Population and Land use Changes: Impacts on Desertification in Southern Europe and in the Maghreb

Abstract

Desertification or degradation of the land in the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas according to the text of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the result of several factors, including climatic change and human activities (chapters 37, 38 above). Despite its many causes and effects, desertification is a well-defined process. It is triggered by changes in climatic and socio-economic conditions of the affected dryland systems that launch an irreversible positive feedback loop of land over-exploitation (Puigdefábregas/Mendizábal 1998), and a subsequent lack of sustainability in the system of population and resources. The final outcomes are land degradation and disruption of local economies.¹

The present study was supported by the Spanish ‘Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología’ (CICYT, project REN2000-1507-CO₃-01/GLO).