Jonas Ostergaard Nielsen

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  1. Kjeld Rasmussen
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  2. Sarah D’haen
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  3. Rasmus Fensholt
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  5. Stephanie Horion
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  6. Jonas Ostergaard Nielsen
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  7. Laura Vang Rasmussen
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Correspondence to Kjeld Rasmussen.

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Rasmussen, K., D’haen, S., Fensholt, R. et al. Environmental change in the Sahel: reconciling contrasting evidence and interpretations. Reg Environ Change 16, 673–680 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0778-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0778-1

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